Lost at Sea: The Perils of
Abandoning Ship

The story below, based on the individual accounts in the BoatU.S. Marine Insurance claim files by each of the five-member crew, documents the loss of a 30-foot sailboat bound for Bermuda in the early 1980s. It illustrates not only the well-documented risks of sailing offshore, but also the considerable difficulty of abandoning a small boat in a raging storm.

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In This Issue . ..

BOAT PROJECTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
ETHANOL MYTHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
TOWING HEROES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
BYE-BYE WINTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
TORNADOES AND WATERSPOUTS. . . . 16
*The BoatU.S. Damage Avoidance Program is
dedicated to helping you enjoy accident-free boating.
Seaworthy looks at real claims and how they might
have been avoided. Material in Seaworthy may be
reprinted with credit to “Seaworthy, the BoatU.S.
Marine Insurance and Damage Avoidance Report.”
The first night at sea
was pleasant and
uneventful, with no
hint of what lay in store
for the five-man crew,
as their 30-foot sloop
sped quietly away from
the Virginia Capes on
a southeasterly course
toward Bermuda.
Winds were out of the
north at about 15 knots.
The sky was clear.

After sunrise, the northerly breeze began to fade and by 0800, it had clocked toward the south. The wind built again during the day and by early evening it was gusting to 15 knots out of the southeast. Despite the unfavorable wind shift, the crew’s spirits remained high. According to the watch’s report that night, seas were building and it was foggy and very dark.

Tuesday morning the sky was cloudy and the wind was steady at about 15 knots. At 1400, the watch decided to drop the genoa and sail with a reefed main and working jib. About an hour after the foresail change, the mainsheet traveler broke and the boom swung jarringly out to leeward. Although the traveler was soon repaired, it was decided to drop the main and sail under the jib alone. By 1700, the wind was gusting to well over 20 knots. One of the crew noted that evening the sky looked like the inside of an oyster shell.