Microburst sinks 188' "tall ship"

[Doryman]

Read all about it HERE.

Warren

[El and Bill]

Whew - they kept their cool, knew what to do, and what could have been a horrible disaster was an example of preparedness and helping each other.

[starcrafttom]

Great story and interesting ship/ school program.
I have always said that you will preform exactly as you where trained for better or worse. That many kids getting into suits and the rafts without a loss says volumes about the ships drills that must have been preformed and about her crew.

[thataway]

There is a fairly long history of "tall ships" being lost due to sudden bursts of wind. The 'Pride of Baltimore" is one example. There are a number of thers.

If you look back in tall ship history, the spars were stayed with hemp rope. As the lines stretched, the top masts gave way and went over the side. Many ships carrled extra top masts. This was some what of a safety factor. With the modern masts (steel or aluminum, instead of wood) and steel rigging, the ship goes over-and sinks.

These ships are also considerably different than the traditional sailing yacht, which has positive stability because of a very heavy lead keel. Often these modern "sailing ships" which rely more on hull form--reduce sail in any heavy breeze, and continue under power--rather than risk a capsize (Keeling?--they mean heeling)

Certainly all did what they were susposed to, and no one was lost. I assume that this happend during daytime. Loss of life has often occured with ships party were trapped below decks.

But it is always sad to see one of the few remaining tall ships lost.

Incidently I would suggest that C Brats take a look at the Los Angeles Maritime Institute http://www.lamitopsail.org/LAMI/index.html
This is a program started by Jim Gleason and the goal is to take as many school age children sailing as possible each year on smaller tall ships. It has had a huge impact on many lives and is one of the programs we strongly support.