11-11-2017, 03:11 PM
It's really nothing like Crowhurst. He was an accomplished engineer and had done a lot of sailing. We'll never know what drove him to madness, but there is speculation that he started drinking sea water or his water tanks were brackish.
There are more details on the story now that Snopes picked it up.
https://www.snopes.com/2017/10/31/hawaii-rescue/
Appel, though, said she modified her sailboat, called the Sea Nymph, by adding six tons of fiberglass to the hull to make it thicker and heavier and extend the keel to a depth of 8.5 feet to give the boat greater stability. Similar vessels typically have a keel of 5 to 7 feet, she said. The extra-long keel meant it couldn’t get in to nearby harbors.
This is ridiculous. No novice could possibly add 6 tons of fiberglass or modify the keel like that. It's serious work and would cost more than the boat is worth.
The longer version of their trip is equally nuts. Mast rigging had some problems. Motored to an island, but kept going. Saying “Kiribati, um, one whole half of the island is called shipwreck beach for a reason,” she said. Which is wrong. Then they decided to set sail (how if the mast was "broken") for 1,000 miles for the Cook Islands (which is further than Tahiti!)
Insane.
There are more details on the story now that Snopes picked it up.
https://www.snopes.com/2017/10/31/hawaii-rescue/
Appel, though, said she modified her sailboat, called the Sea Nymph, by adding six tons of fiberglass to the hull to make it thicker and heavier and extend the keel to a depth of 8.5 feet to give the boat greater stability. Similar vessels typically have a keel of 5 to 7 feet, she said. The extra-long keel meant it couldn’t get in to nearby harbors.
This is ridiculous. No novice could possibly add 6 tons of fiberglass or modify the keel like that. It's serious work and would cost more than the boat is worth.
The longer version of their trip is equally nuts. Mast rigging had some problems. Motored to an island, but kept going. Saying “Kiribati, um, one whole half of the island is called shipwreck beach for a reason,” she said. Which is wrong. Then they decided to set sail (how if the mast was "broken") for 1,000 miles for the Cook Islands (which is further than Tahiti!)
Insane.