I've once sailed a smaller boat with a centerboard that didn't release. So similar to not having a rudder. Quite scary, everything else have a backup, but without that thing sticking out below the boat you're just drifting aimlessly around.

*Vasa

Do you have any idea of why the spelling was changed if you look in older texts a lot of the time Wasa was was used.

> Usage of the letters ⟨v⟩ and ⟨w⟩ was, as long as the Fraktur typeface was used, guided by the typeface. In Fraktur, ⟨w⟩ was used as a rule to indicate the sound [v], except for in loanwords of Latin or Romance origin, when ⟨v⟩ was used. In SAOL 1874-1900, which were not printed in Fraktur, the number of words using ⟨w⟩ was very small, and primarily tied to names (clown, darwinism, schweizeri). (...) The attempt to remove ⟨w⟩ was further evident in the 1923 edition. Since 1950 however, the use of ⟨w⟩ in loanwords has been more acceptable, as the number of loanwords has increased. Since 2006, ⟨w⟩ constitutes an individual letter of the alphabet in SAOL, sorted separately from ⟨v⟩.

One rationalization I think we can be pretty happy about today that the article mentions is that [f,fv,hv] which all produced the same sound were unified into simply "v" in schools in the early 1900s.

>.<

The W sound was lost centuries ago but reintroduced with English words.

In other words, this is a correctly alphabetically ordered list:

  Wasa
  Virtanen
  Wiva
  Viwe

There’s probably still plenty of SQL installations around using the old collation rules because tables were created before the 2006 change reached database software.

Also in Finnish ÅÄÖ are the end of alphabet.

Also Ü and Ű would should be grouped with Y. Õ and Ő with Ö.

If you look at older phone books and dictionaries until the 1990s at least, you’ll find that V and W are combined.

There are common surnames in Finland that retain the V/W spelling equivalence, like Virtanen and Wirtanen. When they are grouped together (as they traditionally were), it’s easier to find a person by name because you don’t need to know which way it’s spelled.

[1] https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/French/Alphabet

If they'd pronounced it "Let's meet up in the fillage" that would make sense as they'd be using the German pronunciation of "v", but I couldn't wrap my head around "willage".

Depending on the word, in German a "v" is either pronounced like "f" or "w", e.g.

[der] Vogel -> "Fogel"

[die] Vase -> "Wase"

A rule of thumb that I heard is that if a German word is of French origin and starts with V, the V is pronounced like W, otherwise like F.

I speak from experience…

Anecdotally, I once spoke with Russian students (this was long ago) who insisted that there was a Russian 'v/w' sound in the word Berenburg (the name of a distilled spirit). I couldn't hear it...

But in this context, the "v" we're talking about is the English IPA /'v/ (e.g. valley /ˈvæli/) vs. IPA /w/ (e.g. wool, IPA /wʊl/)

For an English speaker, to put it differently, while the words as a whole are not pronounced exactly the same, the starting sound of German "Volk" is the same as for English "folk", while the starting sound of "Wolke" is the same as for "valley".

That's a cool story.

I can confirm. I mean, the "proper" pronunciation is dubbel-vee-dubbel-vee-dubbel-vee, but we can't be bothered to say all that so we just say vee-vee-vee.

I also think "double-v" is a better name for the letter w than "double-u" is.

I think I have also heard dub-dub-dub dot etc.

It was a Swedish warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 after making it less than a mile (1,3 km). It was salvaged in 1961 and is today one of Sweden's most famous tourist attractions.

You may want to find a good therapist, this is classic Stockholm Syndrome.

Wonder if that's a standard (or common) response, and why... ?

If only the rescue crew dressed the part they could have believed they somehow managed to time travel.

I found this post about what sailors ate on the original ship fascinating.

Basically it is a motorized indiaman.

Meh.

(Source: I have a friend who have worked/sailed the ship multiple times)

They used the engine for the rescue to minimize time and safely approach the small boat close enough to heave a line.

Doing all that under sail, like the OP seems to think they should, wouldn’t just be extremely difficult, it would be dangerous and profoundly irresponsible.

Modern sailboats (as in since 1900) have auxiliary engines for a reason…

However they surely had their reasons for not using sails.

As another poster here, I also have a friend who has been able to sail on Götheborg once. The ship definitely have usable sails that are used most of the time. If I understand it correctly the motor is to some degree there as a modern safety requirement (and possibly it makes handling in port much easier, I would guess - don't know personally).

Square-rigged allowed for more sail. It also worked better for larger ships since had lots of little sails instead of one big one.

The Oosterschelde once rescued a single sailor from his boat that was sinking in the middle of the Atlantic (I wasn’t on that trip).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oosterschelde_(ship)

https://sdmaritime.org/visit/the-ships/star-of-india/

https://georgstage.dk/english/

Suddenly a few months prior to the wedding they ghosted us, until they finally decided we couldn't hire it after all. Maybe a covid thing.

Anyway, no bad feelings.

Satellite antenna in the mizzen mast is also an abomination. They should have dirty drawings from France instead of Pornhub.

Restoration is good but there is no reason to put the crew in unnecessary danger.

The navigation radars is actually quite well hidden sitting on the platform of the foremast.

There is more information about the emergency communication requirements on commercial vessels for different areas of the planet here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Maritime_Distress_and_S...

She's also big enough to be legally obliged to carry radar under SOLAS V regulations.

Given the concerns in the article about the size difference possibly causing problems, wouldn't that have been safer?

The funny thing is, they were grateful for the assistants of the Götheborg, but a bit incredulous that such a large ship would go out of it's way to help them. (they were also worried about the speed at first before learning it was a sailing ship_

It wasn’t quite the size that made it notable ;)

What makes it so difficult, and what sort of special equipment is required?

I know, I know, cargo nets on the side of the ship are not going to be sufficient, easy as it looks in pop entertainment, I just don’t know why.

Need to get close enough that someone can go between without a wave throwing the big one into the small one.

Which is why “touch and go” between ships of equal size was considered a test of skill and a bit risky, normally they’d drop a rowboat or dingy. A tiny boat can’t really be crushed as it just bumps out of the way.

(But then again, Gotheborg is surely equipped to take on pilots to enter harbours, so it was probably more about not abandoning the otherwise perfectly good sailboat.)

So I'd argue it's more safe to have some crew on it in case you need to be hands-on, and just talk over radio while being towed.

Someone needs to be in control of the vehicle being towed, in case you need to break (if possible), change course (if possible), disconnect the tow (if possible), etc.

Fysa, they almost certainly completed the rescue using their twin 500hp diesels rather than sail power. One sailboat towing another creates a host of sail/wind/wave issues. Almost ever large sailing vessel, including historic replicas, has diesel engines for those times that sail is just too awkward.

In this case I am sure you are right, and the size difference would make towing under sail dangerous. A sudden gust enough to accelerate the larger boat to above the smaller boats hull speed could pull the smaller boat underwater quickly.

Most dangerous IMHO is a wave that slows the large round hull but will not slow the smaller wave-piercing hull, sending it slamming into the stern.

You can see the distances they chose in this particular case in the third image from their Instagram post.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CryES46tgWl/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2...

Unless I were to start using halyards, I probably do not have more than 300' of line on my boat, which is really way more than I need for a smaller boat.

Also, the road taken is interested. They could have go to one of the ports of the British islands, like St. Peter Port at Guernsey. But this would have been dangerous. This part of the English Chanel, is full of smalls rock islands, shoals and one of the most dangerous marine currents in the world : The Alderney Race (or Raz Blanchard in french).

Was actually the reason they founded the Amsterdam stock market to spread & share the risk of the ships not returning.

I know many bad things happen at well, but it's still a very interesting perspective.

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/gAXBe3j1qN_gLQ

Traditional Polynesian boats were operating alongside modern technology in the 1950s and 1969s. The Polynesian boats put up a better safety record!

So yeah, they really were good at navigating. And to think, they did it lying on their back! The cues that they were using were from the swell, the stars, and birds. You feel the swell most clearly lying down. The other two are above you.

So arguably this was the foundation of modern capitalism too, just in time for the development of capital intensive industry to take advantage of the same financial structures.

I've been sailing my whole life, but never lost a rudder (thank God!). With dinghy racing (as opposed to cruising) it's common to learn how to steer without the rudder, using the trim of the sails and your weight in the boat. You can minimize rudder pressure on cruising sailboat too (again, useful for maximizing speed), but I'd be curious to know more about the limits of what you can do. There are probably some points of sail that work better without a rudder than others. (This is only even theoretically possible because the jib and main can rotate the boat, and the keel will still allow forward motion.)

But yeah, theory aside, 'losing a mast or rudder' level catastrophes like this basically require rescue.

Description

I’m on a mission to rebuild a 1910 English sailing yacht called Tally Ho. Designed by Albert Strange in 1909, she is a well-known and important historic vessel – but after many adventures she was left in a remote port in Oregon to rot for decades, despite some valiant attempts to rescue her. I bought her and moved her to the Olympic Peninsular earlier this year, and am now rebuilding her from the keel up. Eventually I hope to sail her back to the UK.

Happy to see the project (and channel) is still going strong. Such an incredible endeavor!

Different scale, different waterways, but a couple of weeks after spending half an hour dragging a boat off a fallen tree, I got a tow off a trip boat full of people eating Christmas dinner after losing power in the middle of the Thames...

All vessels have an international duty to give reasonable assistance to other ships in distress in order to save life, but there is no obligation to try to salve the vessel. Any offer of salvage assistance may be refused; but if it is accepted a contract automatically arises to give the successful salvor the right to a reward under the 1989 Convention.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_salvage