Whale Strike!! What if you HIT A WHALE with a Sail boat? (Tips from the Pros #3/P. Childress #53)

Patrick Childress Sailing

Sailboats, whales...When a Whale hits a sailboat, what do you do? Does a sailboat instantly sink when it’s hit by a whale? When a sailboat hits a whale, what precautions can you take? Whale strikes have led to a sinking sailboat, rudders being damaged, as well as injured and dead whales from being hit by a ship. What if your sailboat is hit by a whale, while crossing an ocean? This is a video about what to do after a Whale crash, or whale strikes by rna sailin sailboats, boats,sailboats, and powerboats while crossing an ocean,or while sailing around the world on a cruising sailboat. What precautions to avoid hitting a whale, can you take. What are the migration routes of whales and sailboats? Guest appearance by Hank Schmitt from Offshore Passage Opportunities (https://www.sailopo.com/h1.aspx? ) who after 250,000 sea miles, finally experienced a whale strike at night. He demonstrates what he checks on his Swan sailboat to make sure everything is OK, and that his sailboat isn’t going to sink. Patrick talks about such books as the Heart of the Sea, the Sailing boat Essex, Moby Dick and other boats that have been attacked by whales, and the sailboat sinks after being hit by a whale. Two books that Patrick spoke about in the video about sailboats being sunk by whales, and the survival of those sailors after the whale strike at sea. Survive the Savage Sea : https://amzn.to/2PUdBKR 117 Days Adrift : https://amzn.to/33tK4eY Video about the above : https://youtu.be/0qiuql_P2dI We have a liferaft, 3ACR EPIRBs, and the SOS button on our Iridium GO goes to Geos Safety Solutions (https://www.geossafetysolutions.com/). Hopefully we never end up in a liferaft from a whale attack (or anything else!) ▬▬ FOLLOW ALONG! ▬▬ ✩Instagram: http://www.Instagram.com/svBrickHouse ✩ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SYBrickhouse ✩ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SVBrickhouse ✩Our blog: :http://www.WhereIsBrickHouse.com ✩Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/PatrickChildress ✩Tshirts and other: https://www.WhereIsBrickHouse.com/store Wish we were on Patreon? We aren’t...but you can support us in 5 other ways: 🍯(Tip Jar) http://whereisbrickhouse.com/tip-jar/ ⛵️ TWO FREE SAILING COURSES: http://whereisbrickhouse.com/sailing-school ⏩Start your Amazon shopping here: https://amzn.to/2K9MmuA ⏩ Start your West Marine Shopping here: http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-8942237-13739708?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westmarine.com%2Fbuy%2Fraymarine--axiom-pro-12-rvx-multifunction-display--18561654&cjsku=18561654 Much of the most beautiful whale footage in this sailing vlog is credited to: Multicopter Maui -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoqxmahaY8OHStKTkZm9KWg -Video Source :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOMpCDuj_Lw License: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://www.youtube.com/attribution?v=KV1XSxkNCl4 and English: Humpback whales in the singing position. Humpback Whale NMS. DateMarch 2005 or earlierSourceNOAA Photo Library: sanc0602AuthorDr. Louis M. Herman. ✩Tshirts and other: https://www.WhereIsBrickHouse.com/store #sailingAfrica #PatrickChildressSailing #TravelsAnimals

Whale Strike!! What if you HIT A WHALE with a Sail boat? (Tips from the Pros #3/P. Childress #53) 421 3

Sailing 4 years ago 3,476 views

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for Whale Strike!! What if you HIT A WHALE with a Sail boat? (Tips from the Pros #3/P. Childress #53)

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Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Please let us know in the comments below...we would like to know just how common whale strikes are on boats...
Have you ever hit a whale on a boat? Could it have been avoided? Did it do any damage to your boat?

Joe Gaun - 4 years ago

I'd love to see a video of reefing sails in big water. I'm new sailer which the rest of ya probably have a funny term for but i bet there are things that make or break the situation.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Go to the list of videos and check out #34,36,37,38. Also #41, the first Tips From the Pros, has reefing information. One of these days we will be sailing along the coast of Africa to round the southern tip to reach Cape Town then on to cross the Atlantic to Uruguay. Maybe then, we will get some more stormy sailing.

tod mills - 4 years ago

I read the Bailey's book back around 1976 or 7, when I was a teen.

Interestingly, Maurice wrote an article for one of the magazines, either SAIL or Cruising World, and he seemed to have divided boating history roughly into two eras: before his sinking, and after his sinking, with cruising being much simpler with regards to dealing with government bureaucracies (customs & immigration) before his sinking. He seemed rather negative about post-sinking experiences with them.

Joe Gaun - 4 years ago

very cool video.. So what do you do when you hit a cargo container in the middle of night. How often are containers being struck? I'm guessing they float low in the water and would be difficult to see? Thank you

Joe Gaun - 4 years ago

the thought is terrifying,

André - 4 years ago

An English couple coming from the caraibas to UK, hit a whale and only had time to throw the lifeguard and jump in, stayed three days, without food, water and communicase, by miracle were seen by a Portuguese aviation patrolling this area, asked for a freighter to divert the route and collect this couple, were saved, and, bought a sailboat in aluminio! but the biggest problem is containers, tree trunks, and abandoned sailboats! I leave this video of some beasts from Scandinavian who abandoned a swan nautor! this sailboat appeared 6 months later on the English coast!!! AHHHH, while rescuing these beasts from Scandinavian, a French sailboat sank (in total were Three to sink) were rescued by a Spanish fishing boat, but the Frenchman watched his six-year-old daughter die in her arms! The beasts of Scandinavian, not a scratch had! The video of the rescue of the beasts of Scandinavians: https://youtu.be/BROhwd3VMKs
The state of the sailboat after six months when it went to give the coast of the UK:
https://www.searchmagazine.se/artiklar/tbt-Övergivna-swan-44-an-kolibri-på-drift-i-sex-månader_7805.htm

John Gagne - 4 years ago

Hello Patrick and Hank! Another excellent video. I was reflecting on our trip to the Caribbean. That was a great trip indeed! The sleep deprivation I experienced made me miserable for sure but I believe I needed another 10 days to get my body adjusted. Me and my son did allot of coastal sailing this year. I can't wait to go again! Keep up the good work!

Daniel Oliver - 4 years ago

I just read the responses to other's whale encounters, very interesting stuff, take care crew of Brick house.

Bill Mead - 4 years ago

When I was in the Coast Guard we hit a whale in the Gulf of Maine with our 82' steel hull patrol boat. It was keeping pace with us about 50 yards to starboard for several minutes, surfacing on a constant rhythm. All of a sudden it stopped surfacing and we didn't see it for several minutes.......then there was the bump from below! We stopped immediately and saw it surface on the port side and continue off in that direction apparently unharmed. It sure scared he napping captain in the cabin below!

Will Toms - 4 years ago

Sound travels 4.3 times faster in water than air which makes it very difficult for a diver to tell which direction a power boat might be approaching from. I personally find that experience very anxiety producing when coming to the surface. If the boat is far away I can usually tell but the closer it get the greater the anxiety since it’d likely be moving faster than I can see to avoid. I don’t know what would work to avoid whales other than a watch on the bow in likely whale waters.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

It always comes back to using your eyes...like so many things about sailing! -Rebecca

10. comment for Whale Strike!! What if you HIT A WHALE with a Sail boat? (Tips from the Pros #3/P. Childress #53)

Eric haskell - 4 years ago

Are container strikes more common then whale strikes?

Eric haskell - 4 years ago

Let us all hope that once is it, no matter what. It is of some interest that the Hugo Boss Vende Globe boat struck an unknown object within the last week and this encounter removed their keel. Ouch.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Patrick can weigh in on this too, but personally in 25+ years of sailing, I’ve never known anyone first or second hand that has hit a container. But we know countless people who have hit whales, but not with huge damage or sinking of the boat. We don’t know anyone who has been attacked by a whale. We haven’t known anyone to even see a container off of a container ship or portside, never mind hit one. It’s all possible. But my feeling is whales are more common than containers, at least on our route so far. -Rebecca

JAFO - 4 years ago

Playing music to alert whales to your presence may not quite have the desired effect.. Both Hugo 'The Sailing Frenchman' and Patrick Laine have found that electronic music compositions by the artist 'Rone' actually attracted whales to their boats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4pjmmUUPlo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaYSeJHrJlo&t=213

bertkutoob - 4 years ago

Invited by a friend to a day sail out of Richards Bay on "Gedore" (Tosca 38) in November 1986 we jumped at the chance. A couple of hours later and our being out of sight of land, Hazel (then 7½ months pregnant and turning greener with every passing moment) was pleasantly distracted by the pair of humpbacks which had decided that tailgating us was a fun idea.

Until one of them misjudged its following distance and the tailgating turned into a tailender...

Well, Hazel went greener while the rest of us instantly turned a whiter shade of pale... Fortunately the humpbacks decided that they'd had their fun and overtook us, one to starboard and the other passing beneath. I swear the one to starboard gave me a wink.

Hazel has not been on anything that floats since....She did forgive the mate who'd invited us, who became the Godfather of our daughter born 1½ months later (sadly RIP John Crossland)...

My daughter (now 33) still refuses to eat any seafood...

bertkutoob - 4 years ago

@Patrick Childress Sailing

And every word of it the honest truth... other than that Hazel has reminded me that while I might have jumped at the opportunity to venture on the briny deep, she was dragged on board, kicking and screaming.

I remain unforgiven...

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

That is A hell of of a good whale tale Bert! I can see that eye now! Patrick talks of a similar eyeball ;) -Rebecca

S/V Tattoo - 4 years ago

I've had whales and whale sharks rub against the hull, but thankfully never struck one. I've hit a piece of wood approximately the size of a railroad tie, and that was scary enough. I think it would be a good idea to make a video about how to deal with hull punctures. In many cases the boat can be saved, but seconds count when water is rushing into the boat. The two stories you mentioned are incredible stories of survival at sea, but should never happen again thanks to the availability of EPIRB's. Does the Brickhouse crew have a plan to deal with hull punctures? Do you have an EPIRB or similar device? Thanks for making this informative mini series. I'm looking forward to the next video.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Thanks SV Tatoo! Yes, that’s A good idea! It would be a little tough to do and make interesting because it’s tough to simulate water gushing in ;) But I guess it could just be similar to this one. It would probably be different between different boats and different situations...but yes, that would be an interesting one.
Yes, we have 3 EPIRBS, and the SOS button on our Iridium GO Is programmed to call GEOS Safety Solutions (https://www.geossafetysolutions.com/) if we were to press it, which would coordinate with our EPIRB etc etc.
I agree...nobody should be in a Liferaft for that long now with the advent of EPIRBs, unless it all just happens so fast to get anything in which case, you probably don’t even get the liferaft!
In our opinion, having numerous EPIRBS is really important. All of ours are from ACR (Artex I think is the new name I think), and we faithfully replace batteries in them as scheduled. We have one for longer dinghy rides, and hiking, one for the ditch bag, and one on our stern arch ready to go.
Thanks for your comment and ideas! -Rebecca

Ray McLaughlin - 4 years ago

We were hit by a whale about three hours out of Isabela Island, Galapagos heading for Fatu Hiva, French Polynesia on our 32 foot sailboat at about 3 in the afternoon. We were slowly motor sailing, steering by hand when we first felt a bump, then a very hard hit from the side where we actually went sideways, then took a third hit on our port side when the fluke hit the side of the boat as the whale dove. The fluke broke a weld in our barbeque which was mounted on stern pulpit and got me wet hanging on the wheel with white knuckled grip. After I pried my hands off the wheel we checked for leakage and full rudder movement then carried on.

Over a month later diving on the boat in Fatu Hiva to remove goose neck barnacles I had forgotten all about the whale and was puzzled to find a 1 foot strip of bottom paint missing on the port side of the encapsulated lead keel right down to the epoxy undercoat. We were very lucky the whale didn't hit us 10 feet further aft or our trip would have been over right there. The boat is a 1975 production Bristol we have had since new.

Ray and Marilyn
s/v Horizon

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Yours is a story of luck! Could have very easily been another survival story. I have sailed that same route twice. The first time in a 27 foot boat. West of the Galapagos, there was a huge whale, as long as my boat, that came right up to my starboard, no more than 3 feet away, and stayed there. Talk about feeling vulnerable. He rolled on his side so his big eye met mine. Fortunately, he lost interest pretty quickly and swam off, never touching my boat.

keeldragger - 4 years ago

Nice video. Suggestion for a part 2 video: what do you do if you hit a whale and your boat is taking on water? crash mat, plugs for thru hulls and transducers, improvising and plugging cracks with towels/cloth, epoxy sticks/other materials, bilge pumps & buckets, etc.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Thanks. Good idea! -Rebecca

David Thompson - 4 years ago

No whale strikes, but we have had dolphins racing the boat and smack into the hull a bit off Baja. All we get on the Great Lakes is logs and carp.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Nice!

David Thompson - 4 years ago

@Patrick Childress Sailing entirely being boisterous. I think they were just playing hard.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Oh wow. We have never had dolphins bump us! Do you think it was part of the fun, or totally by accident on their part? -Rebecca

Lex Maxwell - 4 years ago

Oh... the tone of her voice. I think someone needs to listen to Rebecca more often :P What's the point of having such an experienced captain at the helm if he can't steer around things?!

Mike S - 4 years ago

Very good information. Thank You.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Thanks for watching Mike!

Andrew Baikie - 4 years ago

Alex Thompson is sailing right now and they struck an unknown object while going 25 knots, which caused them to loose the keel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8hESXGlKys
They are now sailing to the Cape Verde islands.

20. comment for Whale Strike!! What if you HIT A WHALE with a Sail boat? (Tips from the Pros #3/P. Childress #53)

Lamberto Salles - 4 years ago

Olá, muito bom o vídeo pois esta era uma de minhas preocupações sobre a navegação. Não é simplesmente bonito ver baleias de um veleiro mas tem também uma grande parcela de preocupação.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Estamos felizes por ter sido útil para você. Agradecemos por assistir do Brasil! -Rebecca

Warren Fraser - 4 years ago

A 28-foot Bristol Channel Cutter was about 700 miles off the north-east coast of Japan on its way non-stop to California when it was apparently attacked by a whale. The crew noted the whale was not alone and was swimming with a baby. The boat sunk and crew was rescued by an amphibious airplane. The media in Japan had closely followed the story of this transpacific passage as one of the two crew was fully blind and the occasion marked the first time a blind Japanese national had attempted anything like this. I also owned and sailed a BCC at that time and followed the story with interest. I'd noticed that the support crew had painted a full-length image of an Orca below the waterline on both sides of the hull prior to departure. I've always wondered whether the purpose in doing this was to potentially scare whales away from the boat. However, the outcome may point to the reason why the whale, in a desire to protect its baby, attacked the boat.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Wow..that’s an amazing story with the Orca painted on the bottom of the boat! They do get very protective of their babies...so if they thought they saw an Orca...maybe so!! Thanks for sharing that story! we once painted shark jaws on the front of our bottom paint. I never thought much about who it may scare ;) -Rebecca

Dutch Globetrotter - 4 years ago

Never hit a whale, fortunately.
Did see one breach just 3m from the port bow, somewhere just east of the Australian coast, near Brisbane.

Dutch Globetrotter - 4 years ago

@Patrick Childress Sailing Pure luck is my best guess. We were only doing about 4 knots so I think the whale was just faster.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Wow..that was close! How did you manage to avoid it?

Ben Coles - 4 years ago

Along the east coast of Australia it's normal to have multiple whale sightings per day in season. They're everywhere and collisions do occur. I've had a few near misses and even one Humpback that breached about 40 metres forward of our bow. That got my heart rate going.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Yes, I bet it did! We were in an anchorage in Niue in the Pacific years ago and had to be very careful in our dinghy coming home from sundowners! -Rebecca

Marty Spargur - 4 years ago

Sexy stuff like Plumb bows and High aspect keels on 12 or 15 knot "cruising" boats don't help much when you plow into something in the middle of the night. However, you Could set a new record time in the 50 foot dash. So there's that, it's not all about the downside.

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Yeah it really makes you think twice about having a catamaran, doesn’t it!!?-Rebecca

Matt Bargain - 4 years ago

Whales are the freighters of nature: Never give way to anyone! :D

Matt Bargain - 4 years ago

Patrick Childress Sailing This area seems to be a natural hunting and nursing area for Orcas: https://www.marinemammalhabitat.org/portfolio-item/strait-gibraltar-gulf-cadiz/

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Wow..right on the charts...must be significant population of whales there then? -Rebecca

Matt Bargain - 4 years ago

@Patrick Childress Sailing Always do! In the Strait of Gibraltar it actually says in the charts to be aware of whales. As if you wouldn't have your hands full enough with traffic, currents and strong winds, lol...

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Matt Bargain thanks for watching Matt....Rebecca

Sailing Channel Marinus - 4 years ago

oh.... we hit it .... great video

Patrick Childress Sailing - 4 years ago

Sailing Channel Marinus thanks for you (quick!) comment. It was one of the more fun ones to work on. beats working on a video about the bulkhead Have you guys managed to avoid hitting whales? It really bothered me that we hit that baby whale! ;) -Rebecca

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