Rescue at Sea Celebrity Summit

[lola2013]

A Christmas Miracle!

[kearney]

I thought that, too, but there must have been something wrong with the sails/mast. I would have tried to fashion a sort of canopy from the sails so they weren't sitting in the beating sun for 6 days.

Apparently they had no rudder, sails would not helped, also taking on water

[chengkp75]

Apparently they had no rudder, sails would not helped, also taking on water

 

While they may not have been able to go in the direction they wanted, and controlling a set direction would be difficult, they could have sailed with just sails to make some headway. Interesting that the boat reportedly sank shortly after taking the people off, which almost tells me that they scuttled the boat when they saw rescue imminent, as from the pictures the boat is nowhere near sinking at that time.

[donaldsc]

Apparently they had no rudder, sails would not helped, also taking on water

 

 

Wrong!! Do a Google search on "Can a Sailboat Steer Without a Rudder" and you will find that a GOOD sailor with the proper equipment on board can do it fairly easily. Check out this post - http://h260.com/rudder/rudderless_sailing/rudderless_sailing.htm - among numerous other hits. Also check out this article about a boat that sailed 1500 miles under control part of the time through force 7 winds w/o a rudder.

 

Now that issue of taking on water is another problem. The fact that they had no emergency radio equipment shows that they were clearly not good sailors. However, your statement that a rudder is necessary to control a sailboat was incorrect.

 

DON