Comments

rmack350 wrote on 2/1/2007, 9:05 AM
I doubt that many people know who Jim gray is. I didn't until the local news started running stories. Here is a link to his bio page at Microsoft:

http://research.microsoft.com/~Gray/

I think this may be of more interest to the Vegas users that are sailors than users in general. Jim sailed out of San Francisco Bay to the Farallon Islands to scatter his mother's ashes.

Evidently the search is going to be called off today:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/01/jim_gray_search_dropped/

I don't have the specifics but I think he sailed out solo in a 40'+ sailboat in good weather. I don't sail regularly but the times I've been out in comparable boats we've had things like autohelm and a diesel inboard that could keep running for several days. I suppose that if he weren't under sail then the boat could just keep heading out to see unguided for a few days.

Mr. Gray was a database pioneer. If you think about it, NLE systems are in good part databases so I'd say we probably owe him a bit of gratitude for his indirect contribution to the craft.

Rob Mack
epirb wrote on 2/1/2007, 2:15 PM
Awful strange that there is no signs of the vessel even, given the weather conditions,but as a sailor who has been in all sorts of conditions there are many possiblities, including that he and his vessel is safe. Although many a man overboard happen more often in calm conditions(complaicency).Makes me wonder ,a tech savy guy like that if he didnt have an EPIRB (no ,not me) aboard, I personaly would not go offshore w/o one. and many though not all have hydrostatic release and activation that will trigger them automaticly if the ship were to go down suddenly. But again Sooo many possiblties.
just hope for the best
Coursedesign wrote on 2/1/2007, 5:35 PM
...sailed out solo in a 40'+ sailboat in good weather

The ocean can be very unforgiving. Weather can change in minutes sometimes, and I have been in one situation when I was leaving Ventura, Calif. at 7am with perfect weather to go out to one of the Channel Islands, then only 30 miles out the weather got nasty very quickly. Large steel-hulled boat with two ocean-licensed captains, we still couldn't land at the island, not even any of the more extreme ways. Had to turn back.

The record for weather change for me otherwise was crossing a 100 foot wide channel between two islands, using a small boat with a 5hp outboard engine. I had done this crossing 50-100 times, so I was bit surprised to see "just another fair weather crossing of a 100 ft. channel" turn into a fight for survival in storm-whipped rain that quickly filled the boat and tossed it all over the place. The storm had more like 50,000 horsepower, and the only thing that saved me and the boat was some rocks that cut the wind a bit, and my ability to steer to any reasonably safe place that was a vector sum of my 5hp propulsion and that from the wind.

So it doesn't even take a few miles out to sea to create nasty weather.
Bill Ravens wrote on 2/2/2007, 5:43 AM
All it takes is a wee bit o'wind. I was sailing back from Avalon, a few years back. Clear day, lots of sun. Wind about 25 knots out of the north. I had a quartering sea, about 8 ft swells. MOST uncomfortable crossing of the San pedro Channel I've ever had. My dinky outboard on my 24 ft sloop was out of the water 1/2 the time. Barely missed getting blown into the Pacific Palisades and just made King Harbor. The wind clocks around westward as you approach the mainland, heading you if you're comin' up from the south.
Best part of the crossing was the marghuerita afterwards.
epirb wrote on 2/2/2007, 8:52 AM
just did a race a few weeks back, Ft lauderdale to Keywest.
25-30 knot winds, seas about 8ft ,little higher in the gulfstream.
Those conditions were not reall bad per se ....except we were doing it in a 60+ foot catamaran (one of the original Stars And Stripes Cats from the Americas Cup race in the 80's) .
This boat actuallty can create its own wind and exceed wind speed, weve done 25+ knots in as little as 10 knots of wind.
On this race with boat speeds averaging 25knots and many times over 32 knots we go thru the waves not over them. It was like being in a washing machine the whole time. When up fwd grinding on the jib winch you had to wear googles just to see and keep the salt from your eyes.

Good thing is we only had to endure it for 8 1/2 hours, seeing as we beat the previous record by 2 hours.
even though the boat has had a total refit last year and is built incredibly strong , they really build the Amr Cup boats to last for the 8 races(and some dont last that long).
Coursedesign wrote on 2/2/2007, 8:54 AM
My worst sailing back from Catalina was a wee bit unusual in a different way...

Nice sail outbound, 37' Ericson, anchored near Avalon and stayed there until Sunday morning.

Time to go home. But no wind. At all. A perfect mirror surface. Ah well, it will soon pick up no doubt. One hour. Two hours. Three hours. Four hours. Five hours.

Not even the tiniest ripple on the surface. It was clear that I would have to motor back to L.A. (MDR).

Started up the diesel, put it in gear and nothing happened. Tried every which way, but I could not get the drive shaft to engage. Stopped the engine, disassembled the gear linkage and found the problem. A worn-out link arm, and it was not field-repairable.

Hmmmm. The best McGyver I could muster was to use a piece of piano wire to jam the gear setting into reverse and keep it there.

I spent the rest of the day motoring that sailboat backwards (in reverse) from Catalina to Marina Del Rey, then all the way in through the channel to my dock.

You bet my sou'wester was pulled down low on my forehead as I did this, especially passing all the camera-snapping tourists sitting there sipping margaritas...