Orcas sink yacht off Portugal

[ralphsanchico]

Insurance company: "I'm sorry sir, but acts of Orcas are not covered in your policy"

[erwinroman]

Right now that Orca is getting another sailboat tattoo on his back. 5 and he's an Ace.

[ivanlussich]

There is an excellent non-fiction book about killer whales sinking a 43 foot schooner in the Pacific in Jan. 1971, "The Last Voyage of the Lucette". It was written by her skipper Douglas Robertson. He and his family (6 people) survived aboard a dinghy and a rubber boat after drifting in the ocean for many weeks. Regards from Uruguay

[commercialbreak]

Orcas are trained by the local shipyard!

[machonsote]

I'm a marine biologist and based on my years of experience I can tell you: "You're going to need a bigger boat".

[turtleboy]

I dont know about you but for me, getting into that inflatable floating life raft with those chompers out-under there would be absolutely terrifying. 😬
🌬🌊⛵

[MilesCobbett]

Read the Jonathon Swift book Tale of a Tub. It reveals that British Sailors used to carry large wooden barrels on board to toss over for whales to play with that rather than damage wooden planks on sailing vessels

[mencken]

“The orca swam off with the rudder.” That’s rich, right there.

[michaelangelos]

This is another prime example of a situation where a person's life is in danger and their yacht is about to be sunk and then they'll be dismembered by orcas but they still don't have the presence of mind to film horizontally.

[edgarmalveiro]

Back in November of 2019, my father was in a recreational fishing boat, and they were attacked by a pod of orcas, near Cape Espichel, some 20 kms south from our capital Lisbon. It didn't sink the boat because it had a steel reinforcement in the rear, but it bended in, almost cracking the wood. Since then several attacks have occurred, from Nazaré to Sagres, and the orcas tend to destroy the woden rudders.

[JKwith]

This seems like a glaring design flaw in the yacht. Why is there not a bulkhead separating the rudder post hull gland from the rest of the boat? The way this incident is described, the boat sank because they lost their rudder. This seems to be a major vulnerability, where simply running over a sand bar and losing your rudder could sink your boat.

[susannaviljanen]

I was onboard "Carissa" (Swan 441) which was attacked by orcas in October 2021 near Finisterre, Spain. We lost the rudder, but both our crew and our yacht survived.

Thanks to the orcas, I got to fulfill my longtime dream to visit Santiago de Compostela. And I can suggest Finisterre for a vacation - it is a nice little town and not a tourist trap like the Southern Spanish sites.

[hawkeye]

I would love to hear the call to the insurance agent explaining this one.

[juandecarranza]

I'm sorry, but I'm a sailor and we sail the South Atlantic, full of orcas and I've never heard of attacks like this. Maybe our orcas are less hostile or we live with them.

[KittycatKittycat-jrug]

I just swam with these beauties everyday for a week in the fjords of northern Norway.
Beautiful, empathetic, and extremely intelligent creatures. No attacks on humans in the wild EVER and never any signs of aggression. Many have though been severely harmed by rudders, so maybe that is the explanation.

[sunlovesailing]

I haven’t heard of the Orcas stacking sailboats with full keels yet. It seems they are only attacking spade rudders.

[JonnoPlays]

That's gotta be a bad feeling getting into the life raft when a pod of orca just sank your boat.

[billroberts]

I'd try playing RAP music very loudly with the speakers pushed up against the hull. That will drive any thinking creature away.

[devonholmes]

“A Swedish yacht was an hour away”
Sure is a long recess for an orca!!! I salute you guys!!! I woulda stayed on that boat until the piece went under!!!😂

[mutabore]

Imagine this happening at night in the middle of the ocean.