Back on December 12, an incident occurred 150 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras that raises, once again, the question of what it means to abandon a perfectly good sailboat at sea just because the crew is unhappy.
The incident, as reported by veteran yachting writer Peter Swanson on his Substack feed Loose Cannon, involves the Austrian-flagged Beneteau 523 Time Aut that was abandoned by it owner Thomas Hagspiel and his two paying crew.
That morning, the Coast Guard in Norfolk, Virginia, received a distress call and a request from Hagspiel to have the CG send a helicopter rescue team. The reason Hagspiel gave was his fear that the 53-foot sloop, which is rated CE-A All Oceans, was liable to capsize in what he claimed were monstrous seas. Plus, he said, they were running out of fuel.
The Coast Guard sent a JayHawk to Time Aut and the rescue swimmer managed to get all three crew off the boat and into the chopper without injury. As they flew to dry land, they could see Time Aut floating on her lines with sails furled. Next stop Ireland.
The question that has been much discussed on social media and elsewhere is how could this have happened? The weather had been bad, with winds up to 40 knots and seas running and breaking at more than 10 feet. But, in the hands of a capable crew, the 53-foot Beneteau is more than up to such weather. Apparently, its crew was not.
Being low on fuel two days into an ocean passage would mean that the 198-gallon fuel tanks had not been topped up before departure. What skipper with any sense would go to sea so unprepared, particularly since Hagspiel had already made an Atlantic crossing in Time Aut with the ARC.
The upshot is that this skipper and his inexperienced crew put the lives of a Coast Guard rescue team at risk because they we unprepared, tired, possibly scared, and incapable of the most basic seamanship skills, such a heaving to.
Should there be a penalty for this kind of irresponsible behavior? Or is losing a boat worth a quarter of million dollars and facing the scorn of fellow sailors penalty enough?
What do you think? Email your thoughts to george@bwsailing.com
Read the Loose Cannon report in full here.
Photo above was taken by the Coast Guard team while hovering over Time Aut during the rescue
