Can't upload link but Team Vestas Wind has run aground on a reef near La Reunion Islands.

All crew safe but yacht is to be abandoned.

Seems even having all the high tech nav gear and carbon fiber money can buy, even the best yachtsmen can get into trouble.

Read .......

www.smh.com.au/sport/sailing/team-vestas-wind-and-australian-skipper-chris-nicholson-rescued-near-mauritius-in-volvo-ocean-race-20141130-11x29z.html


Look .......
maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Cargados+Carajos+Shoals,+Mauritius&hl=en&ll=-16.024696,60.336914&spn=19.40794,33.815918&sll=-15.876809,65.478516&sspn=38.340391,67.631836&oq=cargados+carajos+shoals&hnear=Cargados+Carajos+Shoals&t=m&z=6&output=classic&dg=oo

you can see the area quite well in Google maps

Here are some pics:
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/photo/238_Team-Vestas-Wind-grounded-near-Mauritius.html#pic2

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keensailor said..
you can see the area quite well in Google maps

Hell yeah, there's a great read marker on the map with 'A' on it, A for aground I suppose.

Accidents happen, but these guys are the best amongst the best sailors right?

Is it an accident?,
you trust that GPS=Charts=Actual Position
is very naive and stupid

There is probably a very long list of human factors involved in this one. - planning, cross checking, watch system, briefings, workload, fatigue etc etc.

You have to have been there to qualify to make any kind of judgement call.

No doubt those involved will have a post mortem and figure out the time line to disaster.

Electronic charts with survey date of 1846!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Screen of the navigation software used onboard :
AdrenaPro Offshore, the navigation software of Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015
with C-Map charts at large scale, showing the Cargados Carajos Bank quite clearly.

Mark 3 ...position of Team Alvimedica, standing by to assist

It seems its the old zoom in out routine and information disappearing or not appearing unless you happen to zoom in.

blog.geogarage.com/2014/12/questions-asked-about-volvo-ocean-race.html

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Ramona said..
It seems its the old zoom in out routine and information disappearing or not appearing unless you happen to zoom in.

blog.geogarage.com/2014/12/questions-asked-about-volvo-ocean-race.html

Yeah and like the bloke on DongFeng Said "If you don't know there is anything there then you don't have a need to zoom in to see it" Seems to be a case of too much looking a screens and not checking againsta paper chart, assuming of course the paper chart highlights it.

i recon there was a few "****s and buggers " pronunced at that scene

Every Sailors Nightmare !

Volvo Ocean Race – Vestas Wind – live footage

check out from 33 seconds

They seemed to be reasonably controlled considering what was happening, I guess that's why they're there and we're in our lounge rooms!
The boat seemed to be heeling a bit, i wonder how fast they were going when they hit the bottom? Not too windy, maybe 12-15 knots ?
The next few minutes of footage would be interesting, glad everyone is okay.

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shoodbegood said..
They seemed to be reasonably controlled considering what was happening, I guess that's why they're there and we're in our lounge rooms!
The boat seemed to be heeling a bit, i wonder how fast they were going when they hit the bottom? Not too windy, maybe 12-15 knots ?
The next few minutes of footage would be interesting, glad everyone is okay.

they were doing 19 knots

I wonder what damage happened to the keel when they hit at 19 knots. The rudders were damaged, but surely the keel would have hit hard, and with a long lever arm maybe sheared off? Anyone got any info on this?

The crew said the boat spun around after the initial grounding. I guess the leeward dagger could have hit first and then the canted keel hit and spun them around. They were then pushed backwards onto the reef. In the video the boom looks like it tacked not long after impact. From the photos the next day, the keel is still attached but can't tell if the bulb is still there.

apparently the bulb broke off after about 6 hours on the reef.

check out the photo taken in the board room of the VOR head quarters you have the VOR CEO, Wouter (navigator), Nico (skipper), VESTAS CEO and another Vestas guy. Looks likes the boys may have been under a little pressure

Hey Keensailor,
My Dad had a Northshore 27 for quite some time at Blairgowrie, Fingal Bay,
Good times had by all who went sailing with him,
Grouse little boats !

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shoodbegood said..
Hey Keensailor,
My Dad had a Northshore 27 for quite some time at Blairgowrie, Fingal Bay,
Good times had by all who went sailing with him,
Grouse little boats !

yeah thanks
have been really happy with how it sails and the build quality.

A bit more in depth vid of the event plus some promo.

#t=635

Surprised nobody has mentioned the elephant in the room, the sheer incompetence to run up on a charted reef in a professionally equipped and crewed boat. It is all well and good to be a great skipper/crew in evacuating the vessel but there is no excuse for getting into the situation they got into.
Too many racing boats seem to have incompetent seaman/woman onboard.

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MorningBird said..
Surprised nobody has mentioned the elephant in the room, the sheer incompetence to run up on a charted reef in a professionally equipped and crewed boat. It is all well and good to be a great skipper/crew in evacuating the vessel but there is no excuse for getting into the situation they got into.
Too many racing boats seem to have incompetent seaman/woman onboard.

In the link I posted above they allude to the major cause. It's easy to say that there is too much reliance on electronics, we all know how easy it is to get sucked in watching screens hour after hour! The problem with these sort of boats is the speed. Deckhands in the cockpit would have trouble hearing waves on a reef over the noise of the yacht traveling at 19 knots! The problem is probably over confidence. Why pass so close to the reef in the first place?

Agree absolutely Ramona. The issue is why was the boat placed in such proximity to danger rather than why the crew didn't pick it up before they hit.
Having personally experienced racing sailor incompetence with respect to seamanship I often ask why??

Crew is carefully selected, course to steer is plotted on paper chart also depth sounder is set.....etc...
perhaps none of these, well no surprise here,

It seems obvious that proper preparation would have made the navigator f not the whole crew that the reef existed. I suspect the reason why no-one has raised the issue is because of past skeletons in the closet or fear that it might happen some time down the track. There have been some expensive and sadly fatal groundings on Flinders Islet near Wollongong when all on board obviously knew it was there. It is called the Flinders Islet Race. Why I even know of a crew of seabreezers that grounded on a sandbank leaving the fuel wharf at Port Macquarie.

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HaveFun said..
It seems obvious that proper preparation would have made the navigator f not the whole crew that the reef existed. I suspect the reason why no-one has raised the issue is because of past skeletons in the closet or fear that it might happen some time down the track. There have been some expensive and sadly fatal groundings on Flinders Islet near Wollongong when all on board obviously knew it was there. It is called the Flinders Islet Race. Why I even know of a crew of seabreezers that grounded on a sandbank leaving the fuel wharf at Port Macquarie.

Never did hear any results of the investigation of the Flinders Island accident. Apart from the navigator using a tablet on deck at the time. Curious to what programme was being used. In this case there might have been some back ground lights to confuse the people sitting out on the rail but I think they must have been aware they were close and just got too close. Too many people talking, radios going and the noise from waves on rocks not heard.

I have run aground a few times, mainly in fog but a couple of times though miss calculation. I always knew why though!

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HaveFun said..
It seems obvious that proper preparation would have made the navigator f not the whole crew that the reef existed. I suspect the reason why no-one has raised the issue is because of past skeletons in the closet or fear that it might happen some time down the track. There have been some expensive and sadly fatal groundings on Flinders Islet near Wollongong when all on board obviously knew it was there. It is called the Flinders Islet Race. Why I even know of a crew of seabreezers that grounded on a sandbank leaving the fuel wharf at Port Macquarie.

There are no photos, so that never happened.

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cisco said..

HaveFun said..
It seems obvious that proper preparation would have made the navigator f not the whole crew that the reef existed. I suspect the reason why no-one has raised the issue is because of past skeletons in the closet or fear that it might happen some time down the track. There have been some expensive and sadly fatal groundings on Flinders Islet near Wollongong when all on board obviously knew it was there. It is called the Flinders Islet Race. Why I even know of a crew of seabreezers that grounded on a sandbank leaving the fuel wharf at Port Macquarie.

There are no photos, so that never happened.

Cisco
Posted 14/5/2014, 1:58 pm

The stop over in Port Macquarie was very pleasant allowing us to get a good night's sleep and use shoreside ablutions. The inlet was quite crowded with many moored yachts and the anchorage was stacked up too. We were told that if buying fuel they didn't mind if you stayed on the fuel wharf overnight which we did. Leaving the next morning I didn't really remember exactly which way we had come up the inlet. I am driving off the wharf and heading between moored yachts and the south wall when whoops, the sand bar says, no you are not going any further this way. The channel is between moored yachts on either side. The guy on the yacht that took our line that we used to winch ourselves off said this happens to him at least once a week.


It might not have happened except there has already been an admission of guilt. Digital photos are not admissible as evidence, so in this case, your confession will do just fine.