The coast guard declared the voyage "manifestly unsafe" Since the skipper was a licensed master, when the USCG ordered him to abandon ship he was obliged to comply or lose his license and face charges. The fact that the Satori grounded herself with his bag of personal belongings still in the cockpit tends to lend credence to his case that the women panicked and over-reacted to the situation. Neither the author of "The perfect storm" nor the script writers interviewed him.
I flew as an Aircraft Commander on this mission and spoke to Ray Leonard via radio. I am in fact the person who informed him that he would be abandoning his vessel on orders from the rescue coordination center in Boston. He seemed lethargic and incoherent, which is consistent with having your ass kicked in a storm. Comments by FutureShock are pretty much right on. Had the skipper not brought the extra crew along, I'm sure he would have weathered the storm along with his able vessel. The CG had simply invested too much in the operation and was not going to tolerate a nightime call for rescue. Hence, the voyage was terminated. There's no one to blame here. No question that Leonard was an able skipper and the vessel could survive (as it did). The Coast Guard made the right call. Lives were clearly at risk. But it's like calling the police for a domestic issue... it raises the problem to a new level and you lose control of the outcome, as happened to Mr. Leonard.
I was a flight Corpsman at AirSta Cape Cod and treated all the people brought in that afternoon. The Capt was to say the least PISSED OFF on having to leave his S/V adrift. That night proved to even more dramatic about 2200 that night all hell broke lose. If the Tam had not been released from that rescue the crew from the ANG H-60 would not have lived.
A Westsail 32.. I love that boat because of this story. I have also been "asked"/pressured into abandoning my Sadler 26 in 30ft swell/50kt conditions south of South Africa, and I refused. It made everyone very angry at me but I still have my boat and we're still very happy together. I feel sorry for the skipper who lost such a lovely boat, but in freak conditions like this without a liferaft I can't blame him for erring on the side of caution. Well done to everyone who made the best of a crappy situation, and RIP to our friends lost at sea.
You are correct.. Leonard had the boat “lying ahull” and would have done fine.. as it did all by itself … Satori was found on a shore in New Jersey in perfect condition and sails the world today even though she is close to fifty years old.. The girls panicked.
I remember reading a book recently where Robin Knox Johnson was en route to the Azores, along the way the yacht had been dismasted, however the crew managed to jury rig a sail and were limping quite happily to the Azores when a US navy ship came upon them, asked if assistance was required, no but thanks anyway, then tried to order the crew off stating the authority of the U.S.A.........in international waters, over 1500nm from the US. Needless to say they continued with the jury rig and made it.
They lived to tell their tale. Many who were in this storm did not. The boat owner/captain got his boat back, and shame on all who would bad mouth the U.S. Coast Guard. Someone said long ago that no greater love is there than when one would lay down their life for a friend, the CG does this with a passion.
@@b767greg Rick Smith died but not trying to rescue the Satori.. they were trying to rescue a japanese who was sailign alone in a sailboat.. the decided it was safer for him to remain in his boat than trying to rescue him (and they were right as his boat survived and he was safelly picked later by another ship).. they ran out of fuel in the trip back after failing the third refueling due to extremelly severe weather..there was no H60s involved in the rescue of the Satori.. only H-3s and a nearby H-65
They had no reserve fuel, emergency supplies, etc, they were getting their asses kicked. The fuck you arguing with? You weren't there and every account says they were in deep shit. Amazing how the "experts" who weren't there think differently
Ray Lenard was contacted after the rescue by a man who found Satori on a beach in Maryland. He recovered the boat and continued his voyage south. Satori is still sailing all these years later.
I have a friend, who like myself is a long time shortwave radio listener. He listened to the USCG SAR on H.F. radio for the S/V SATORI from North-East Ohio. Every time he thinks about it, it sends shivers down his spine.
The sailing vessel was a Westsail 32; a really good ocean going boat. I would have hated to leave here also. By her riding the storm out and not sinking, the owner was correct in not wanting to leave her.
This is two full days after the peak of the storm conditions. So the storm is already dying down, this is on the outskirts (calmost part besides in the eye) of the storm. Had the Satori been exposed to the same conditons as the Andrea Gail, that little fibreglass hull would've been cracked right open
*Coast Guard:* _"You need rescuing!"_ _(Coast Guard boat gets wrecked. Needs to be rescued.)_ *Sailing Master:* _"It's poor seamanship to refer to yourself in the 3rd person!"_
In the book "The perfect storm", there is a footnote on the page that describes this rescue, that after the storm, the boat was found still afloat and sailing. I'm sure conditions were rough, but the captain had opted to go below and make it water-tight, and simply ride out the storm. The clip says that the boat was lifted out of the water and slammed down onto the rescue boat's bow. That wouldn't have happened if the lifeboat hadn't been there. Still - the women raised an SOS .....
the captain of the satori needed to off load the exhausted and scared crew, that is his responsibility. He should have also made sure the survival equipment was secured bulletproof. and the crew were wearing it. Should have also been damn thankful for the response that came to his/thier aid.
The Captain / owner didn't put in a mayday call. The woman who freaked out caused the problems. The Captain had it under control. He was a licensed Captain and the Coast Guard ordered him off the boat. He was worried about losing his license and having all kinds of grief from the CG. The next day he went to sea after a airplane found he's boat sailing along just fine but they couldn't find it with vessel assit. It sailed on it's own till it beached itself. He recovered it with very little damage
The captain consented to her issuing the mayday call according to the story as it's been told. Now there are two options on this either: A: the captain did not consent to the mayday call and it was made against his wishes. In which case the captain had lost control of his crew. If that's the case it is a manifestly unsafe situation to be in when you have lost control of the crew of your boat. or B. the captain consented to the mayday call by his crew member. Once the call went out he ceded control of the situation to the USCG. If he gave his consent for the call then he has to accept the consequences of it. Either he lost control of his crew or surrendered control of his voyage. Either way the situation was removed from his hands the moment that call went out.
they lost there nerve, the boat made it. The captain didn't want to leave. The coast guard forced the owner to abandon his sound and able property against his will at gun point.
Spoken like a man that wasn't there. I lived in Kitty Hawk at the time, grew up there as a matter of fact and I can tell you this was without a doubt one of the worst storms in the North Atlantic in my lifetime. Back then we called it the Halloween Gale and the amount of flooding we saw from it was MASSIVE. The Army Corp of Engineers had to be called into pump an enormous amount of water that had over washed the beach and formed large areas of very deep standing water back into the ocean. And while the boat might have and did survive this time there was no guarantee that was going to happen. The longer it's out there the more the gear gets beaten down and the more likely it is that something important is going to break. And that's to say nothing of the wear and tear on the crew, sprained joints, broken bones, somebody's safety harness gets snapped and over the side they go. A good sailor is a sailor that respects the ocean because a person that doesn't is very likely to be killed by it eventually.
Older man meets two sexy young girls wanting to crew to Bermuda, both relatively inexperienced sailors. Boat is well equipped and sound, hits terrible storm but, being a heavy displacement boat she just bobs right along. Life inside boat is a rough ride, so girls panic, call Coast Guard without his permission. CG comes, and once on scene they are pretty much forced to assume command and order to abandon - they cannot come back if needed later. Lesson: get crew to go to sea, not skirts...
After losing it's life raft, life jackets, and extra fuel, especially when running out of daylight, the CG had every right to declare it unsafe or in danger. Although the vessel itself could probably handle it, what if they could no longer stay ahead of the water they were taking on and had no life raft,,,,, then everyone would be bitching "why didn't the CG do something". No win situation. I'm sure the boat was well insured.
Actually that was false, I looked into the facts of the story and one of the women on board had radioed the CG at 5 am that morning saying that they had lost all that stuff and were taking on water when, in actuality, she was wrong. The skipper, Ray, stated that they had not lost any of those things and still had enough fuel for 40 more engine hours. He wasn’t sure who made that call. It must have been because of fear and wanting to get rescued that she said those things. CG had to comply with Boston’s orders, and Ray had to comply with the CG or else he would lose his certifications like his captain’s license. He had every right to be PISSED.
@@spencerkelly164 OK if what you are saying is true then the owner lost control of his crew. Since he is claiming a call was made without his consent giving false information. If he's lost control of his crew in the middle of one of the largest storms of the century than he is in an obviously dangerous situation. USCG invested an enormous amount of tax payer assets into getting to that boat and they weren't about to take just the two women off and let him go on his way at that point. IF they had done that and the captain and boat had been lost the backlash for that decision would have been ENORMOUS.
Satori does not seem to be in peril to me and looks to be properly handled and trimmed for dark and stormy. Bouncing around down below for a 2 days, soaking wet seems to have driven the crew to wits end, thus the rescue. Looks like they rode out the worst already, too bad for the skipper.
I picked your best video to help move one of mine. It can help your swimmers as well as help other people get there weight under control. God bless America.
I know of many seaworthy sailboats that have survived much worse conditions. There were no medical emergencies, the rigging was sound, and the boat was sailing under it's own power. The Coast Guard appears to have over-reacted. I would like to know what kind of radio communication led up to this.
No you don't. I get that it doesn't look "that bad" on TV but the raw data from the weather buoys during that storm were insane! Hurricane force winds with peak wave heights well over 70 feet and average wave heights of 30 feet are some of the worst conditions any sailboat is likely to see. 6 men lost their lives in that storm and a steel hulled fishing vessel over twice the length of this sailboat was never seen again. Don't act like you know of "many" sailboats that have survived worse because that storm was about as bad as it gets.
If a skipper knows how to hove too then all he as to do is batten down the hatches and ride out the storm. Sailboats are super safer at sea for this reason.
A monohull sailboat would be safe if hove to so long as they had sufficient searoom between them, land and other traffic but a catamaran or trimaran would not be safe as they do not self right when capsized. Even so, a monohull risks being demasted or having it's rudder damaged. It would still be a frightening experience. I do question why the life raft and life vests was lost, especially the vests.
@@johnwang9914 story is that the life raft was taking out by a wave or during a knockdown the night before. The life jackets I have no idea about though. A life jacket wasn't going to keep a person alive more than a few hours in that kind of sea though and it would be very very hard to find a person floating alone in that ocean.
Satori had been configured by Leonard to “lie-ahull” which is kinda like “hove-to” except it just allows the sea to push the boat around the path of least resistance…A common heavy weather tactic.
Within the almost perfect movie.... There is a secondary story that showcases the heroics of the Mighty Coast Guard Swimmers. Its almost the best part of the entire movie. >> Some of the Bravest Men on Earth.
While nobody will debate the heroics of the coast guard swimmers, it should be noted that the Satori emerged unscathed and was never in real harm. It was due to the crew (Who had little sailing experience) and a misunderstood position report that they were rescued. The movie portrayal did kind of omit this, as did the book. For good reason though, that kind of conflict is its own story and was not within the purview of the story at question.
Amy it should be noted though that the captain did not want to abandon ship, it was the crew he was with who were frightened and wanted to get off. Amazing story in itself!
The boat was designed for bad weather in the north sea. Just another crew that had never experienced heavy weather. Full keel heavy displacement boats like this are pretty bullet proof, as long as they have the hatches shut and a good bilge pump. People should always stay with their boats, awhile ago, the fasnet race taught sailors this.
'Yo, ace big dick Coast Guard captain here...your situation is 'manifestly unsafe'...so I'm going to send some guys out on a fucking RIB during a once in a century storm to come get you even though you're in a heavily built GRP boat that is doing fine. What could go wrong?'
The fact that the boat was later recovered is irrelevant. The fact that that the owner might have ridden out the storm is irrelevant. The owner gave his consent for a mayday call to be issued and the USCG expended an enormous amount of resources funded by tax dollars to respond to that mayday call. Imagine how it would have looked if that boat had sunk and the owner was killed if they didn't pull him off the boat when he had a chance. And incidentally pull him off isn't the right terminology here since he eventually voluntarily jumped off the boat for an in water pick up. He could have refused to do so and the USCG would have been powerless to do anything about it under those conditions. Of course he would have lost his license later on and possibly even suffered prosecution but that is again irrelevant to the point that he submitted to the authority of the USCG after he consented to a mayday call being made. This same storm saw the loss of a steel hulled sword boat over twice as long as the Satori and all of her crew perished as a result. You don't screw around with this kind of weather. I get that most people here don't understand just how rough the weather n this video clip because you can't tell on TV and most of you have never seen weather this bad in person. But believe me when I say it was really really bad. I was living in Kitty Hawk, NC at the time and the coastal flooding and erosion we endured was really bad and that's to say nothing of the weather offshore I witnessed at that time even in the waters off North Carolina hundreds of miles away from the center of the Sable Island Storm. No possession you could possibly own is worth your life. A boat can be replaced, personal property can be replaced but your life can't be replaced. I see people take needless dangerous risks on the open ocean all the time. I've even known a woman who's husband lost his life in bad weather off the coast of Virginia in a bad storm. My mom's husband has cheated death more than once on the ocean. Of course there are always dangers and risks out there but that doesn't mean you have to be reckless when you go. People need to keep that in mind as they seat comfortably behind their keyboard in their warm and dry homes talking about this. No boat however grand is worth sacrificing your life trying to save.
Never get of a boat until you float off it is my motto as a yacht skipper. No coastguard would order me off my vessel, but that's the yanks for you, they think they own the world
Not necessarily true. The boat had already survived 2 knockdowns which very well could have flipped a catamaran. A monohull, provided the hatches are closed, will right itself if inverted, a catamaran will not. The vessel was later found with only minor damage, looks like her captain was right after all.
Yes he was.. but the problem is that the coast guard had allready devoted so many resources to her rescue (3/4 helicopters, one cutter) and where experimento so many shit (they lost an avon) that they reached a point where it was a case of "screw all.. we are all getting this folks out and out of here". I mean i understand both sides.. they were both right
Once a mayday has been issued, it is the lives of all involved that are paramount not whether or not the vessel could still be saved. The captain might've reassessed the situation and deemed the ship still seaworthy but he had already given up his right to refuse the rescue offered unless the efforts could arguably endanger more lives.
It's gotta be hard to make that decision to leave your sailing ship like that. I've got just a 21' foot sailing yacht and I know it would be hard to let the sea swallow her without a fight! What is the old saying? "the captain will go down with his ship" ? I wonder if insurance covers a boat loss like that.
It was later found washed up on the beach in Maryland, apparently with only minor damage. The owner had a fishing vessel drag it off, and continued sailing her, eventually selling her in 2000. Likely still in use now. Given that, in hindsight it clearly would have been safer to stay aboard than to attempt this dangerous rescue, but they couldn't know that at the time.
if I recall right- did not the coasties actually sink thier own rubber rescue boat trying to board the s/v a stern? Think they punctured thier boat against the wind vane? They were the ones swimming not the s/v's captain :) now that really inspires me to be rescued?
Reading the perfect storm. Gotta say. I was expecting bigger swells. Junger writes about 60 to 100 foot waves. I'm a lifelong surfer. And don't see anywhere near that.
The Satori was caught in the outer edge of the storm, they sailed off Bermuda. The full force of the storm was further North. The MV Contship Holland had missing shipping containers from 40ft above sea level. There's also the measurements recorded from buoys #44137 and #44139, maintained by the NOAA in the area of the Andrea Gail's last position, and both recorded wave heights maxing out at 100ft
@@mgmg116 not to mention: A. weather recorded by a camera NEVER looks as big as it. Video just can't really show how damn big those waves are. and B. the helicopter hovering in the area tends to flatten some of the wave action with it's prop wash.
This is not the way I know the story. I also miss the picture of the Satory safe an sound on the beach. The captain was forced...more of the story to find in the Westsail community.
Prof that the author of the book and the movie LIED!!! As a professional offshore delivery captain I can say with out doubt that Satori was riding out that storm very well! Properly balanced rig, everything lashed down right, a very good job by the skipper! Once again, Hollywood is full of shit!
The book mentions the captain refusing , the 2 passangers being the ones to call for help and the clusterfuck rescue that ensued where the CG decided they were getting those people out of the Satori no matter what.. but it also says the Satori was found intact later..and that the captain refused to speak with the writer to give his account..so he only had the 2 passangers and USCG versions to work with..
no reason for rescue...stormjib is up and boat hold course. the waves can be done by that kind oft boat... staying in the boat is much more safer than rescue!
Think for a second. Boat was taking on water, the bilge pumps where working but what happens when they lost power? Which would happen eventually since they had no extra fuel. They had no life raft and so could not abandon ship if they wanted to. Frankly, this decision was incredibly prudent on their part.
satori never sunk even without crew she washed ashore was recovered and still floats to this day. one of the women crew sent a mayday behind the captains back. thus setting up an unavoidable dangerous rescue. the captain did not want to leave the boat but if he did not he would have lost his commercial shipping license. when he evacuated the boat the bag containing his valuables was dropped in the cockpit and they were still there when the boat was recovered. he had to quickly find his boat before it was found and salvaged by someone else he hired search aircraft and a salvage company to the tune of $10,000 or more the only damage to the boat was from the grounding.
Captain should thank God he is alive! Case of 'crew panic" on Baltic lately: strong boat (Roberts 44 steel), 10 B , no danger, crew got in control over skipper, requested help and tried to step aboard a big freiter ship. Boat slammed at the ship's stern, mast and rigging went overboard and so did the skipper. All the others were saved, the boat abandoned. She was later found adrift, towed to harbour, and only after that Captain's body have been discovered - still entangled in the rigging...
36 hours taking a pounding lost safety gear-stay with the yacht till very last minute-dont even have a life raft-shouldve brought a tender with em-13footer
@imarkit Uh....I beg to differ with you; sailboats like that are "self righting" due to a heavy ballast like what is found in your surf boats. Might have snapped the mast...but...oh, look, the mast is still up! I guess they didn't pitchpole...(it's game over if the companionway hatch is open when the boat rolls...and then maybe....). I've sailed myself in some shyte weather and in a much smaller boat; sailboats are (supposed to be) built for rough weather and wet decks.
There was a fellow who was participating in an around the world race back in the 80s that got hit by a rogue wave that completely rolled the boat. It snapped the mast like a twig of course but the worst part is that the standing rigging was still partially intact and before he could cut the mast loose it had done so much damage to the hull that the boat was in danger of foundering. The owner/operator was rescued after a couple of days of nonstop bailing by hand by a fellow competitor and his boat disappeared from the surface of the ocean after he was taken off of it in less time than it took for a satellite orbit (literally the boat was there on one pass and gone the next). S/V are indeed tough but they aren't indestructible.
It was not clear if the mayday call was to offload the passengers or not. If the mayday was about the safety of the ship they the Coast Guard had the on scene decision. If the call was to offload the passengers then the Coast Guard overreacted.
Coast Guard wasn't going all the way out there and spend all that damn money just to pull the crew off. That's not how it works. And if the boat had sunk and the owner been killed and they had chosen to let him stay than they end up looking really really really bad and the backlash against them would ENORMOUS.
@pwny100 Yeah, you do....and if you don't, you don't have any business sailing on the open ocean. I've called the Coasties once during a thunderstorm that blew us onto a shoal; told them to wait till the storm blew out before coming to find us (our chart got "hosed" and the gps shorted out). Turns out they were too deep in draft to do us any good; Thankfully I was paid up for TowBoat US to come to the rescue (at a cool $400.00 tow).
Bulshit owner of the Wessail 32 was staying in Helan marina in Stuart Fl So we all know the story "The two women's on board they panic and call for help . Cost guard force him to live the boat . He didn't want to get oft the boat . Boat was found in North Carolina undamaged . I have 30 thousands nautical mile on Westsail 32 This look bad but really isn't this bad.
@FutureShock999 He could always "singlehand" her....no need for bikini babes. They're for day sailing, not for ocean transits (bikini babes...not the boat)
sadly this whole episode was a waste of time. the boat survived the storm and was found on a beach further south several weeks later. the owner got back on board and sailed away! google "westsail satori perfect storm" for the story at the westsail owners association. i had a westsail and they are fantastic boats. previous owners took her through a typhoon in the pacific ocean :)
What a shame those stupid women and the coast guard officials panicked and left that magnificent boat to die at sea. The skipper new his boat and what it could handle. Real shame! The wave height isnt even that big compared to other storms at sea I have been in.
@@b767greg nobody died from this rescued. The rescue jumper that died was from a National Guard SAR team that was answering a completely different distress call.
He wasn't paying them to begin with. He wanted volunteers and picked them up on the advice of an acquaintance. I don't think either one of them would ever sail with him again after that experience.
@mrandyrew1 Oh...and the storm they were in wasn't called "The Storm of the Century" for nothing. You have to wonder with all those boats crossing the Atlantic that there weren't other sailboats out there that "survived" and continued merrily on their ways once the storm blew out.
Who's saying there weren't other boats out there? It's not like the USCG wasn't called by anybody else during that storm ya know? Sure some boats made it through. But you have respect a storm that sank a 70+ foot offshore steel hulled commercial fishing vessel and killed all of her crew.
@plbuster that's why you join BoatUS BEFORE you need them.... I called for an ungrounding 20 miles from the nearest station last year, cost me a whopping.... NOTHING. Because I pay my annual dues.
I would not have gotten off. I love the coasties but I would have told them to fark off. The ship is very capable and can be sailed single handed quite easily if properly rigged.
Yes you could have done that... But they would have revoked his captain's license and possibly even prosecuted him for failure to comply. So your choice on that call...
@decibelden84 You have to remember, the Coast Guard has more safety gear on their ships than any other vessel on the planet; the redundancy is astoundingly insane. Any time that they get called out, there had better damn well be a boat in danger or by God there will be!!! Remember, the Coasties sail the Eagle, a square rigger, so they should have sailing experience. Anyhow, the "crew" (bikini babes) committed mutiny. Strange how they weren't charged.
@mrandyrew1 a little problem with your comment; about "man-up"...I think the crew had a different anatomical structure from the skipper. Also...they were inexperienced, so....maybe a stint in Leavenworth would send a clear message...but no, can't throw the bikini babes into the slammer for being bikini babes. (remember, skippers, bikini babes are for day sailing and taking pictures of, not for ocean passages). Plenty of salty women out there that would not have panicked.
CG lay down their version of risk assessment = overdone for TV. Captain of vessel has final say in international waters. How far off coast were they, +12nm? Anyone who risks their life to rescue people who have not requested it (assuming they still can) can't then say "you caused me to risk my life so you better be grateful". However, part of being a good captain is to maintain control over your crew, and that includes restraining them if necessary for the safety of the the vessel and crew.
He lost control of his crew or he consented to them calling a Mayday. Either way he lost or surrendered control of the situation. USCG couldn't MAKE him get off the boat under those circumstances but they can choose to suspend the license they issued him for failure to comply. Either way he made poor choices that led to this outcome. Either he picked poor crew and failed to control them or he agreed to a mayday call. Nobody even talks about the fact that he didn't even need to be offshore at that point and could have easily been on an inside passage which would have avoided all of this. And he had the electronics at hand to let him know that storm was out there before he ended up in that mess.
@@ashleighelizabeth5916 He specifically addressed this. With the weather coming in he didn't want to try to run for a harbor only to get there in the dark and try to set a storm anchor that wouldn't drag. And heading towards a lee shore in those conditions is just begging for disaster. Riding it out with sufficient sea room was a sound decision. As for the crew, they had a responsibility to obey the captain. He approved status updates, they had lied about their level of experience and after the initial knockdown they panicked and snuck a mayday call to get off the boat despite it not actually foundering. Solid boat, solid seamanship, lousy judgment in crew.
@@daveopincarne3718 If the crew lied to him it's up to him to do due diligence and verify their credentials. Again that comes back on him. HE decided to bring them as crew. That was HIS choice. And again there is no lee shore to manage if he simply stays on the inside. If had taken the Cape Cod Canal, Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal he could have done most of his passage inside and would have been within easy reach of sheltering ports on those portions where he had to run outside. Once in the Chesapeake he would have access to the ICW all the way to Florida. As captain and owner with a crew he clearly didn't know well the SAFE choice would have been to take that route. Going offshore with people you barely know at the fag end of hurricane season is just asking for problems. My statement stands. He made a series of poor decisions that put him in that situation.
Classic Coastguard: "It's a big storm! Let's make it safer by crashing our boat into theirs, and then having them jump into the water, then winching them into an aircraft!"
@hpp337c So you generalize that all yanks think they own the world from this episode? If one were to follow your failed logic then one could assert that all Canadians are flighty and panic too easily. I don't think that is true of Canadians and I know all Yanks don't think they own the world and don't want to keep bailing it out either.
Typical boy scout behaviour. The boat was sound- the skipper was correct. I hope the coast guard were prepared to pay for any damage to his "seaworthy" vessel.
Search and rescue efforts if successful are charged to the rescued. That "skipper" probably had to take out another mortgage if he didn't have sufficient insurance.
@feewaybilz What the "bikini babes" did is called Mutiny. They intentionally and unnecessarily risked the lives of the Coasties who came to "save" them. Ego....get over yourself....
@ScreamingRubber At least the CG didn't sink her (as a hazard to navigation) and the captain was able to get his boat back. Funny how the law wasn't applied here (as in, the "crew" mutinied, they should be in Leavenworth), but the bikini babes probably rubbed all over the CG skipper, got his cold blood hot, and... no charges.
There is no place other than a Nazi rally for such comments. Find a group that likes racism--unfortunately, there are some out there-- and share with them. Do not poison the public forum with your hatred.
the problem with this vessel is that it is a 32 foot sailing monohull which is unstable in such conditions. Captain is likely sick, tired and unable to function anymore. Catamarans are much safer.
The coast guard declared the voyage "manifestly unsafe" Since the skipper was a licensed master, when the USCG ordered him to abandon ship he was obliged to comply or lose his license and face charges. The fact that the Satori grounded herself with his bag of personal belongings still in the cockpit tends to lend credence to his case that the women panicked and over-reacted to the situation. Neither the author of "The perfect storm" nor the script writers interviewed him.
I flew as an Aircraft Commander on this mission and spoke to Ray Leonard via radio. I am in fact the person who informed him that he would be abandoning his vessel on orders from the rescue coordination center in Boston. He seemed lethargic and incoherent, which is consistent with having your ass kicked in a storm. Comments by FutureShock are pretty much right on. Had the skipper not brought the extra crew along, I'm sure he would have weathered the storm along with his able vessel. The CG had simply invested too much in the operation and was not going to tolerate a nightime call for rescue. Hence, the voyage was terminated. There's no one to blame here. No question that Leonard was an able skipper and the vessel could survive (as it did). The Coast Guard made the right call. Lives were clearly at risk. But it's like calling the police for a domestic issue... it raises the problem to a new level and you lose control of the outcome, as happened to Mr. Leonard.
Kingsley Klosson late. But very cool story. Tell more for God's sake.
Kingsley Klosson on
I was a flight Corpsman at AirSta Cape Cod and treated all the people brought in that afternoon. The Capt was to say the least PISSED OFF on having to leave his S/V adrift. That night proved to even more dramatic about 2200 that night all hell broke lose. If the Tam had not been released from that rescue the crew from the ANG H-60 would not have lived.
Kingsley Klosson sadly the Andrea Gail perished around the time this was filmed
A Westsail 32.. I love that boat because of this story.
I have also been "asked"/pressured into abandoning my Sadler 26 in 30ft swell/50kt conditions south of South Africa, and I refused. It made everyone very angry at me but I still have my boat and we're still very happy together. I feel sorry for the skipper who lost such a lovely boat, but in freak conditions like this without a liferaft I can't blame him for erring on the side of caution. Well done to everyone who made the best of a crappy situation, and RIP to our friends lost at sea.
The Satori survived intact. So it was not manifestly unsafe and her Captain was correct. Be careful who you invite to crew your boat.
You are correct.. Leonard had the boat “lying ahull” and would have done fine.. as it did all by itself … Satori was found on a shore in New Jersey in perfect condition and sails the world today even though she is close to fifty years old.. The girls panicked.
The Westsail 32 boat, “You call this a storm?!
Hold my beer.”
The owner of the sail found the boat and recovered her a few weeks later.
Heard they owned the boat too....not just the sails
I remember reading a book recently where Robin Knox Johnson was en route to the Azores, along the way the yacht had been dismasted, however the crew managed to jury rig a sail and were limping quite happily to the Azores when a US navy ship came upon them, asked if assistance was required, no but thanks anyway, then tried to order the crew off stating the authority of the U.S.A.........in international waters, over 1500nm from the US. Needless to say they continued with the jury rig and made it.
I'm very pleased to see that the guys on the cargoship have their racing bike ready to go on deck. That is proper seamanship if you ask me.
They lived to tell their tale. Many who were in this storm did not. The boat owner/captain got his boat back, and shame on all who would bad mouth the U.S. Coast Guard. Someone said long ago that no greater love is there than when one would lay down their life for a friend, the CG does this with a passion.
@@b767greg Rick Smith died but not trying to rescue the Satori.. they were trying to rescue a japanese who was sailign alone in a sailboat.. the decided it was safer for him to remain in his boat than trying to rescue him (and they were right as his boat survived and he was safelly picked later by another ship).. they ran out of fuel in the trip back after failing the third refueling due to extremelly severe weather..there was no H60s involved in the rescue of the Satori.. only H-3s and a nearby H-65
Yep… someone about 2000 years ago. He said “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
His name was Jesus.
The boat was later recovered with little damage, so no worries about her being lost.
That Westsail was doing fine in those conditions
They had no reserve fuel, emergency supplies, etc, they were getting their asses kicked.
The fuck you arguing with? You weren't there and every account says they were in deep shit.
Amazing how the "experts" who weren't there think differently
Ray Lenard was contacted after the rescue by a man who found Satori on a beach in Maryland. He recovered the boat and continued his voyage south. Satori is still sailing all these years later.
I have a friend, who like myself is a long time shortwave radio listener. He listened to the USCG SAR on H.F. radio for the S/V SATORI from North-East Ohio. Every time he thinks about it, it sends shivers down his spine.
The sailing vessel was a Westsail 32; a really good ocean going boat. I would have hated to leave here also. By her riding the storm out and not sinking, the owner was correct in not wanting to leave her.
Satori was sold. But NOT renamed. And now is berthed in Corpus Cristi TX.
God bless Monday morning quarterbacks, they keep the comments section entertaining!
This is two full days after the peak of the storm conditions. So the storm is already dying down, this is on the outskirts (calmost part besides in the eye) of the storm. Had the Satori been exposed to the same conditons as the Andrea Gail, that little fibreglass hull would've been cracked right open
*Coast Guard:* _"You need rescuing!"_
_(Coast Guard boat gets wrecked. Needs to be rescued.)_
*Sailing Master:* _"It's poor seamanship to refer to yourself in the 3rd person!"_
In the book "The perfect storm", there is a footnote on the page that describes this rescue, that after the storm, the boat was found still afloat and sailing. I'm sure conditions were rough, but the captain had opted to go below and make it water-tight, and simply ride out the storm.
The clip says that the boat was lifted out of the water and slammed down onto the rescue boat's bow. That wouldn't have happened if the lifeboat hadn't been there.
Still - the women raised an SOS .....
YAY NANTUCKET WAS MENTIONED IN A VIDEO! SHOUT OUT FROM MY HOME NANTUCKET!
That WestSail 32 was perfectly fine.
These boats are badasses...I love westsail.
the captain of the satori needed to off load the exhausted and scared crew, that is his responsibility. He should have also made sure the survival equipment was secured bulletproof. and the crew were wearing it. Should have also been damn thankful for the response that came to his/thier aid.
The boat was fine and found a week later with a bag in the cockpit.
The Captain / owner didn't put in a mayday call. The woman who freaked out caused the problems. The Captain had it under control. He was a licensed Captain and the Coast Guard ordered him off the boat. He was worried about losing his license and having all kinds of grief from the CG. The next day he went to sea after a airplane found he's boat sailing along just fine but they couldn't find it with vessel assit. It sailed on it's own till it beached itself. He recovered it with very little damage
The captain consented to her issuing the mayday call according to the story as it's been told. Now there are two options on this either:
A: the captain did not consent to the mayday call and it was made against his wishes. In which case the captain had lost control of his crew. If that's the case it is a manifestly unsafe situation to be in when you have lost control of the crew of your boat.
or
B. the captain consented to the mayday call by his crew member. Once the call went out he ceded control of the situation to the USCG. If he gave his consent for the call then he has to accept the consequences of it.
Either he lost control of his crew or surrendered control of his voyage. Either way the situation was removed from his hands the moment that call went out.
they lost there nerve, the boat made it. The captain didn't want to leave. The coast guard forced the owner to abandon his sound and able property against his will at gun point.
Ya, it was bullshit. They should get sued
If that boat did not fail in any way within 36 hours, it most likely would have withstand another month or so in that lame storm.
Spoken like a man that wasn't there. I lived in Kitty Hawk at the time, grew up there as a matter of fact and I can tell you this was without a doubt one of the worst storms in the North Atlantic in my lifetime. Back then we called it the Halloween Gale and the amount of flooding we saw from it was MASSIVE. The Army Corp of Engineers had to be called into pump an enormous amount of water that had over washed the beach and formed large areas of very deep standing water back into the ocean.
And while the boat might have and did survive this time there was no guarantee that was going to happen. The longer it's out there the more the gear gets beaten down and the more likely it is that something important is going to break. And that's to say nothing of the wear and tear on the crew, sprained joints, broken bones, somebody's safety harness gets snapped and over the side they go. A good sailor is a sailor that respects the ocean because a person that doesn't is very likely to be killed by it eventually.
@DownhillAllTheWay It's calld "mutiny". Their call unnecessarily risked the lives of Coasties....
Older man meets two sexy young girls wanting to crew to Bermuda, both relatively inexperienced sailors. Boat is well equipped and sound, hits terrible storm but, being a heavy displacement boat she just bobs right along. Life inside boat is a rough ride, so girls panic, call Coast Guard without his permission. CG comes, and once on scene they are pretty much forced to assume command and order to abandon - they cannot come back if needed later. Lesson: get crew to go to sea, not skirts...
After losing it's life raft, life jackets, and extra fuel, especially when running out of daylight, the CG had every right to declare it unsafe or in danger. Although the vessel itself could probably handle it, what if they could no longer stay ahead of the water they were taking on and had no life raft,,,,, then everyone would be bitching "why didn't the CG do something". No win situation. I'm sure the boat was well insured.
Actually that was false, I looked into the facts of the story and one of the women on board had radioed the CG at 5 am that morning saying that they had lost all that stuff and were taking on water when, in actuality, she was wrong. The skipper, Ray, stated that they had not lost any of those things and still had enough fuel for 40 more engine hours. He wasn’t sure who made that call. It must have been because of fear and wanting to get rescued that she said those things. CG had to comply with Boston’s orders, and Ray had to comply with the CG or else he would lose his certifications like his captain’s license. He had every right to be PISSED.
Your wrong. The boat was fine and the coast guard was called because a women panicked
@@spencerkelly164 OK if what you are saying is true then the owner lost control of his crew. Since he is claiming a call was made without his consent giving false information. If he's lost control of his crew in the middle of one of the largest storms of the century than he is in an obviously dangerous situation. USCG invested an enormous amount of tax payer assets into getting to that boat and they weren't about to take just the two women off and let him go on his way at that point. IF they had done that and the captain and boat had been lost the backlash for that decision would have been ENORMOUS.
Satori does not seem to be in peril to me and looks to be properly handled and trimmed for dark and stormy.
Bouncing around down below for a 2 days, soaking wet seems to have driven the crew to wits end, thus the rescue. Looks like they rode out the worst already, too bad for the skipper.
I picked your best video to help move one of mine. It can help your swimmers as well as help other people get there weight under control. God bless America.
Was going to comment “it’s a Westsail, it’s in its element and probably would sail on just fine without a crew.” Apparently it did… lmao
The guy the PEACE SIGN bad ass!
@rhmthethird , thanks for the information. it was something i really wanted to know.
I know of many seaworthy sailboats that have survived much worse conditions. There were no medical emergencies, the rigging was sound, and the boat was sailing under it's own power. The Coast Guard appears to have over-reacted. I would like to know what kind of radio communication led up to this.
Due to.... A MAYDAY call! Must not have been going that great! Thanks, but it cost a man his life!
No you don't. I get that it doesn't look "that bad" on TV but the raw data from the weather buoys during that storm were insane! Hurricane force winds with peak wave heights well over 70 feet and average wave heights of 30 feet are some of the worst conditions any sailboat is likely to see. 6 men lost their lives in that storm and a steel hulled fishing vessel over twice the length of this sailboat was never seen again. Don't act like you know of "many" sailboats that have survived worse because that storm was about as bad as it gets.
If a skipper knows how to hove too then all he as to do is batten down the hatches and ride out the storm. Sailboats are super safer at sea for this reason.
A monohull sailboat would be safe if hove to so long as they had sufficient searoom between them, land and other traffic but a catamaran or trimaran would not be safe as they do not self right when capsized. Even so, a monohull risks being demasted or having it's rudder damaged. It would still be a frightening experience. I do question why the life raft and life vests was lost, especially the vests.
@@johnwang9914 story is that the life raft was taking out by a wave or during a knockdown the night before. The life jackets I have no idea about though. A life jacket wasn't going to keep a person alive more than a few hours in that kind of sea though and it would be very very hard to find a person floating alone in that ocean.
Satori had been configured by Leonard to “lie-ahull” which is kinda like “hove-to” except it just allows the sea to push the boat around the path of least resistance…A common heavy weather tactic.
it looks like the captain had everything under control, sad to see that beautiful boat go to waste.
He got her back though! She had washed up on shore in Maryland on a state beach.
Within the almost perfect movie.... There is a secondary story that showcases the heroics of the Mighty Coast Guard Swimmers. Its almost the best part of the entire movie. >> Some of the Bravest Men on Earth.
While nobody will debate the heroics of the coast guard swimmers, it should be noted that the Satori emerged unscathed and was never in real harm. It was due to the crew (Who had little sailing experience) and a misunderstood position report that they were rescued. The movie portrayal did kind of omit this, as did the book. For good reason though, that kind of conflict is its own story and was not within the purview of the story at question.
Amy it should be noted though that the captain did not want to abandon ship, it was the crew he was with who were frightened and wanted to get off. Amazing story in itself!
Scott Allen said
The boat was designed for bad weather in the north sea. Just another crew that had never experienced heavy weather. Full keel heavy displacement boats like this are pretty bullet proof, as long as they have the hatches shut and a good bilge pump. People should always stay with their boats, awhile ago, the fasnet race taught sailors this.
North Atlantic, not the North Sea
how did life jackets get washed away if they were wearing them.
'Yo, ace big dick Coast Guard captain here...your situation is 'manifestly unsafe'...so I'm going to send some guys out on a fucking RIB during a once in a century storm to come get you even though you're in a heavily built GRP boat that is doing fine. What could go wrong?'
The boat made to shore on it's own. You don't have a clue. The rescue was worst than staying on board. I'm sure you don't sail.
The fact that the boat was later recovered is irrelevant.
The fact that that the owner might have ridden out the storm is irrelevant.
The owner gave his consent for a mayday call to be issued and the USCG expended an enormous amount of resources funded by tax dollars to respond to that mayday call. Imagine how it would have looked if that boat had sunk and the owner was killed if they didn't pull him off the boat when he had a chance. And incidentally pull him off isn't the right terminology here since he eventually voluntarily jumped off the boat for an in water pick up. He could have refused to do so and the USCG would have been powerless to do anything about it under those conditions. Of course he would have lost his license later on and possibly even suffered prosecution but that is again irrelevant to the point that he submitted to the authority of the USCG after he consented to a mayday call being made.
This same storm saw the loss of a steel hulled sword boat over twice as long as the Satori and all of her crew perished as a result. You don't screw around with this kind of weather. I get that most people here don't understand just how rough the weather n this video clip because you can't tell on TV and most of you have never seen weather this bad in person. But believe me when I say it was really really bad. I was living in Kitty Hawk, NC at the time and the coastal flooding and erosion we endured was really bad and that's to say nothing of the weather offshore I witnessed at that time even in the waters off North Carolina hundreds of miles away from the center of the Sable Island Storm.
No possession you could possibly own is worth your life. A boat can be replaced, personal property can be replaced but your life can't be replaced. I see people take needless dangerous risks on the open ocean all the time. I've even known a woman who's husband lost his life in bad weather off the coast of Virginia in a bad storm. My mom's husband has cheated death more than once on the ocean. Of course there are always dangers and risks out there but that doesn't mean you have to be reckless when you go. People need to keep that in mind as they seat comfortably behind their keyboard in their warm and dry homes talking about this. No boat however grand is worth sacrificing your life trying to save.
Never get of a boat until you float off it is my motto as a yacht skipper.
No coastguard would order me off my vessel, but that's the yanks for you, they think they own the world
Amend brother, "step up to the lifeboat" haha!
Not necessarily true. The boat had already survived 2 knockdowns which very well could have flipped a catamaran. A monohull, provided the hatches are closed, will right itself if inverted, a catamaran will not. The vessel was later found with only minor damage, looks like her captain was right after all.
Yes he was.. but the problem is that the coast guard had allready devoted so many resources to her rescue (3/4 helicopters, one cutter) and where experimento so many shit (they lost an avon) that they reached a point where it was a case of "screw all.. we are all getting this folks out and out of here".
I mean i understand both sides.. they were both right
Once a mayday has been issued, it is the lives of all involved that are paramount not whether or not the vessel could still be saved. The captain might've reassessed the situation and deemed the ship still seaworthy but he had already given up his right to refuse the rescue offered unless the efforts could arguably endanger more lives.
@demma63 It is called "mutiny" in common parlance.
It's gotta be hard to make that decision to leave your sailing ship like that. I've got just a 21' foot sailing yacht and I know it would be hard to let the sea swallow her without a fight! What is the old saying? "the captain will go down with his ship" ? I wonder if insurance covers a boat loss like that.
bet that the colin archer could still be alive without crew
I wonder what ever happened to the boat. It appeared to be weathering the storm well enough.
It was later found washed up on the beach in Maryland, apparently with only minor damage. The owner had a fishing vessel drag it off, and continued sailing her, eventually selling her in 2000. Likely still in use now. Given that, in hindsight it clearly would have been safer to stay aboard than to attempt this dangerous rescue, but they couldn't know that at the time.
@@quillmaurer6563 it's in Freeport tx
if I recall right- did not the coasties actually sink thier own rubber rescue boat trying to board the s/v a stern? Think they punctured thier boat against the wind vane? They were the ones swimming not the s/v's captain :) now that really inspires me to be rescued?
Yes, apparently they ignored his warning not to approach from astern and puncture the inflatable on the self steering vane.
Chuck Norris could have brought her home.
holy man colin archer take the seas really well wierd rigg tough
Reading the perfect storm. Gotta say. I was expecting bigger swells. Junger writes about 60 to 100 foot waves. I'm a lifelong surfer. And don't see anywhere near that.
The Satori was caught in the outer edge of the storm, they sailed off Bermuda. The full force of the storm was further North.
The MV Contship Holland had missing shipping containers from 40ft above sea level.
There's also the measurements recorded from buoys #44137 and #44139, maintained by the NOAA in the area of the Andrea Gail's last position, and both recorded wave heights maxing out at 100ft
@@mgmg116 not to mention:
A. weather recorded by a camera NEVER looks as big as it. Video just can't really show how damn big those waves are.
and
B. the helicopter hovering in the area tends to flatten some of the wave action with it's prop wash.
This is not the way I know the story. I also miss the picture of the Satory safe an sound on the beach. The captain was forced...more of the story to find in the Westsail community.
Prof that the author of the book and the movie LIED!!! As a professional offshore delivery captain I can say with out doubt that Satori was riding out that storm very well! Properly balanced rig, everything lashed down right, a very good job by the skipper! Once again, Hollywood is full of shit!
The book mentions the captain refusing , the 2 passangers being the ones to call for help and the clusterfuck rescue that ensued where the CG decided they were getting those people out of the Satori no matter what.. but it also says the Satori was found intact later..and that the captain refused to speak with the writer to give his account..so he only had the 2 passangers and USCG versions to work with..
Please cite the specific area where the author lied in his book. Please give me the exact passage that contains the lie in question.
no reason for rescue...stormjib is up and boat hold course. the waves can be done by that kind oft boat... staying in the boat is much more safer than rescue!
Think for a second. Boat was taking on water, the bilge pumps where working but what happens when they lost power? Which would happen eventually since they had no extra fuel. They had no life raft and so could not abandon ship if they wanted to. Frankly, this decision was incredibly prudent on their part.
+HDaviator you are right sir!
satori never sunk even without crew she washed ashore was recovered and still floats to this day. one of the women crew sent a mayday behind the captains back. thus setting up an unavoidable dangerous rescue. the captain did not want to leave the boat but if he did not he would have lost his commercial shipping license. when he evacuated the boat the bag containing his valuables was dropped in the cockpit and they were still there when the boat was recovered. he had to quickly find his boat before it was found and salvaged by someone else he hired search aircraft and a salvage company to the tune of $10,000 or more the only damage to the boat was from the grounding.
Westsail 32. The ultimate offshore monster.
@@TanzanianRoots colin archer type very seaworthy,ive done 8 singlehanded atlantic crossihgs and i would love one
Captain should thank God he is alive! Case of 'crew panic" on Baltic lately: strong boat (Roberts 44 steel), 10 B , no danger, crew got in control over skipper, requested help and tried to step aboard a big freiter ship. Boat slammed at the ship's stern, mast and rigging went overboard and so did the skipper. All the others were saved, the boat abandoned. She was later found adrift, towed to harbour, and only after that Captain's body have been discovered - still entangled in the rigging...
36 hours taking a pounding lost safety gear-stay with the yacht till very last minute-dont even have a life raft-shouldve brought a tender with em-13footer
@imarkit Uh....I beg to differ with you; sailboats like that are "self righting" due to a heavy ballast like what is found in your surf boats. Might have snapped the mast...but...oh, look, the mast is still up! I guess they didn't pitchpole...(it's game over if the companionway hatch is open when the boat rolls...and then maybe....). I've sailed myself in some shyte weather and in a much smaller boat; sailboats are (supposed to be) built for rough weather and wet decks.
There was a fellow who was participating in an around the world race back in the 80s that got hit by a rogue wave that completely rolled the boat. It snapped the mast like a twig of course but the worst part is that the standing rigging was still partially intact and before he could cut the mast loose it had done so much damage to the hull that the boat was in danger of foundering. The owner/operator was rescued after a couple of days of nonstop bailing by hand by a fellow competitor and his boat disappeared from the surface of the ocean after he was taken off of it in less time than it took for a satellite orbit (literally the boat was there on one pass and gone the next). S/V are indeed tough but they aren't indestructible.
Because everyone knows that "True story" movies are 100% factually accurate, right? Right.
what is the name of the full program this aired on ?
@ozskipper Yes man, but look at these waves, they are huge!!!
looks like she's sailing fine
crew was the weak link..
where is there "Drogue Anquor"
This is such crap, he is totally fine, reefed right down , heading at the right angle towards the weather, i would not have left the ship. L
It was not clear if the mayday call was to offload the passengers or not. If the mayday was about the safety of the ship they the Coast Guard had the on scene decision. If the call was to offload the passengers then the Coast Guard overreacted.
Coast Guard wasn't going all the way out there and spend all that damn money just to pull the crew off. That's not how it works. And if the boat had sunk and the owner been killed and they had chosen to let him stay than they end up looking really really really bad and the backlash against them would ENORMOUS.
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@canuknotusa then exactly what kind of conditions merit a distress call, if not this.
@pwny100 Yeah, you do....and if you don't, you don't have any business sailing on the open ocean. I've called the Coasties once during a thunderstorm that blew us onto a shoal; told them to wait till the storm blew out before coming to find us (our chart got "hosed" and the gps shorted out). Turns out they were too deep in draft to do us any good; Thankfully I was paid up for TowBoat US to come to the rescue (at a cool $400.00 tow).
Bulshit owner of the Wessail 32 was staying in Helan marina in Stuart Fl So we all know the story "The two women's on board
they panic and call for help . Cost guard force him to live the boat . He didn't want to get oft the boat . Boat was found in North Carolina undamaged . I have 30 thousands nautical mile on Westsail 32 This look bad but really isn't this bad.
ive done the same in a 27 ft venus a similar boat ,colin archer inspired,they handle weather like this.
@FutureShock999 He could always "singlehand" her....no need for bikini babes. They're for day sailing, not for ocean transits (bikini babes...not the boat)
sadly this whole episode was a waste of time. the boat survived the storm and was found on a beach further south several weeks later. the owner got back on board and sailed away! google "westsail satori perfect storm" for the story at the westsail owners association. i had a westsail and they are fantastic boats. previous owners took her through a typhoon in the pacific ocean :)
çok dalga yokki bu tekne rahat yol alıyor
What a shame those stupid women and the coast guard officials panicked and left that magnificent boat to die at sea. The skipper new his boat and what it could handle. Real shame! The wave height isnt even that big compared to other storms at sea I have been in.
No, they panicked and cost a man his life in the attempt to save their lives. Sad.
@@b767greg nobody died from this rescued. The rescue jumper that died was from a National Guard SAR team that was answering a completely different distress call.
i wouldnt leave the boat. i'd sail it till it sank , or go down with the ship. hurt your pride
No boat is worth your life.
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This is a true story?
yes
This is not quite the true story. The captain did everything right but the passengers were freaking out. Drama sells more newspapers. ....
Jump off a perfectly good boat into 20 ft seas ( is this a government operation )
That what government do and they always says it is for the safety of public..
I hope he fired that whole damn crew.
He wasn't paying them to begin with. He wanted volunteers and picked them up on the advice of an acquaintance. I don't think either one of them would ever sail with him again after that experience.
@19211926 yea maybe but a skilled skipper think like that but in that siutuation u dont think like that
@mrandyrew1 Oh...and the storm they were in wasn't called "The Storm of the Century" for nothing. You have to wonder with all those boats crossing the Atlantic that there weren't other sailboats out there that "survived" and continued merrily on their ways once the storm blew out.
Who's saying there weren't other boats out there? It's not like the USCG wasn't called by anybody else during that storm ya know? Sure some boats made it through. But you have respect a storm that sank a 70+ foot offshore steel hulled commercial fishing vessel and killed all of her crew.
@plbuster that's why you join BoatUS BEFORE you need them.... I called for an ungrounding 20 miles from the nearest station last year, cost me a whopping.... NOTHING. Because I pay my annual dues.
I would not have gotten off. I love the coasties but I would have told them to fark off. The ship is very capable and can be sailed single handed quite easily if properly rigged.
Yes you could have done that... But they would have revoked his captain's license and possibly even prosecuted him for failure to comply. So your choice on that call...
@decibelden84 You have to remember, the Coast Guard has more safety gear on their ships than any other vessel on the planet; the redundancy is astoundingly insane. Any time that they get called out, there had better damn well be a boat in danger or by God there will be!!! Remember, the Coasties sail the Eagle, a square rigger, so they should have sailing experience. Anyhow, the "crew" (bikini babes) committed mutiny. Strange how they weren't charged.
The captain lost control of his crew. Strange how he didn't lose his captain's license for that...
@mrandyrew1 a little problem with your comment; about "man-up"...I think the crew had a different anatomical structure from the skipper. Also...they were inexperienced, so....maybe a stint in Leavenworth would send a clear message...but no, can't throw the bikini babes into the slammer for being bikini babes. (remember, skippers, bikini babes are for day sailing and taking pictures of, not for ocean passages). Plenty of salty women out there that would not have panicked.
Help me, I dropped my nail file and my hair straitener wont work. Women!
CG lay down their version of risk assessment = overdone for TV.
Captain of vessel has final say in international waters. How far off coast were they, +12nm?
Anyone who risks their life to rescue people who have not requested it (assuming they still can) can't then say "you caused me to risk my life so you better be grateful".
However, part of being a good captain is to maintain control over your crew, and that includes restraining them if necessary for the safety of the the vessel and crew.
He lost control of his crew or he consented to them calling a Mayday. Either way he lost or surrendered control of the situation. USCG couldn't MAKE him get off the boat under those circumstances but they can choose to suspend the license they issued him for failure to comply. Either way he made poor choices that led to this outcome. Either he picked poor crew and failed to control them or he agreed to a mayday call. Nobody even talks about the fact that he didn't even need to be offshore at that point and could have easily been on an inside passage which would have avoided all of this. And he had the electronics at hand to let him know that storm was out there before he ended up in that mess.
@@ashleighelizabeth5916 He specifically addressed this. With the weather coming in he didn't want to try to run for a harbor only to get there in the dark and try to set a storm anchor that wouldn't drag. And heading towards a lee shore in those conditions is just begging for disaster. Riding it out with sufficient sea room was a sound decision.
As for the crew, they had a responsibility to obey the captain. He approved status updates, they had lied about their level of experience and after the initial knockdown they panicked and snuck a mayday call to get off the boat despite it not actually foundering.
Solid boat, solid seamanship, lousy judgment in crew.
@@daveopincarne3718 If the crew lied to him it's up to him to do due diligence and verify their credentials. Again that comes back on him. HE decided to bring them as crew. That was HIS choice. And again there is no lee shore to manage if he simply stays on the inside. If had taken the Cape Cod Canal, Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal he could have done most of his passage inside and would have been within easy reach of sheltering ports on those portions where he had to run outside. Once in the Chesapeake he would have access to the ICW all the way to Florida. As captain and owner with a crew he clearly didn't know well the SAFE choice would have been to take that route. Going offshore with people you barely know at the fag end of hurricane season is just asking for problems. My statement stands. He made a series of poor decisions that put him in that situation.
@94z07 nice hyperbole you would do well to put away the hero worship and remember these people are well paid government employees
Classic Coastguard: "It's a big storm! Let's make it safer by crashing our boat into theirs, and then having them jump into the water, then winching them into an aircraft!"
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@hpp337c So you generalize that all yanks think they own the world from this episode? If one were to follow your failed logic then one could assert that all Canadians are flighty and panic too easily. I don't think that is true of Canadians and I know all Yanks don't think they own the world and don't want to keep bailing it out either.
Ho
Typical boy scout behaviour. The boat was sound- the skipper was correct. I hope the coast guard were prepared to pay for any damage to his "seaworthy" vessel.
No, the fact is the skipper showed poor leadership leading to a rescuer's death.
Search and rescue efforts if successful are charged to the rescued. That "skipper" probably had to take out another mortgage if he didn't have sufficient insurance.
@@b767greg The video said they recovered the crewman washed overboard before proceeding to the sailboat. Where's the death you are inferring?
@feewaybilz What the "bikini babes" did is called Mutiny. They intentionally and unnecessarily risked the lives of the Coasties who came to "save" them. Ego....get over yourself....
@ScreamingRubber At least the CG didn't sink her (as a hazard to navigation) and the captain was able to get his boat back. Funny how the law wasn't applied here (as in, the "crew" mutinied, they should be in Leavenworth), but the bikini babes probably rubbed all over the CG skipper, got his cold blood hot, and... no charges.
.... and these Jews will prodably send Satori a resue bill
+terrence simms I'm afraid you're very delusional....please go to the medicine cabinet immediately and take your medication!
He needs putting down not medicine. If everyone finds mr simms facebook account like I have we can tell him what we really feel about him.....
+Richard D You sound like the dramma queen who would narrate such utter rubbish
+terrence simms you're just another POS Nazi wannabe! Unfortunately the web allows twisted, human garbage like you to find each other!
There is no place other than a Nazi rally for such comments. Find a group that likes racism--unfortunately, there are some out there-- and share with them. Do not poison the public forum with your hatred.
The problems started when this Captain took on two female crew members and could not control them.
the problem with this vessel is that it is a 32 foot sailing monohull which is unstable in such conditions. Captain is likely sick, tired and unable to function anymore. Catamarans are much safer.
I'm very pleased to see that the guys on the cargoship have their racing bike ready to go on deck. That is proper seamanship if you ask me.