Hydraulicjump
Senior Member
I know elements of this have been discussed before, but am curious what others do when they are preparing for the unlikely, but awful situation of a major hole in the hull. Most of you have seen this description of a collision with a whale
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/03/20/sailboat-hits-whale-pacific-rescue/
That quickly sank a boat in the Pacific between the Galapagos and French Polynesia. It looks like the crew did everything they should (including famously staying on and with the boat until you basically step up into the life raft), but the boat sank so quickly they made no attempt to slow the inflow of water through the breach in the hull.
So what would you do and how would you prepare? We keep two things on board based on discussions with others. First is a nerf football. We have good friends who tore out their prop on a rock on the Sunshine Coast in BC (what they describe as a navigational “brain fart”) and began taking water through a baseball size hole. The Canadian Coast Guard showed up within a couple of hours and brought on nerf footballs. They stuffed them into the hole and tore apart another to make for a great seal. Enough that TowBoat could come pick the boat up and tow it all the way to Comox. We now have a nerf football on board.
The second comes from a sailing friend. He takes along a ratty old storm jib. When there is a big hole in the boat you tie off lines on the clews and pull the sail tight over the hole (wrapping it around the hull). That gives you time to do interior measures like stuffing mattresses in the hole and other things. This technique comes from old sailing ships.
So if you are offshore, have no way to get inshore quickly, and have a hole big enough to worry about, other than all the calls to the right people, how do you staunch the flow? I bet there are folks in this forum with real world experience in this. So far, we have been lucky, but we now have a 4’ draft boat, which makes us nervous.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/03/20/sailboat-hits-whale-pacific-rescue/
That quickly sank a boat in the Pacific between the Galapagos and French Polynesia. It looks like the crew did everything they should (including famously staying on and with the boat until you basically step up into the life raft), but the boat sank so quickly they made no attempt to slow the inflow of water through the breach in the hull.
So what would you do and how would you prepare? We keep two things on board based on discussions with others. First is a nerf football. We have good friends who tore out their prop on a rock on the Sunshine Coast in BC (what they describe as a navigational “brain fart”) and began taking water through a baseball size hole. The Canadian Coast Guard showed up within a couple of hours and brought on nerf footballs. They stuffed them into the hole and tore apart another to make for a great seal. Enough that TowBoat could come pick the boat up and tow it all the way to Comox. We now have a nerf football on board.
The second comes from a sailing friend. He takes along a ratty old storm jib. When there is a big hole in the boat you tie off lines on the clews and pull the sail tight over the hole (wrapping it around the hull). That gives you time to do interior measures like stuffing mattresses in the hole and other things. This technique comes from old sailing ships.
So if you are offshore, have no way to get inshore quickly, and have a hole big enough to worry about, other than all the calls to the right people, how do you staunch the flow? I bet there are folks in this forum with real world experience in this. So far, we have been lucky, but we now have a 4’ draft boat, which makes us nervous.