{"id":43350,"date":"2024-10-23T18:33:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T18:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/?p=43350"},"modified":"2024-10-24T11:34:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T11:34:31","slug":"british-sloops-loses-rudder-in-indian-ocean-crew-safe-boat-scuttled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/2024\/10\/british-sloops-loses-rudder-in-indian-ocean-crew-safe-boat-scuttled\/","title":{"rendered":"British Sloop Loses Rudder in Indian Ocean. Crew Safe, Boat Scuttled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s another story of a blue water boat losing its rudder at sea. In this case, the crew of the British sloop <\/em>Water Music, which had been their home for the last 16 years while making a circumnavigation, was in the middle of the Indian Ocean when the rudder simply dropped off the boat. Luckily, the boat was not taking on water, but the crew had no way to steer.\u00a0 These excerpts are from Water Music\u2019s blog.<\/em><\/p>\n

About 1400, local time, yesterday we lost the rudder.\u00a0 There was no warning, but it all went.\u00a0 I ascertained this by swimming under the boat. There was no ingress of water \u2013 just no way we could steer.\u00a0 We attempted a spinnaker boom with floorboards & using blocks & tackles to no avail.\u00a0 \u00a0This morning we streamed the drogue \u2013 which helped for a bit \u2013 but then the stitching all fell apart and we lost it.\u00a0 Wind has been blowing 25kn \u2013 so not excessive, but very uncomfortable cross seas. We did not believe we could sail to any point on land and so made the decision for a Mayday.\u00a0 The Chinese bulk carrier SMAC Transponder<\/em> stayed with us yesterday and picked us up this morning.\u00a0 We have scuttled Water Music.\u00a0 We all got off without any personal loss or injury.
\nThe ship is now heading to China and will drop us off at Jakarta.<\/p>\n

Farewell, Old Friend<\/strong><\/p>\n

Water Music\u2019s still happy crew is for the first time ever going to windward. The journey is just over 1000 miles from her final resting place to Jakarta.<\/p>\n

That distance is long enough for each of us to re-qualify as members of the Ocean Cruising Club. However, the fact we are on a 200,000 tonne bulk carrier bound for china would disqualify us anyway. Going to windward on a ship like this is certainly a lot more comfortable.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, we lost the rudder and it sank to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. We were unable to get a spinnaker pole rigged as a rudder \u2013 partly no doubt due to the continued cross sea running and relatively high wind. The sea anchor worked for a short while \u2013 before blowing apart. We were unable to steer and at least 2000 miles from anywhere we could get the damage repaired. That left us with no choice than to accept a lift about this ship.<\/p>\n

Coming alongside a ship of this size was quite challenging and securing her was equally difficult. In that process, we ripped two cleats off the boat a chunk of toe rail and a running backstay.<\/p>\n

Cutting a pipe inside the yacht was my final act of betrayal (to ensure she sank and was no danger to passing traffic) and a poor way to thank an old friend for the loyal service she has given us over the last 16 years. She looked after us better than I looked after her.
\nFarewell old friend & I hope your final resting place does you justice. Read more on Water Music’s<\/em> blog here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s another story of a blue water boat losing its rudder at sea. In this case, the crew of the British sloop Water Music, which had been their home for the last 16 years while making a circumnavigation, was in the middle of the Indian Ocean when the rudder simply dropped off the boat. Luckily, the boat was not taking on water, but the crew had no way to steer.\u00a0 These excerpts are from Water Music\u2019s blog. About 1400, local time, yesterday we lost the rudder.\u00a0 There was no warning, but it all went.\u00a0 I ascertained this by swimming under the boat. There was no ingress of water \u2013 just no way we could steer.\u00a0 We attempted a spinnaker boom with floorboards & using blocks & tackles to no avail.\u00a0 \u00a0This morning we streamed the drogue \u2013 which helped for a bit \u2013 but then the stitching all fell apart and we lost it.\u00a0 Wind has been blowing 25kn \u2013 so not excessive, but very uncomfortable cross seas. We did not believe we could sail to any point on land and so made the decision for a Mayday.\u00a0 The Chinese bulk carrier SMAC Transponder stayed with us yesterday and picked …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43350"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43372,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43350\/revisions\/43372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}