Sailing boat rescued by the Götheborg

https://www.gotheborg.se/news/rescue-of-sailing-boat/

by weinzierl • 3 years ago

526 138 3 years ago

matsemann2• 3 years ago

At least it wasn't Wasa showing up..

I've once sailed a smaller boat with a centerboard that didn't release. So similar to not having a rudder. Quite scary, everything else have a backup, but without that thing sticking out below the boat you're just drifting aimlessly around.

nixass• 3 years ago

At least it wasn't Wasa showing up..

*Vasa

erk__2• 3 years ago

Unless if it was a massive piece of crispbread.

Do you have any idea of why the spelling was changed if you look in older texts a lot of the time Wasa was was used.

checkyoursudo3• 3 years ago

In Swedish, the v and the w only became distinct pretty recently. There are still people alive today who don't know which to pick if they don't already know how a v-sounding word is spelled. Also, the same person might say "Vilma" one day and "Wilma" the next, just as an example of the confusion (and Wilma is their own daughter...) Also, also, I have had older Swedes be completely unable to hear a difference between v and (English-pronounced) w.

.<

hnarn4• 3 years ago

For anyone who doesn't know about the Vasa, you can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)

It was a Swedish warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 after making it less than a mile (1,3 km). It was salvaged in 1961 and is today one of Sweden's most famous tourist attractions.

matsemann2• 3 years ago

Think it's my favorite museum ever I have visited. Didn't think I would end up spending the whole day there when I was in Stockholm.

e40• 3 years ago

These ships are a wonder of human achievement. While on vacation in Mexico I was able to spend the day on a boat of a similar age—I don’t remember the details. It really connects one to the past.

phit_• 3 years ago

its a replica that was only build in 2005 https://www.gotheborg.se/about-gotheborg/about-the-ship/

DougN7• 3 years ago

And they let complete newbies (like me) sign on as crew for a week or two. It’s the adventure of a life time to work on board such an accurate replica. It was hand built - even the nails and ropes were hand built, using tools and techniques from the time period, which if I recall correctly took something like 10 years to research since much of that knowledge had been lost.

justinclift• 3 years ago

The next day, as we approached the French coast, we radioed for another boat to help us enter the port, but no one responded positively.

Wonder if that's a standard (or common) response, and why... ?

michaelt• 3 years ago

Presumably the norms for rendering aid are different when the ship is no longer in distress, and has been towed for two days.

bombcar3• 3 years ago

I also assume the sailors felt they'd taken enough of the Götheborg's time and were willing to pay for a launch to bring their ship in for repair (also presumably it would be quite hard for a large sailboat to drag a small one literally to port).

crossroadsguy• 3 years ago

This moment was very strange, and we wondered if we were dreaming. Where were we? What time period was it?

If only the rescue crew dressed the part they could have believed they somehow managed to time travel.

moffkalast• 3 years ago

Tbf, the average Götheborg deckhand looks like this so it's not far off https://i.imgur.com/Dc7QN5s.png

ineedasername5• 3 years ago

There a literally books written with nearly that exact premise for the plot

ajkjk• 3 years ago

Know the names?

Mistletoe2• 3 years ago

https://gotheborg.com/project/food.shtml

I found this post about what sailors ate on the original ship fascinating.

fmeyer• 3 years ago

Oh, it's going to be open for visiting in Hamburg this month.

renewiltord• 3 years ago

I have seen this same ship in so many countries. It's quite lovely and one day maybe I'll sail on it.

prmoustache• 3 years ago

So they have sails on the Götheborg, but aren't actually using them?

Basically it is a motorized indiaman.

Meh.

gambiting• 3 years ago

Really? In the first picture you can clearly see people sitting on the masts, what are they there for if not for setting up the sails?

hnarn4• 3 years ago

As you suspect, the post you're replying to is wrong.

cjblomqvist• 3 years ago

They are definitely using them, a lot (probably the majority of time).

(Source: I have a friend who have worked/sailed the ship multiple times)

bratwurst3000• 3 years ago

It was on the Mediterranean Sea. I am also a sailor and can testify that the Mediterranean Sea is the hardest to sail because of often changing wind direction. I assume that’s why the didn’t use sails while rescuing. I wouldn’t either.

wffurr• 3 years ago

They were in the English Channel. Brittany is in the north of France. The map in the post shows the Channel Islands.

They used the engine for the rescue to minimize time and safely approach the small boat close enough to heave a line.

Doing all that under sail, like the OP seems to think they should, wouldn’t just be extremely difficult, it would be dangerous and profoundly irresponsible.

Modern sailboats (as in since 1900) have auxiliary engines for a reason…

pjmlp• 3 years ago

That is why lateen sails came to be.

However they surely had their reasons for not using sails.

olodus2• 3 years ago

In the post they mention that Götheborg had to adapt it's speed to the boat being towed, which probably limited the larger vessels sail-usage.

As another poster here, I also have a friend who has been able to sail on Götheborg once. The ship definitely have usable sails that are used most of the time. If I understand it correctly the motor is to some degree there as a modern safety requirement (and possibly it makes handling in port much easier, I would guess - don't know personally).

ff_2• 3 years ago

There's also the thing that while modern keeled sailboats are able to sail well upwind, that is not the case for these classic vessels which have a much smaller/shallower keel, and have a lot of trouble upwind. So if the wind is not right and you're on a schedule then motoring is the only option.

bjelkeman-again• 3 years ago

I have sailed on the Oosterschelde (1918). One journey I was supposed to be on was cancelled as the diesel engine broke down and the insurance is not valid without a functional engine, even though we would sail 99% of the time.

The Oosterschelde once rescued a single sailor from his boat that was sinking in the middle of the Atlantic (I wasn’t on that trip).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oosterschelde_(ship)

bombcar3• 3 years ago

The Star of India is set to set sail in November; perhaps it can do something similar.

https://sdmaritime.org/visit/the-ships/star-of-india/

erk__2• 3 years ago

The Danish training ship Georg Stage is out a trip at the moment, I think they are on their way to the Faroe Islands.

https://georgstage.dk/english/

niklasjansson• 3 years ago

We had planned to have our wedding performed on Götheborg, it was all planned. We got a tour of the ship and discussed catering and so on.

Suddenly a few months prior to the wedding they ghosted us, until they finally decided we couldn't hire it after all. Maybe a covid thing.

Anyway, no bad feelings.

timonoko2• 3 years ago

Swedes are cheating as they always do. This sailship has a motor in it. https://photos.app.goo.gl/mXX4YiQ3u455YNni8

olodus2• 3 years ago

Good bait my guy. You have a wonderful day now.

belorn• 3 years ago

The original method is to use many smaller ships to guide and drag the ship to where it need to be whenever the sails are not suitable (that and wait for better weather conditions). If they had used this original method, the sailing boat would had been rescued by those ships.

timonoko2• 3 years ago

Yes. But what is the point of this ship if not fully restore the original look-and-feel of the era.

Satellite antenna in the mizzen mast is also an abomination. They should have dirty drawings from France instead of Pornhub.

jabl• 3 years ago

If they'd have used the "original" method, they wouldn't have any radio onboard either, so would never have gotten info about the sailing boat in distress. :)

FartyMcFarter• 3 years ago

I know nothing about sailing so this is probably wrong, but I was slightly surprised at the fact that the people on board the small boat didn't get rescued onto the Götheborg.

Given the concerns in the article about the size difference possibly causing problems, wouldn't that have been safer?

somat• 3 years ago

I suspect they were not in immediate danger, the small boats rudder was inoperative, so they had little to no steering control. I suspect mainly poising a navigation hazard for other boats in the area. What they needed, and got was a tow.

The funny thing is, they were grateful for the assistants of the Götheborg, but a bit incredulous that such a large ship would go out of it's way to help them. (they were also worried about the speed at first before learning it was a sailing ship_

ineedasername5• 3 years ago

such a large ship

It wasn’t quite the size that made it notable ;)

Jolter• 3 years ago

I think they were worried about speed because it was a large ship, regardless of propulsion method. I believe that the longer a sailing ship is, the faster it can sail. This affects the construction/dimensioning. So this small boat would have a hull that can withstand the seas at a certain speed, but might have trouble if towed faster. And they worried that a large sailboat, built to go quite a bit faster, might accidentally go too fast.

SapporoChris• 3 years ago

The towing was a fairly simple procedure and they could maintain a safe distance. Transporting crew between ships on the high sea would be a dangerous and complex task. They might not even have the equipment for it.

amelius• 3 years ago

Another advantage: you get to keep the boat ;)

ineedasername5• 3 years ago

I have a question. this is going to be a really uninformed question but keep in mind my knowledge of boat transfers come from movies and I don’t consider Pirates of the Caribbean authoritative on the topic.

What makes it so difficult, and what sort of special equipment is required?

I know, I know, cargo nets on the side of the ship are not going to be sufficient, easy as it looks in pop entertainment, I just don’t know why.

_ph_• 3 years ago

I don't know what were the reasons in that situation, but getting the two sailors safe from an uncontrolled vessle is not an easiy task. At least you would have the smaller vessle hit the larger. Depends of course on the weather conditions at the time. Sending over a line is much easier. Also, this would have meant abandoning the ship. Unless there is a present danger, it is easiest to tow the boat with the crew to the harbor.

ff_2• 3 years ago

Sailor here - an 8 meters boat is in that awkward spot where it's big/heavy enough that it can do damage if incontrollably drifting against something (e.g. the wooden vessel itself) but light enough that you can literally just push it with the strength of two people if that happens.

So I'd argue it's more safe to have some crew on it in case you need to be hands-on, and just talk over radio while being towed.

sandworm1013• 3 years ago

Do not attempt to push an 8-meter vessel by hand while at sea. Even a smallish 1-foot wave, when pushing against an 8-meter hull, can generate thousands of pound of force.

hnarn4• 3 years ago

I don't think it's specific to sailing. If you're towing a car, would you let the driver of that car get in your back seat?

Someone needs to be in control of the vehicle being towed, in case you need to break (if possible), change course (if possible), disconnect the tow (if possible), etc.

sandworm1013• 3 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6theborg_(ship)

Fysa, they almost certainly completed the rescue using their twin 500hp diesels rather than sail power. One sailboat towing another creates a host of sail/wind/wave issues. Almost every large sailing vessel, including historic replicas, has diesel engines for those times that sail is just too awkward.

UniverseHacker2• 3 years ago

I've towed under sail and it works fine if done properly... certainly it can be challenging and requires an experienced person at the helm of each boat, especially if going downwind or upwind.

In this case I am sure you are right, and the size difference would make towing under sail dangerous. A sudden gust enough to accelerate the larger boat to above the smaller boats hull speed could pull the smaller boat underwater quickly.

sandworm1013• 3 years ago

But in this case only one boat has a helm, the towed craft having lost its rudder.

Most dangerous IMHO is a wave that slows the large round hull but will not slow the smaller wave-piercing hull, sending it slamming into the stern.

SergeAx2• 3 years ago

On an open water moving under sails is not very different from moving under engine, except sailig boat deals better with waves because od stabilising effect of wind pressure. I often see how people under power hoist a mainsail for improved stability.

miniwark• 3 years ago

The two images in the article, taken from the rescued boat. Show indeed than the sails where probably not used. One of the photos even show the sailors at work wile they seems to furl one of the the sail.

Also, the road taken is interested. They could have go to one of the ports of the British islands, like St. Peter Port at Guernsey. But this would have been dangerous. This part of the English Chanel, is full of smalls rock islands, shoals and one of the most dangerous marine currents in the world : The Alderney Race (or Raz Blanchard in french).

kzrdude2• 3 years ago

They need engines to safely navigate close to port, I would think

btilly2• 3 years ago

The pictures from the towed boat verify this. The sails were reefed during the tow, which says that it wasn't wind that was supplying the power.

enos-ape• 3 years ago

Furthermore you see clearly in the pictures taken from the small boat that the engine coolant system of the Goetheburg is working, spilling out water. Thus the main engines are in action.

jiggywiggy2• 3 years ago

Just imagine in the 1500's deciding to set sail to Asia. Hardly having a map. No communication means, food that's not easy to store, nothing more then a compass and if lucky a shitty map. If things go wrong no one is coming to help. Wild times.

Was actually the reason they founded the Amsterdam stock market to spread & share the risk of the ships not returning.

I know many bad things happen at well, but it's still a very interesting perspective.

twic2• 3 years ago

This makes me think of this haunting 1919 painting of Elcano's return from the first circumnavigation of the earth in 1522:

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/gAXBe3j1qN_gLQ

jacquesm2• 3 years ago

What an incredibly moving picture and story. Thank you.

oh_sigh• 3 years ago

Those are the faces of men who wished they stayed in Brazil.

srj• 3 years ago

I can't imagine how the polynesians discovered Hawaii. Sailing thousands of miles in a small wooden boat and finding a speck of land in the pacific ocean.

wpietri• 3 years ago

Polynesian navigational techniques are very interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_navigation

asdfman123• 3 years ago

Apparently they could sink their double-hulled canoes into the water a little if storms hit so they didn’t get the full brunt of the waves.

cjrp• 3 years ago

Also why things like Lloyds of London started; to insure the risk of ships not returning.

jiggywiggy2• 3 years ago

Yeah seems to be one of the foundational pieces of modern finance

tempodox• 3 years ago

Wow, that ship is gorgeous.

javajosh• 3 years ago

Wonderful story of comraderie on the high seas. It's one of the best things about cruising. Its as close to space travel as you're going to get, and you really stop taking humans for granted out there.

I've been sailing my whole life, but never lost a rudder (thank God!). With dinghy racing (as opposed to cruising) it's common to learn how to steer without the rudder, using the trim of the sails and your weight in the boat. You can minimize rudder pressure on cruising sailboat too (again, useful for maximizing speed), but I'd be curious to know more about the limits of what you can do. There are probably some points of sail that work better without a rudder than others. (This is only even theoretically possible because the jib and main can rotate the boat, and the keel will still allow forward motion.)

But yeah, theory aside, 'losing a mast or rudder' level catastrophes like this basically require rescue.

roflyear3• 3 years ago

I've lost a rudder but on a small boat in a river. We made it back under our own efforts but was hairy.

Mavvie• 3 years ago

I've only ever done river sailing (including some intentional rudderless sailing), but I imagine in the open seas rudderless sailing isn't really feasible (at least in some conditions). Waves might make it impossible on their own.

mhb• 3 years ago

Rebuilding Tally Ho: https://youtu.be/4FhTu3aGM60

Description

I’m on a mission to rebuild a 1910 English sailing yacht called Tally Ho. Designed by Albert Strange in 1909, she is a well-known and important historic vessel – but after many adventures she was left in a remote port in Oregon to rot for decades, despite some valiant attempts to rescue her. I bought her and moved her to the Olympic Peninsular earlier this year, and am now rebuilding her from the keel up. Eventually I hope to sail her back to the UK.

guynamedloren• 3 years ago

I was entranced by this project from the very first episode 5 years ago! I followed along for maybe a year or so, and haven’t caught any updates since.

Happy to see the project (and channel) is still going strong. Such an incredible endeavor!

jacquesm2• 3 years ago

That whole series is absolutely incredible, when I saw the first episode I was sure he'd let it go because it was just too much work, basically a complete rebuild. But then he pulled the trigger on it and is making really amazing progress. One of the most impressive projects I've every followed.

ineedasername5• 3 years ago

Not the worst consolation prize to have an experience like this & story to tell after undergoing such a dangerous and potentially life threatening ordeal.

ytdytvhxgydvhh• 3 years ago

Would one receive a bill in a situation like this? To cover the cost of lost time and/or extra diesel burned? Or is it purely out of the goodness of the hearts of the management of the towing vessel?

callamdelaney3• 3 years ago

Not to my knowledge, and certainly not for boats like the small yacht being towed here. The idea is that if the it happened to you someone else would help.

notahacker• 3 years ago

And sometimes what goes around comes around happens quicker than expected!

Different scale, different waterways, but a couple of weeks after spending half an hour dragging a boat off a fallen tree, I got a tow off a trip boat full of people eating Christmas dinner after losing power in the middle of the Thames...

willyt• 3 years ago

Potentially. From the wikipedia article on ‘Marine salvage’:

All vessels have an international duty to give reasonable assistance to other ships in distress in order to save life, but there is no obligation to try to salve the vessel. Any offer of salvage assistance may be refused; but if it is accepted a contract automatically arises to give the successful salvor the right to a reward under the 1989 Convention.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_salvage

callamdelaney3• 3 years ago

It's worth knowing that in a bind you can fashion a rudder out of a line and a bucket.

StarlaAtNight• 3 years ago

Huh?

callamdelaney3• 3 years ago

Yes, the first line of the article. The rudder on the yacht fell off, so they were towed. In the middle of the pacific, the likelihood of a tow is low. In that case, you can fashion a rudder out of a line and a bucket.

rigmarole• 3 years ago

The drag introduced by the bucket would help align your boat as a makeshift drogue. If you can find a way to rig it up so you can adjust the angle from port to starboard, you could very roughly steer.

SergeAx2• 3 years ago

Spinnaker boom and a head door, to be precise.

codetrotter• 3 years ago

Goated!

startuprabbit• 3 years ago

Wow that's awesome

Sailing boat rescued by the Götheborg

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