My first inkling came from the vessel's name. Charm Blow
I think he was charmed with some blow.

That was a pretty low blow to the Coast Guard if someone did that, not at all charming to have them freezing their butts for nothing

Sounds like a hoax, hope they catch the SOB's and hang them.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

They should be severly punished if ever caught for putting others at risk. Also it may Make the coast guard a little more sceptical on future calls for assistance. My own question is why would a twenty nine footer be that far offshore as there is no place to go out there for a local trip. A twenty nine footer of more modern design is not an ideal size either for offshore sailing. Even a random really good line squall could get it into trouble if the owner did not have some previous experience with them.

Nothing wrong with the size of the boat, people have sailed all over the world in similar.


If your caught putting out a fake mayday I think you have to pay the costs the Coast Guard incurred and its 10 years in jail maybe? I forget.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Make them pay for the search costs, and appoint them urinal cleaners on a Coast Guard cutter for five years. Make them pay their own way rather than having us pay to keep them in jail.

People have sailed vast distances in much smaller vessels of course.. Many of the boats of modern times just are not that great unless the crew have had a lot of experience. Structually and rigging wise they where never intended for severe service either.

I am quite happy that there are severe penalties for false maydays in the United States.

We were based out of Port Hope Ontario and covered a section of the north shore of lake ontario. We reponded to requests to have a look for private vessels thought overdue by their families or whatever. The requests came through the royal canadian mounted police.

We used our steel utility club boat to do this. When it turned out that most requests where not that serious we eventually gave up doing it. We were putting ourselves in danger sometimes and it was for absolutly nothing.

We were raceing an older now but current then alberg thirty through the night one time. The wind picked up pretty good and one guy stated he had not seen sailling conditions like this in twenty five years. He meant they were ideal.

As the night progressed it got worse and worse. I heard trees where blown down that night ashore. We landed up running off before it with the small jib tied in half. There was no jib furling back then and it was the smallest sail aboard. Earlier I had suggested running off as the conditions where geting very bad.

Only one boat managed to finish the race and I suspect he was the leader and got into quieter waters before the storm got too serious.. That night is about all I felt that alberg thirty could really handle. The owner was below trying to get the engine started. I went below and told him it might be stirred up sediment in the tank that was causing the no start. That caused fear in him although I explained the engine would have been worth nothing in our current conditions. I did not want him in a state of panic as we were going to have to cross through an area that had only about twenty five feet of water pretty soon. I was not positive but thought the waves might be higher there and shorter in distance between peaks. As I was up on the fordeck tying that jib in half it looked to be twenty feet down to the water in the valley just ahead as a crest of a wave was passing under us. I was tethered and went up through the forehatch.

We had at least two hundred miles to a lee shore that night. I was considering setting a drouge fabricated out of what I could find on board that might keep together. Running it off the stern. The boat was doing okay in general. Decided to see what the shallower area was going to be like before making the decision.


Considered laying to but even that much sail up might get us overpowered. The rain was going horizontal but that is not that uncommon. It finally blewout about four to five hours later. At least no boat participating in the race got sunk.

That night the alberg 30 was about as small a boat as I would want to be in. The boat had a fairly good displacement hull with a longish keel compared to most designs that came later. Although technically you could survive in much smaller boats. I would just not want to be the guy doing it.

I never think of it normally but still will never forget that night. I never though we would perish but it was rough all the same. Another thing in the boats favour is they were strongly built. Some of the modern later plastic boats where like toys in comparison.

The lake freighters had run as close to the windward shore as they could and dropped anchor we found out later. I had never known them to do that but over the years they probably had on occassion. Unloaded they might have no other choice. They are large boats that carry bulk commodities.

There was no windspeed indicator on the boat so I will never know how hard it blew that night. To take trees down ashore where the winds velocity is usually less meant they were sustantial at the same time.

. They say a good sailboat can take more than a human can endure and survive on occasion. I would not want to be a participant in a senario like that.

After that alberg got over the shallow ground with no really serious issues I really was not concerned with too much. I had tried to figure with the top of waves to the bottom of the troughs distance so great if we might trip the boat going through. Yet there was no alternative that night. You cannot really accuratly determine top of wave to trough heighth in conditions like that. Shorter peak to peak distances on the great lakes as well I believe increasing the danger.

As I did not really understand just how hard a wind can blow. I felt it could not blow any harder that night . In parts of the world it can.

It was dark that night but you still resisted looking over the stern. The rain hurt your face and it was concerning what you observed. Perhaps just a little more speed and we might have been stern swamped. The small sail area was still great enough to provide good steerage. Even under bare poles it would have been enough. The sail reduced the chance of any broaching though. Under bare poles too much momentum may have been lost in the troughs. It all is a trade of in conditions like that. If something is working try to leave it alone. Better the known than the unknown.

Todays electronics are tremendous improvemets compared to that era. Weather charts etc are there by demand for example today. In conditions like we experienced rescue is not really an option if something had gone wrong. Survival time in the water would be too short. Some of the other boats had a much rougher time of it that night. Some where even dismasted. Still all the boats survived. A few people had minor injuries. Still there were no fatalities.

That is quite a story. One for the grandkids.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

They have to go out. They don't have to come back.

It's not just the US Coast Guard that answers the call.
A NY ANG air rescue crew went out to rescue a sailboat party during the Oct. 1991 "Perfect Storm" The ship and one of her crew did not return.

Westhampton News - Daughters carry on legacy of father lost in 'Perfect Storm' - 27east
Technical Sergeant Arden “Rick” Smith kissed his daughters goodbye and disappeared into the October night..........


More on these rescues

Into the Raging Sea : People.com

Hey, my family used to own an Alberg 30. Kept it on lake St. Clair.

Used to sail our Ranger 33 into Cobourg pretty regularly, just down the shore from Port Hope.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Monterey Sailboat Accident: Report Of Boat Sinking A Possible Hoax

This piece claims that the location of the sailboat was determined by triangulating the radio signal from the vessel. If this is true, if it was a hoax, wouldn't the radio sending the hoax have to have been 65 miles offshore?

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

It doesn't mean that there wasn't *a* ship or aircraft in the area from which the transmission could have been sent.

That is about seven miles further east than Port Hope. Unless there have been massive improvements and there may have been. Stay out of there in bad weather conditions. If you have to choose a place and have the time. Port Hope was really a good place by comparison in bad weather.

I did not want to drone on earlier but there was more to the alberg story that time. Got a call early in the following week from one of the guys.

Said him and his son had gone out to clean the boat up a bit one evening. We used to anchor our boats out in the harbour with larger permanent concrete weights connected to floats. No dockside mooring was used although the concrete sidewalls were in great shape.

Historically it was the home of eldorado a crown corporation uranium processing place beside the harbour. The harbour was dredged and the product went to the states during the war and well before the atomic bombs where dropped on Japan. This plant at one time dealt in radium for watch hands etc. So whatever the by products on the bottom of that harbour there. They were seriously needed that long ago time.

Well anyways back to the alberg. I got a call monday or tues or even wednesday as I do not remember at work. Could I get off as the alberg was sitting on the bottom of the harbour. I asked if it was sunk for certain and he verified part of the mast was sticking out as the boat had settled vertically on the bottom.

I remember thinking that this was just great. Since I worked in a town further away by the time I got there he had gotten a towtruck. Dove down and secured the pull and dragged the hull over to a sidewall.

The uranium plant lent us a moderate heavy lifter and we got the boat up to deck level and pumped it out. What a mess but the insurance company paid to recondition the boat and it went back into service. We felt his son being quite young had tampered with the head that was below the waterline when his dad was working somewhere else cleaning up and he missed the sons activity.

When we got the boat high and pumped out we had quite a discussion of who was going to call the owner. Neither of us where really wanting to but someone had to. How do you tell a guy we sank his boat and even if only submerged for as short a time as it was. Especially if he thinks you might have tried to kill him only a few days ago. The boat was was so dirty it was hard to imagine that it could be as bad .

I sailed my thunderbird out of Port Hope for several years.. We had quite a few characters in the club way back then. There was a cross section of individuals the likes of them probably not possible today. Many had obscure claims to fame so to speak. Enough in my opinion that someone in hindsight should have written a book. The dynamics of the group where highly unusual.

Incidentally his boat being sunk did not phase the owner of the alberg at all. I felt he was still recovering mentally from the interesting sail through the storm may have been the reason. Our little excusion really was more than he could manage mentally at the time.

I sailed my thunderbird out of that port for a few years. Eventually the media got hold of our various odd exploits. Actually part of the reason to suspend rescue runs is when I was involved in rescuing the concrete sidewalk as the media called the forty foot ferro cement sail boat.

If you have never tried to start a lister hand crank diesel like that ferro cement hull had in cold conditions you have never lived. The concept of using cement to build boats was pretty much new back then. I became the subject of poety in the media. They put spins on the story that in hindsite where hillarious. It did not help my cause the the boat had also been illegally taken it turned out. This episode occured very, very late in the year and the guy on the boat when I got there dissapeared fast once I got him ashore.

We used to have breakfast quite often on Farley Mowats old newfoundland schooner as kind of a regular thing. He wrote the well selling book the boat that would not float. Of course it was exagerated but there was more than a grain of truth in it as well.

Plus there was a major ongoing story about the converted into a sailboat from a german patrol vessel north sea trawler. One of our members owned. Complete with it's old mercedes diesel engine. Probably the original installed by the germans to patrol the fiords of norway as I think they confiscated the trawler early in the war.

More hilarious things happened about and with that boat and it's owner over time as any. It was almost endless events there so the media decided we were worth following. Now as I sail out at the cottage in our little albacore or even smaller planning inland scow. I ocasionally wonder about living through those many times and events.

At the same time realising this is brought forward in my memory. As the great sailing abilities and skill I had back then are now gone. I intuitvly know I am not making those small boats perform as good as I could at one time.The edge is just gone.

Racing as much as we did took away the pleasures of just plain pleasure sailing unfortunatly. I have always regretted that loss. The media put me on the front page for the last sailboat race I won. I guess I had become somewhat notorious by then.

I was not kidding when stating someone should have written a book. I have been a member of other yacht clubs but they were sterile compared to the events and episodes that occured at that small Port Hope club.

.I actually brought my first mercedes from a member and it was a nice fintail. There is another story there as well. The owner was far too wealthy for being a post office employee. He used to sail with me every wednesday afternoon if the weather was decent. I always took wednesday afternoon off work in the summer. His fairly large motor cruiser was built from all stainless steel. He was also well advanced in age. He made his money boot legging across lake ontario during prohibition I eventually found out and lived in Coburg.

If Kerry was not aware . Famous rich americans built mansions in Coburg. For years there was a ferry service across lake ontario terminating there. They commited their indescressions well out of americans view. Names you probably would still be familiar with if I could remember them. As the expression goes money has it's privlages I suppose.

Some of the ladies even had a few stableboys. Well my sailing wedneday afternoons friend had aquired one of those large mansions as when the boat service ceased running. They were white elephants and very large. I suspect built prior to income tax came into being as well. The first time I was at his home it staggered me.

It was too far a run around the lake by car on the poorer roads back then I suppose to continue using them by the americans. Over a few summers sailing together his whole story came out. For a postal clerk he had had an amazing life. Still just more or less typical of a member of that yacht club. Old George Pierce will have expired long ago now. So will the majority of the other menbers of my time by now. A mixture of people like that occuring is no longer probable today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/monterey-sailboat-accident_n_2768692.html


Kurtis Thorsted, 55, of Salinas, Calif., was released from federal prison last summer after being convicted, for the second time, of making false calls to the Coast Guard. Court records show he made 51 distress calls over five months, claiming in one case to be in trouble in a kayak off the coast of Santa Cruz.

Suppose they've checked this guy out yet?