How Did The Pro Crew of Vestas Wind Hit a Charted Island?!?!?

In the 2014 Volvo Ocean Race Team Vestas Wind smashed into a charted reef in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

The crash destroyed their boat, and left the sailing world wondering how could this happen to a team of professional sailors with the best equipment available.

That’s exactly what we’re going to find out in this video.

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[yozegami]

A good reminder to look at the physical charts as well and not rely solely on software. Glad everyone was okay!

[las]

I remember the navigator telling in an interview how stupid he felt when he got home and saw the shoal on his son's €20 IKEA world map, whilst having missed it on this high tech software

[WojciechP]

"....Paper charts, which generally show hazards at all levels of zoom." hahahhaha. This had me laughing.

I have all the NOAA charts for my bay and normal sailing areas and whenever I'm bored, I study them.

[rorymacintosh]

Nice explanation, nice footage, terrifying… they were lucky and unlucky…

[lance]

They've changed the protocol for later versions of this event. The boats continue to be monitored 24/7 from a race control center in France. If the controllers see something like this about to happen they call the boat on the satphone and warn them (with no racing penalty IIRC).

[GeorgieWorgiey]

Great video. I disagree it was an example of group think though. Only one person was responsible for making the call and he botched it due to circumstances that set him up to be highly likely to fail.

[fowler]

Happened to me in daylight. It was not fun. Once you realise your boat is stuck no matter what and you become a sitting duck at the mercy of the waves is terrifying.

[jimmyrh]

The electronic chart should of course show the minimum depth even when zoomed out. A small plane would never fly over mountains without knowing the maximum height of the peaks. It's pretty obvious logic. But if it says "shoal" on the chart, that should ring alarm bells for any navigator - if it's a shoal, the water is going to get shallower than 40m!

[kaspershaupt]

Never actually seen the inboard footage. That's so scary, getting throw around like the whilst stuck

[dahveed]

I was just telling guys sailing on my boat about this. Mistakes are easy to make. Even professionals make them. Learn from their mistakes. Also if professionals can run into a whole island, you shouldn't feel bad about your little mistake bumping that shoal or stump.

[motoryachtloon]

Great video and explanation. I've known about this incident for years and have countlessly reiterated to my navigational officers to keep checking different levels of zoom on the ECDIS since. Thank you 🛥🏝

[gogo-ufow]

very informative, what a nightmare it must have been

[christopherconklin]

This is why I always make sure to have Raster charts as well as Vector charts on a chartplotter. Raster charts are straight copies of paper charts.

[berkkadakgil]

I am wondering about the aftermath procedure in these pro structures. What happens to the navigator after this kinda event? gets sacked or keep going with him for the rest of the race & never invite him again?

[artsmith]

Amazing demonstration of the limits of fancy new technology.

[rasputitza]

It also happened to the QE 2 in 1992 off Martha's Vineyard and there was an American pilot on board!

[dustinryan]

That must have been the most terrifying experience in the dark on a reef getting the shit knocked out of ya . Good job staying alive !!

[SVOceanBird]

I’m amazed they could salvage and rebuild this boat 👍⛵️

[morcsekovszky]

was it dongfeng which passed so close? that looks so scary aswell. but im sure they knew what were they doing

[chuckaddison]

Sooo, was the original navigator still employed for the post grounding completion of the race?