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Ghost Yacht...
- Thread starter AlBDamned
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The jib is shredded... it looks like the sheets for both the main and jib are fastened in cleats, but if the boat has been drifting for a few days untended it could damage the sails that way.
No life rafts reported.
I'm guessing it wasn't a rogue wave, but who knows? Very, very strange.
No life rafts reported.
I'm guessing it wasn't a rogue wave, but who knows? Very, very strange.
Here's my guess.
2 guys in the dingy, with a line tied to the ship. Dude comes on deck to say "Dinner's on, mates" but hears his buddies yelling, sees the dingy being pulled by some unseen strange current and the line is ultra-taut and ready to break. He moves towards it and it breaks just as he reaches it. A lunge at the line takes him overboard. Current grabs him and and he and his 2 buddies are taken out to open sea, while the ship difts in another direction.
OK, massively far fetched...
But there's no dingy! Wait.. maybe there is. I can't tell in that ***tty picture.
2 guys in the dingy, with a line tied to the ship. Dude comes on deck to say "Dinner's on, mates" but hears his buddies yelling, sees the dingy being pulled by some unseen strange current and the line is ultra-taut and ready to break. He moves towards it and it breaks just as he reaches it. A lunge at the line takes him overboard. Current grabs him and and he and his 2 buddies are taken out to open sea, while the ship difts in another direction.
OK, massively far fetched...
But there's no dingy! Wait.. maybe there is. I can't tell in that ***tty picture.
That sounds like what I initially thought. But my first thought included someone fishing, getting a real big fish, and his buddies help him, but they all get pulled in by the sea beast.
What could be so important that they would just leave everything?
Scooby, Shaggy and the gang are headed out to solve the mystery. With all that experience at Lochness and a box of Scooby snacks, I think they could get to the bottom of this. 
I don't know much about sailing, but isn't it possible for the sail to rip if the boat turns quickly into a strong wind?
After reading that article, this is what I now believe:
Three old guys from Western Australia bought the boat at Airlie beach, and wanted to bring it home by sailing it home. They set up the dinner table, but then a boat approaches them, and believing it to be a friendly boat, they drop their fenders so that the boats could get close together. Then the 3 guys get kidnapped. Oopsy. The sail ripped when the 3 old guys were already kidnapped because nobody was around to do all the things they were supposed to do, like lower their sails when they had to, or steer (I know nothing about boats).
I sailed out there for a week once... Left Airlie beach for the whitsundays. Generally the sailing around that area is quite safe, and there are lots of other fellow sailers, aircraft constantly sweeping the areas, etc.
However, you can get some hardcore gusts of winds as you come around some of the islands, there are also hardcore whirlpool's in some areas (but i doubt any that could seriously disrupt a boat of that size. I'd never sailed the area before and had no problem navigating around any nasties... I was 19yrs old at the time If I recall.. wow that was a while ago, time to go back and do it again!
They will check the boat over and see whats up... foot prints, finger prints, was the sail slashed by blade, or some other object, etc.
It's sad to see this kind of thing happen, I hope the three men are okay, somewhere!
However, you can get some hardcore gusts of winds as you come around some of the islands, there are also hardcore whirlpool's in some areas (but i doubt any that could seriously disrupt a boat of that size. I'd never sailed the area before and had no problem navigating around any nasties... I was 19yrs old at the time If I recall.. wow that was a while ago, time to go back and do it again!
They will check the boat over and see whats up... foot prints, finger prints, was the sail slashed by blade, or some other object, etc.
It's sad to see this kind of thing happen, I hope the three men are okay, somewhere!
There's a pic on the latest update that shows fenders placed alongside. They wouldn't be there if a boat hadn't come up.
It must be thos ninja's if it wasn't the pirates
Hmmmm......you may be on to something.
This guy had the same problem with ninjas.
Attachments
But ninjas are afraid of ghost stories, so why would they leave a ghost yacht?
An über-reliable source
An über-reliable source
Which brings me back to my drugs comment.
It might not have been drugs, but they may have been meeting some folks to exchange something and the deal went south.
I'm still thinking they probably fell overboard though...the latest news says they think the boat has been drifitng since Sunday.
But all three of them?
I can understand 1 or 2. But for three guys to fall overboard at the same time is a little bit hard to believe.
The fenders being deployed is an important clue indicating the possibility that there was another boat involved. That is unless the guys didn't know how to store them and they fell over onto the side of the boat.
I think it's very possible - the fenders may have been fastened to cleats but tucked up on deck, only rolling over the side after the boat started drifting...on a smaller boat like that all three could have been on deck when something happened - with the sails up the boat (the motor was running but it doesn't say whether it was under power or just idling) could have quickly sailed off before they could get back to the boat.