Was abandoning really necessary?

On December 12, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued three men from a 2005 Beneteau Oceanis 523, apparently due to extreme weather. The yacht was on a Chesapeake-to-Caribbean passage when the crew was airlifted 150 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras. With sails furled, the $225,000 yacht was left to drift onward.

When Scuttlebutt published the story about the rescue, Abandoning a perfectly good boat, it brought back memories for Richard Collins who was also in the region making a passage. Here’s his story:

Five of us departed Charleston,SC breakwater on a Swam 58 at approx. 2230 hours on December 9, bound for St Maarten. Using both PredictWind and Commanders for forecasts, we anticipated winds SSW to SW 15-25kts at the start with sloppy seas on our approx. rhumbline of 135.

The prediction was for a front to drop in causing the wind to go N to NE approx. 2-3 days out, and it did. For a short period of a day or so we saw winds 25-35 NE’ish with a max of 42.4 knots in one squall.

Our sailing started with a full main and 110 jib, occasionally reefing it to slow the boat down. During the squalls, we at times used just a storm staysail with no main or jib but the motor in gear at 1500 RPM to allow for bumpy but controlled conditions without slamming. We set the autopilot for steering with an apparent wind angle of about 135 adjusting to keep the boat from pounding but still averaging 7 knots.

Max seas we saw during the trip were maybe 15-feet with a period of 6-8 seconds. The swells were often confused due to fronts from the south interfacing with previous fronts. The approx. 1300-mile voyage took about 7 1/2 days with wind 15-25 knots virtually the whole time with both speed and direction generally predicted accurately by both weather services.

The cold water on the west side of the Gulf Stream was 54 degrees and quickly jumped to 81 when we crossed into the Stream. As the wind was 10-25 knots SSW, the usually sloppy first 5-10 miles into the Stream wasn’t particularly nasty as it could have been a few days later when the front with the N to NE winds likely created what I call hobble gobble sea conditions when wind is blowing against the current.

Also, those Beneteau 52s are relatively shallow flat hulls and subject to pounding in offshore chop. The new Swans are similar with wide beam aft and a flatter forward entry versus older deep hull designs. Hence, we sailed apparent wind for comfort rather than for VMG, though it added another 12-15 hours to the passage – no big deal.

Did we ever feel in danger? Not at all. Granted, standing on a bucking bronco for 175 hours was not particularly comfortable, but between the owner, our crew, and a well-founded vessel, there was ample experience to take on the worst. In this case, the worst was nothing close to perilous.

I do understand the discomfort on the Beneteau but did it really require abandoning?

Editor’s note: George Day with the Cruising Compass contends that the Beneteau Oceanis 523, in the hands of a capable crew, is more than up to such weather. “Should there be a penalty for this kind of irresponsible behavior?” he asks. “Or is losing a boat worth a quarter of million dollars and facing the scorn of fellow sailors penalty enough?” For more, click here.