Schneier on Security

Davi Ottenheimer • January 21, 2007 11:56 AM

What a drag. But seriously, the story doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

“…most important of all, something had slowed his speed down to 2 knots, even with full sails, a lot of wind, and the engine running…”

And yet, they did not look under the boat? If you’re doing 2 knots under full power and having a tough time controlling the rudder, with no autopilot, seems like a good time to have a look under the hull.

“Shigeo said that his boat became so difficult to steer that, at one point, he had to issue a Mayday call to avoid a collision with a Japanese tuna boat.”

Other boats around, he has steerage problems and he still is not trying to look under the boat to see what’s dragging?

“We also thought that “Akitsushima” must have fouled some kind of fishing net or other junk, as no amount of barnacles could slow a modern 42-foot boat to 2 knots. But we left Nuku Hiva before we had time to dive down to look for ourselves.”

Right, because a dive to look under the boat, especially the rudder, takes all of five minutes…I’ve been overboard 1500 miles from shore (to inspect for debris) and really it’s no big deal. Besides that if you’re underway and don’t want to pause, you can usually see the rudder from topsides, or run a line to check the hull for debris.

Weird story. I’d say anti-fouling paint could just be modded to include squid repellent, but the story doesn’t fit and the skipper seems rather, how shall I put it…unaware. Based on the circumstances in the story it’s probably best not to “jump” to conclusions.