NavList:

Those who draw pleasure from the misfortunes of others may find the
following story of interest It was reported with pictures on the same
page of July issue of Practical Boat Owner as my recent quote about
Gypsy Moth IV.

Back in April, it was reported in the UK news and TV that a brand-new
47 ft. Beneteau yacht, valued at £250,000 (about $400,000) had run
into the cliffs at Anvil Point, on the Dorset coast.

That is a headland I know well, with sheer vertical cliffs about 150
ft. high, just a few miles from my home port of Poole. That part of
the English Channel coast is steep-to, with no hazards off the coast,
right up to the foot of the cliffs, with fallen boulders underwater
confined to within a boatlength or so of the cliff foot.

At the top of the cliff is a large lighthouse, but it appears that the
event occurred in broad daylight, and in fine weather. Editorial
comment states that the new owner had recently taken sailing lessons
but his girlfriend/crew was a novice. They were heading East along the
coast, for Lymington in the Solent, with a fair tide, in a moderate
southwesterly breeze. Reports stated that the owner had gone below "to
check his GPS". His course to the Solent would take him parallel to
the line of cliffs, with no reason at all for any close approach.

The couple were able to scramble onto the rocks at the base of the
cliff, and an inflatable lifeboat from Swanage was quickly on the
scene to take off the owner, but his crew was "not confident enough to
follow him into the lifeboat", so a helicopter was summoned, with a
winchman to lift her away. At some risk to all, presumably; close to
that cliff is no place to be swinging helicopter blades. The vessel
was destroyed.

So the question arises, how could such a collision with those cliffs
possibly happen? Was there anyone on any sort of watch? Why on earth
would anyone be fiddling with his GPS at such a spot? Nobody seems to
be admitting to anything. I suspect that the GPS fiddling had a lot to
do with it. Was the vessel on self-steering, to a course set by the
GPS? Had he done something to alter the next waypoint? Did she know
how to disconnect any self-steering in an emergency, and con by hand?
This may have been an electronically-assisted accident; and if so,
probably not the first, by any means.

Truly, there are those around with more money than sense. Those of us
that claim, for one reason or another, to have money and sense in a
different ratio, have reason to worry about this trend. It brings
closer the prospect of regulation, with the aim of weeding out such
folly. That aim is unlikely to succeed, but we will all get caught up
in its clutches.

George.

contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.



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