We know that the Nina was Dancing With A Gale and finding her dance partner not particularly to her liking. I would not want to characterize the Nina's contacts with the volunteer meteorologist as acts of desperation but it does bespeak a certain urgency of purpose. Clearly the electronics were not working too well since the final text was never sent. If at 6:00pm the Nina were still afloat her electronics may have deteriorated even more. It seems spray would be the first thought at to cause though I do imagine there could well be other reasons for signal strength to be so close to background noise that the message would not be sent.
Shipping lanes and known AIS signals have never been plotted, this seems strange. Later storms have not been plotted for the correct area. A number of events could have taken place that would have allowed little time for deployment of the EPIRP but one wonders: these were experienced blue water sailors, they had life lines, life vests, knives.
Experienced blue water sailors, with two inexperienced deckhands aboard, would still know to go over emergency procedures and would have focused their attention on freeing the EPIRB from its bracket and turning it on. There would have been lifelines tied to all aboard though the wise sailor always has a knife to cut his lifeline if he really and truly needs to. Loss of the garboards, the strakes closest to the keel, has been suggested though no particular reason has ever been given. This catastrophic event would have capsized the Nina, possibly flooding it first. Even at nighttime there would have been time for the EPIRB before people started severing their life lines and hoping to get to a life raft.
How securely are life rafts stowed? No use losing it just before you need it but usually they do have quick release mechanisms of some sort.
French satellite data might be more useful than commercial satellite data, particularly since France and New Zealand have rather strained relations. RCCNZ had a poor record with a search for an eleven meter steel hulled sloop yet this would be an excellent radar and thermal signature for search missions.
We all remember the Norwegian sailboat that made it from Bermuda to Ireland without ever being spotted despite various Coast Guard and satellite searches. They never turned on their radio so as to save the battery strength and altered course slightly due to initial storm damage in Bermuda waters. It was a small boat in a big ocean. The Nina, on the other hand, has an EPIRB and is well over due by now, so there is little real expectation that she is still afloat even if capsized.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
NZRCC and International Cooperation
Regarding the S/V Nina:
Most rescue coordination centers merely make use of military assets such as a P3 Orion long-range submarine patrol plane. The exact equipment aboard is not revealed. Now, I will admit there are not very many submarines approaching New Zealand with hostile intent. Its been a long time since the French paid a few visits to New Zealand in preparation for the voyage of Rainbow Warrior.
The long range marine surveillance flights are conducted for military purposes but the major effort right now is smuggling interdiction: drugs and refugees from the poverty and political instability in the area. Even with drugs, a good portion of the drugs smuggled into New Zealand waters are merely transshipped to richer markets in Australia. All nations wish to protect their fisheries and marine economic zones from premature depletion or fouling by ships that violate the laws of the sea.
Some searches for submersibles requires looking almost directly downward whereas searching for a dis-masted yacht is often done from an oblique angle. Searches can be in different areas of the spectrum so as to enhance contrasts.
The major point is that only a small portion of the Orion capabilities will be known to the RCC and a far smaller fragment of that information will ever be released by it.
Raw data from radar scans are unlikely to be shared. Algorithms for drift induced by winds or currents are not likely to be shared.
Most rescue coordination centers merely make use of military assets such as a P3 Orion long-range submarine patrol plane. The exact equipment aboard is not revealed. Now, I will admit there are not very many submarines approaching New Zealand with hostile intent. Its been a long time since the French paid a few visits to New Zealand in preparation for the voyage of Rainbow Warrior.
The long range marine surveillance flights are conducted for military purposes but the major effort right now is smuggling interdiction: drugs and refugees from the poverty and political instability in the area. Even with drugs, a good portion of the drugs smuggled into New Zealand waters are merely transshipped to richer markets in Australia. All nations wish to protect their fisheries and marine economic zones from premature depletion or fouling by ships that violate the laws of the sea.
Some searches for submersibles requires looking almost directly downward whereas searching for a dis-masted yacht is often done from an oblique angle. Searches can be in different areas of the spectrum so as to enhance contrasts.
The major point is that only a small portion of the Orion capabilities will be known to the RCC and a far smaller fragment of that information will ever be released by it.
Raw data from radar scans are unlikely to be shared. Algorithms for drift induced by winds or currents are not likely to be shared.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
S/V Nina Lost while attempting to transit the Tasman Sea
A sleek re-built racing schooner that had not been out of the water for several years was delayed by five weeks due to a need for a new engine to be installed. As far as is known there was no shakedown voyage for the engine and its fittings but the owner was a noted marine contractor and no such shakedown voyage would normally be needed.
Sailed to "dance with atleast two of the three gales" that awaited them. It seems the second storm shredded their stormsails and left them with bare poles but making four knots to the northwest intending to update a position report at six pm.
We force the Amish to affix bright orange displays to their antiquated buggies, can't we force yachties to update their equipment to a certain required minimum. As sportsmen they may value the old ways of bare bones sailing. One hydrostaticaly activated EPIRB and at least we would know where and when it happened.
Its different for a 73 year old woman since she has already made her mark on the world but an 18 year old photography model and student just starting out in the world has the same fate imposed on her: no more dance clubs, no more boyfriends, no more photography. And this imposition is due to the Captain's decision to eschew modern electronic doodads costing but a few hundred dollars.
Sailed to "dance with atleast two of the three gales" that awaited them. It seems the second storm shredded their stormsails and left them with bare poles but making four knots to the northwest intending to update a position report at six pm.
We force the Amish to affix bright orange displays to their antiquated buggies, can't we force yachties to update their equipment to a certain required minimum. As sportsmen they may value the old ways of bare bones sailing. One hydrostaticaly activated EPIRB and at least we would know where and when it happened.
Its different for a 73 year old woman since she has already made her mark on the world but an 18 year old photography model and student just starting out in the world has the same fate imposed on her: no more dance clubs, no more boyfriends, no more photography. And this imposition is due to the Captain's decision to eschew modern electronic doodads costing but a few hundred dollars.
Monday, July 8, 2013
S/V Nina: Davy Jones Locker. Rest In Peace.
Scandalous accusations made in barely literate article in Northern Advisor:
>It is presumed the classic yacht, which left Opua with seven people
>on board on May 29, sank in a storm it was battling on June 4
>when its last message was received.
Factually erronious in several respects.
>The seaworthiness of the 85-year-old yacht is now being questioned.
Not by anyone of any common sense its not! And absolutely no one had better question the seamanship of those sailors. They eschew modern electronic doo dads for a reason!
>And the owner of another overseas sailboat has been stopped from
>leaving the Bay of Islands because his yacht is considered unsafe.
No, he has been stopped for purely bureaucratic reasons so as to make headlines and reap more money in needless examination fees.
>The Rescue Co-ordination Center formally ended the search for the
>Nina on Saturday.
No, it ended active searching and arbitrarily presumed the vessel was lost but is still receiving information.
The main problem was the mis-determination of the areas that were to be searched.
On board the 21-metre schooner when it left Opua were Americans skipper David Dyche III, 58, his wife Rosemary, 60, their son David Dyche IV, 17, Evi Nemeth, computer scientist and navigator, 73, Kyle Jackson, Nebraska vagabond and deckhand, 27, Danielle Wright, Louisiana photography model and deckhand, 18, and Briton Matthew Wootton, 35 a vagabond-journalist and deckhand.
>The last message was Was missing Nina seaworthy?
Pure utter nonsense.
>If it [locator beacon] had [been on] we'd know where they were
>within 10 to 15 minutes.
Yes, that is why emergency beacons are not on unless there is danger. Imminent danger of sinking, not merely a difficult situation. Some beacons deploy and activate rather easily older models have to be manually activated and deployed. That does not make them museum pieces or antiques.
>Experts are now saying the schooner was unseaworthy
Absurd. What experts? The owner retired from his own maritime construction firm. He knew and respected boats all his life. Why would he sail on an unseaworthy boat much less take his wife and son and family friends and crew along with him? Do you think he was foolishly uncaring about the life of 18 year old Danielle Wright who although familiar with blue water sailing was more interested in photography, boys and beaches. Take a look at Evi Nesmeth's yacht, still in New Zealand. Is it unseaworthy? Is she incompetent to judge a boat as being well found? She joined the Nina and she is not blind to nautical defects just because she is 73.
> and that skipper David Dyche III did not favour modern technology.
Many skippers favor classical sailing just as many people in New Zealand reject modern technology.
>The yacht had no long-range radio
Many yachts do not. It often forces the owner to be extra careful.
>its emergency locator beacon had not been switched on.
Thus indicating that whatever happened took place so suddenly there was no time to activate the beacon or that those on board felt that their situation no matter how difficult was not yet desperate enough that it merited the activation of an EPIRB.
>former mayor Russ Rimmington: the Nina looked good above the waterline, but
So you think an expert craftsman was fooled by this? You think a passerby was more alert than the owner who had restored the boat himself? Perhaps the former mayor is ever so much the politician with a weather eye out for publicity and power grabs.
The situations with the Iridium is that in dry weather and over land it gives a good position report. The SPOT has been referred to as a toy but that is a bit extreme. The Evi position report to Weatherman Bob should have been accepted by NZRCC.
>It is presumed the classic yacht, which left Opua with seven people
>on board on May 29, sank in a storm it was battling on June 4
>when its last message was received.
Factually erronious in several respects.
>The seaworthiness of the 85-year-old yacht is now being questioned.
Not by anyone of any common sense its not! And absolutely no one had better question the seamanship of those sailors. They eschew modern electronic doo dads for a reason!
>And the owner of another overseas sailboat has been stopped from
>leaving the Bay of Islands because his yacht is considered unsafe.
No, he has been stopped for purely bureaucratic reasons so as to make headlines and reap more money in needless examination fees.
>The Rescue Co-ordination Center formally ended the search for the
>Nina on Saturday.
No, it ended active searching and arbitrarily presumed the vessel was lost but is still receiving information.
The main problem was the mis-determination of the areas that were to be searched.
On board the 21-metre schooner when it left Opua were Americans skipper David Dyche III, 58, his wife Rosemary, 60, their son David Dyche IV, 17, Evi Nemeth, computer scientist and navigator, 73, Kyle Jackson, Nebraska vagabond and deckhand, 27, Danielle Wright, Louisiana photography model and deckhand, 18, and Briton Matthew Wootton, 35 a vagabond-journalist and deckhand.
>The last message was Was missing Nina seaworthy?
Pure utter nonsense.
>If it [locator beacon] had [been on] we'd know where they were
>within 10 to 15 minutes.
Yes, that is why emergency beacons are not on unless there is danger. Imminent danger of sinking, not merely a difficult situation. Some beacons deploy and activate rather easily older models have to be manually activated and deployed. That does not make them museum pieces or antiques.
>Experts are now saying the schooner was unseaworthy
Absurd. What experts? The owner retired from his own maritime construction firm. He knew and respected boats all his life. Why would he sail on an unseaworthy boat much less take his wife and son and family friends and crew along with him? Do you think he was foolishly uncaring about the life of 18 year old Danielle Wright who although familiar with blue water sailing was more interested in photography, boys and beaches. Take a look at Evi Nesmeth's yacht, still in New Zealand. Is it unseaworthy? Is she incompetent to judge a boat as being well found? She joined the Nina and she is not blind to nautical defects just because she is 73.
> and that skipper David Dyche III did not favour modern technology.
Many skippers favor classical sailing just as many people in New Zealand reject modern technology.
>The yacht had no long-range radio
Many yachts do not. It often forces the owner to be extra careful.
>its emergency locator beacon had not been switched on.
Thus indicating that whatever happened took place so suddenly there was no time to activate the beacon or that those on board felt that their situation no matter how difficult was not yet desperate enough that it merited the activation of an EPIRB.
>former mayor Russ Rimmington: the Nina looked good above the waterline, but
So you think an expert craftsman was fooled by this? You think a passerby was more alert than the owner who had restored the boat himself? Perhaps the former mayor is ever so much the politician with a weather eye out for publicity and power grabs.
The situations with the Iridium is that in dry weather and over land it gives a good position report. The SPOT has been referred to as a toy but that is a bit extreme. The Evi position report to Weatherman Bob should have been accepted by NZRCC.
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