Mike Golding

IT’S TIME FOR FRESH DIALOGUE ABOUT GUIDELINES OF WHAT TO DO WITH A YACHT IF A SKIPPER DECIDES TO ABANDON AT SEA

While many are thinking about improving sailing’s environmental sustainability, we’re too often reminded just how enduring composite yacht structures are, even when they’ve been abandoned in apparently catastrophic circumstances and presumed sunk.

This was highlighted to me when, in 2016, the broken hull of Alex Thomson’s IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss, long thought lost during the 2006 Velux 5 Oceans solo round the world race, materialised once again on a beach in a beautiful National Park in Patagonia, Chile.

It was ten years earlier that I’d plucked Alex from his liferaft around 1,000 miles south of Cape Town when he was forced to abandon after his keel failed and the boat started taking on water. Alex and I stood side by side on the deck of my Ecover 2 and solemnly watched as the black yacht, already low in the water, drifted away to the south. We considered the boat sunk – not least because, around three hours later the ARGOS beacon on Hugo Boss ceased transmitting as the eye of the huge Southern Ocean storm moved away and we were cast back into 70+ knots of wind and huge waves.

Earlier this year we saw the news that, after nearly nine years, Abby Sunderland’s 40ft yacht Wild Eyes was discovered without the keel and inverted but still afloat near Kangaroo Island to the south of Australia despite having been rolled, dismasted and abandoned way back in 2010.

This winter we have seen the tally of abandoned yachts in the Southern Ocean grow significantly as at least four newish drifting hulls have been abandoned by competitors of the Golden Globe Race.

Each of these incidents (and there are others) have occurred when, quite rightly, the safety of the sailor has taken priority over the environmental impact of abandoning the vessel. However, leaving a yacht hull in mid-ocean creates a dangerous navigational hazard that could spawn a further incident, and it will add further to the general, human-led pollution of our oceans.

Against the backdrop of the global plastics waste crisis, the damage caused by these composite hulls would scarcely register. However, pictured on a remote beach or in an otherwise immaculate part of the ocean, they are catastrophically bad for the perceived clean reputation of our sport. We are now all too aware that nothing we leave behind ever disappears. Sooner or later, just like Wild Eyes or Hugo Boss, they’ll come back to haunt us.

Perhaps more effort should go into self-rescues that avoid the need for external assistance and abandonment. Such a choice will often entail a slow and protracted passage and will inevitably add hardship for the sailor.

But, many times now, we have seen what amazing things can be done by sailors who are determined to finish races.

If, for safety reasons, or because of the state of the vessel, self-rescue really is not possible, there is currently no clear consensus among sailors as to what is the right thing to do. Inevitably, it’s a difficult topic as nobody wants to be responsible for dumping a broken yacht into our oceans. Perhaps scuttling, deliberately sinking the boat to eliminate both the ongoing navigational hazard while reducing the indiscriminate environmental risks, is the best/worst choice?

Sailors will quite rightly be concerned that if they did this without prior agreement (not really practical in these circumstances) their insurance company would not pay out. But neither is it in the insurer’s interest to have an abandoned vessel, still potentially presenting a third party risk, drifting around in the ocean. If the value of the vessel is sufficient insurers will fund or even undertake a recovery. But it’s also possible the cost and potential environmental damage of a recovery process could easily outstrip the environmental impact of abandoning.

Sailors, organisers, environmentalists and insurers should establish some fresh dialogue around this subject to help to create clearer guidelines.

Most boats today will put up quite a fight to stay afloat. Sailors who find themselves in this invidious situation will need to have a ‘sinking plan’ with a list of pre-abandonment actions such as unlatching hatches, cutting hoses and opening seacocks before stepping off for the last time.

I realise this all sounds pretty cold, but in my view that’s the way it is. It’s impossible to tick every box in a real life emergency situation, we just have to do the best we can for ourselves (and the planet) with whatever hand we are dealt at the time.

ABANDONING A YACHT MID-OCEAN CREATES A HAZARD