Maritime and Coastguard
Agency (MCA) chief executive, Peter Cardy has suggested flares may have had
their day and asks: 'Can you envisage a time when there will no longer be value
in yachtsmen carrying flares?'
But alternatives are expensive. An EPIRB costs £300. And when Charlie Mill of
Ocean Safety says sailors might spend £50 for an inshore pack of two reds and
two orange hand smokes, 'What hope is there they'll chuck £300 at something they
really don't want to use?' asks Peter Nash of Boating Business. 'Even if they
have an EPIRB and it transmits as required, the SAR guys prefer those in peril
have something positive to pinpoint their position. Like a hand held flare or a
smoke,' he continues.
Robert Hill, MD of Pains Wessex parent Chemring Marine, told Boating Business:
'The RNLI has even had to tell the person in distress to activate the screen
light on their mobile phone to aid identification.As of 1 February 2009 PLBs and
EPiRBs are only monitored on 406MHz. Their signal is sent to a satellite and
then has to be validated before activating any SAR assets.'
Assuming these assets then locate the distressed vessel they can potentially
home in on the 121.5MHz DF signal, again assuming the rescue vessel has, and
can, operate DF. But again, once in the area of a casualty, the SAR services
need visual identification. ideally a hand held red flare or an orange smoke.
'We are trying to find a way through this maze, and when a path is established
it is going to be very expensive,' says Mr Cardy. 'The most logical solution to
me for all of us, is for recreational yachtsmen to stop using them.'
Mr Cardy wants to hear from anyone with an interest in pyrotechnics as to
whether they think this is viable. So Boating Business have set up an online
poll for yachtsmen to register their vote:
[In my view, since failure still tends to be the
default setting for marine electronics when in extremis, and the ability
of a flare or smoke signal to show the position of a casualty, it would be a
brave yachtsman who carried no flares - Anthony Byrde]
------------------
Vendée Globe: Rich
Wilson finishes ninth
American Rich Wilson
crossed the Vendee Globe finish line at 12:43:19 GMT this afternoon (10 March),
completing the 28,000 mile race in ninth place.
While nineteen of the 30 skippers who started from the Vendée start line on 9
November had to retire, Wilson - the race's senior skipper at 58 years old - has
stuck rigidly to his watchwords of safety and conservatism, showing huge
determination to complete the course as the pinnacle of a sailing career which
already included three ocean passage records.
Sailing Great American III, built in 1999 to a design by Bernard Nivelt for
Thierry Dubois, Wilson becomes only the second American ever to finish the
Vendée Globe after Bruce Schwab finished ninth from 20 starters in the 2004-5
race on his Ocean Planet.
While his first race into the inhospitable Southern Oceans proved the biggest
physical challenge, Wilson's weeks since rounding Cape Horn have tested his
mental durability. In the South Atlantic he struggled with constant headwinds
and occasional difficult low pressure systems which generated strong winds and
confuses seas and the complex weather pattern in the North Atlantic meant he had
to make detours of nearly 1000 miles to get west around successive high pressure
systems.
At one point in the middle of the Atlantic he was nearly 500 miles closer to his
home in Boston than he was to the finish. His race has been more limited to a
test of stamina since the south of Australia and New Zealand when his nearest
rivals, first Canadian Derek Hatfield (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) and then
Jonny Malbon (Artemis) retired successively with rigging damage and with
mainsail damage respectively. That left Wilson feeling more isolated with his
next nearest rivals 1000 miles ahead and astern.
His finish is a great triumph for the amateur solo skipper whose career has
progressed steadily, regularly proving that he has the steel and the skill to
take on big challenges. In 1980 he was the youngest skipper to win overall in
the Newport-Bermuda Race on Holger Danske. Between 1993 and 2003 - on his 50
foot trimaran Great American II - he set world records on clipper routes. In
1993 he set a record for San Francisco to Boston of 69 days 20 hours. In 2001 he
sailed from New York to Melbourne in 68 days and 10 hours and in 2003 he sailed
from Hong Kong to New York in 72 days and 21 hours before competing in the 2004
Transat in which he finished second in class 2.
In a field which is mainly populated by die-hard professional solo skippers,
Wilson stands out with a long academic, consultancy and investment career which
has run successfully alongside his sailing programmes.
He has three university and college degrees from Harvard, from MIT, and Harvard
Business School. He was a policy adviser to the Democrat party, a popular maths
teacher in his native Boston, a desalination consultant in Saudi Arabia as well
as a successful private business investor. In 1990 he created the sitesAlive
foundation.
The American skipper suffered a cracked rib during the first storm when he was
thrown across the cabin. The injury hampered him badly for the first two weeks
of the race, and then even a week later the relentless pounding of his boat
exacerbated the injury again. In the Pacific he had to climb the mast to un-snag
his running backstays from the standing rigging. Wilson has fought extreme
fatigue since the Southern Ocean.
Wilson has regularly been fulsome in his praise for other Vendée Globe skippers,
entranced and inspired by the race of Michel Desjoyeaux, who regularly gave
advice to Rich before the start and visited his family at home in Boston, but
also admiring the performances of Sam Davies, Dee Caffari, and Steve White. But
as he completes his own Vendée Globe, Rich Wilson is fully deserving of enormous
credit for the completion of his race.
Press Report/Yachting
World, 10 March 2009
----------------------------------
PETE GOSS ARRIVES IN AUSTRALIA
Pete
Goss and the Spirit of Mystery crew have successfully recreated a historic
journey across the world as they arrived in Australia this morning following a
five-month voyage in a wooden boat he built himself.
Goss followed the path of the Mystery, a 37ft boat which 154 years ago was
sailed by seven men from Cornwall to Australia to escape poverty and seek a
fortune in the gold rush.
The four sailors aboard Mr Goss' vessel, including his 14-year-old son Eliot,
were recreating a journey made from Cornwall to Williamstown in Melbourne's
southwest in 1854.
But while that journey so long ago went relatively smoothly, disaster struck the
commemorative voyage when crewman Mark Maidment broke his leg last week when a
freak wave hit the yacht.
The incident off the South Australian coast left Mr Maidment in agony for days
until he was rescued by a navy helicopter on Saturday. The start of the storm
was captured on video.
-------------------------
YACHT SALES
IMPROVING?
Yacht brokers
Boatshed.com have reported another month of buoyant boat sales.
They report that despite the tough market conditions there are a number of
positive factors which have lead to decent sales results.
Peter Watt of Boatshed Portsmouth says: "The strength of the Euro is
making buyers from all over Europe look to UK boats as they are better value at
this time, plus all the talk of gloom and doom has brought more boats onto the
market."
Similarly Steve at Boatshed Essex says: "Buyers are motivated by
realistic
prices and sellers are taking advantage in the upsurge in activity. In February
we have had 8 boats sold and 5 under offer, it's fantastic!"
Even the American market has felt a boost recently with Boatshed Florida
reporting a huge rise in the number of leads: "Suddenly someone turned on the
taps! We have over 400 buyer leads we are managing this month with 15 deals
on the board and 10 boats going to Europe, it's real busy."
Motor Boat and
Yachting , Jack Haines, 9 March 2009
----------------------------------
POOLE HARBOUR/SOLENT-APPROACHES WIND FARM
Plans are being drawn up for the construction of a £175 million wind farm south
of Poole Bay.
As part of round three of its renewable energy programme, the Crown Estate has
identified a site west of the Isle of Wight as the potential location for a wind
farm. It is thought that up to 100 turbines could be located around 10 miles
offshore and plans are said to be "well advanced".
Richard Lacey, chairman of Poole Harbour Commissioners board, told the
Bournemouth Echo that they had not been notified.
He said: "We would expect to be a consultee on proposals that major. While we
don't have jurisdiction as such, plans that have any effect on lanes coming in
and out of the port is something we would make comment on."
A Crown Estate spokeswoman said no decisions had been made and no announcements
were due until the summer.
She added: "There's nothing really to say at this stage. Everything is subject
to the developers' research. We cannot say where the site will be and how big.
The zones we have identified are quite large and we think that within the zones,
there's potential to build at least one wind farm in each."
AW Byrde & Associates is the trading name of Stonebarrow Surveys Ltd,
Company Number 4783927 Registered in England. Office Address: Stonefield,
Kimmeridge, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5PE United Kingdom
