Swan 41 Tasman crossing
I enjoy reading the conclusion of a forum thread, particularly when someone starts looking for a boat asking for advice and following it through into the issues raised and opinions following ownership. It is a shame when an interesting thread ends without an outcome, or with a promise to revert with pictures or when the problem is finally solved. So following some forum exchanges last year I should add to the story of "Scotch Bonnet" last reported as completing a new teak deck in NZ before delivering to Australia. We left NZ at the end of September '11, not an ideal time to cross the Tasman but a Customs requirement to leave. We were in contact with the NZ Bureau of Meteorology who helped us with a weather window and sailed with a forecast for 3 days easterlies of 25 - 30kts ahead of a front then southerlies. Scotch Bonnet was a dream making a steady 8 - 10kts and very comfortable. 3 days into the crossing the forecast showed an unusual low forming quickly ahead of us which would arrive the next morning, 45kts easterlies going south easing to 25 - 30kts with 4 - 5 m seas. A lesson to share despite frequently being mentioned I will repeat with a red face here. We had a trysail made in NZ and only took delivery of it the day before sailing. When we went to hoist it the sail slides were too large, we should have checked but the sail maker had come to the boat to measure and check the track so we made the mistake of trusting them. We decided to run under about 1.5m of headsail and were making 6 - 8 kt boat speed. The seas were up to about 6m with occasional breaking waves. Apparent wind was a fairly steady 45kts before the needle pressed hard against the 50kts + stop and the water turned white. We had these conditions for no more than a minute when the mast disappeared, one second it was there the next gone, broken 8 - 10 feet above the deck. We secured the broken section as best we could. Within 2 - 3 minutes after it fell over the breeze dropped right off to maybe 10kts which allowed us to cut it free. We were about 560nm offshore in the eye of a low in the Tasman Sea in winter, engine range of a little over 100nm. The decision was made to put out a distress call to abandon ship. The swell at that stage had dropped to about 3m but the motion of Scotch Bonnet even in those conditions without the rig was violent, the thought of 2 - 3 days possibly returning to 6m seas (ie 40' peak to trough) we felt would result in broken limbs at best, we would then have had a limited stub of mast to work with to jury rig and a long way to go. There is no question this decision can be debated, we had a professional delivery skipper on board and 2 crew and it was the decision we collectively took at the time. We later learned that 3 ships had joined in responding to the distress signal, 1 ship called us on the vhf and said they thought they were in the vicinity and could we see them, they were about 4 miles off and we set off some flares. They came alongside and slow steamed to bring us into their lee, at about 6kts they were as slow as possible to maintain steerage and we were full throttle to keep up, they lowered a rope ladder with approximately a 6m swell peak to trough with the bottom rung of the ladder reachable at the height of the swell. To reiterate another well worn lesson, abandoning ship is in itself a very dangerous option. We were fortunate and made it safely on board the 28,000GT container ship, the Captain told us in another hour he wouldn't have been able to take us off like that and the conditions were already too bad for the smallest of the 3 ships, 14,000 GT, to have picked us up. We were in the centre of the low and the storm came back for the next 36 hours of 4m seas and 40kts + before another 2 days of 25 - 30kt southerlies.
It was Scotch Bonnet's backstay that let us down, all the standing and running rigging were replaced in NZ only 2 months earlier, we took the more expensive option and had backstay insulators installed and it is those that failed. That was the first week of October 2011. We didn't scuttle Scotch Bonnet and had hoped we might hear of her again although we had left the main hatch open. In December I was contacted by her old owner in California who asked if I had seen the news on the internet, a cruise ship had come across the boat and had boarded her to check for people on board before leaving her drifting and sailing on. From video posted on the web by the cruise passengers it was apparent that they had also opened the forward hatch and it seemed that too was left open. Nevertheless with the help of the Rescue Coordination Centre in Canberra we had a fairly accurate projected position and with the assistance of the kind owners of the cargo ship "Norfolk Guardian", which trades between Yamba NSW, Norfolk Island and NZ, we hoped a salvage might be possible very close to Norfolk Island around 24th December. Unfortunately that coincided with a cyclone in the exact vicinity of our projected position which "Norfolk Guardian" had to ride out for several days and by the time she steamed through the area there was no sign. We felt sure after that she had gone and had given up the hope of seeing her again when in March I had a phone call from the Water Police to say she had washed up, I thought for sure on a coral reef on a Pacific Island, but she had completed her journey and arrived after a 5 1/2 month crossing surfing up a sandy beach at Brunswick Heads, NSW. There followed an interesting few days of salvage operations with the assistance of an excellent surveyor in Brisbane and a very professional salvage company. Scotch Bonnet has now arrived in Sydney and the long road to restoration has started with, very shortly, many requests for help from our wonderful Forum! Andrew "Scotch Bonnet" 41/039

Thank you for sharing this unbelievably positive adventure Andrew. They always say if you brought everyone home safely, you did everything right...and the fact that Scotch Bonnet is back in your lives is just proof of that! Will look forward to hearing about her progress, as I'm sure we all will here on the forum.
All the best
Jayne Aorangi 047/47

What an amazing story.  And yes, how wonderful that you will be able to restore Scotch Bonnet.  I hope the restoration goes as smoothly as possible.  Just retrieving her from the beach must have been quite a feat. 

Hearing such a story, one can't help but wonder about the other story lines that could have unfolded.  For example, do you think that deploying a drogue, such as the Jordan series drogue, would have enabled you to weather the waves and wind, even with the rig gone? 

Also, it would be interesting to hear others weigh in on the cause of the dismasting.  Given the conditions you were under, should the backstay have been able to support a storm jib without any trysail to balance the forces on the rig? In other words, are the forces so extreme under jib only in high wind conditions that even the best backstay would be strained to the point of breaking?  Or would excellent quality rod rigging stand up to such a strain? 

Of course, bottom line is that all crew are safe and you have the boat back. 

Cheers,

Kim and Mark

Anthea, 1977 Swan 41

Dear All, to fill in some blanks. I spoke with the riggers in NZ shortly after getting home and explained that it was both backstay insulators that failed with a clean break through each (that has been the subject of a lot of discussion how both could fail at the same time). I explained the conditions and what we were doing and they estimated that there would have been no more than 5000kg load on the backstay. The insulators were designed to have a breaking strain of 9000kg+ which is greater than the 10mm wire at 8700kg so in theory the wire should fail first. The riggers over the next few days tested an insulator to destruction and it failed at 4700kg. It would have been a more difficult case to prove until Scotch Bonnet arrived home with the bottom section of the backstay with half an insulator still attached. Our insurers are continuing to pursue recovery and I hope it results in a product recall.
You may be interested to see a video of the salvage of Scotch Bonnet http://marinecivilcontractors.com/video/
Andrew 41/039

I had followed the story on the internet and am very happy that it appears you are heading toward a happy ending.  Best of luck with the restoration!

I had followed the story on the internet and am very happy that it appears you are heading toward a happy ending.  Best of luck with the restoration!

Dear Andrew,

Glad to hear that things are looking up for you!  Losing a boat in a hurricane must be a terrifying experience. 

Great video.  It's still hard to believe that the trucks could actually pick up your ship!  Incredible.

Fair Winds

Chris Mabel's Casse Tete 43/003

Dear Andrew, what an extraordinary story you are telling us, and what a pity that after all the work you have been putting into your boat the rig did let you down. How frustrating it must have been...
Of course really well done for the seamanship.
I was really surprised that even after being washed on a beach with most probably a pretty rough sea, the keel and rudder were still in place. It would be interesting to know wether you got any delamination of the hull??
If not at all that really means a lot about the strength of the construction.
Wishing you all the best for the restoration.
Philippe 41/022