thoughts on the show?

Acting?

you can watch episode 2 via SBS on demand

southace said..
Personaly I'm looking forward to the Donald crowhurst movie at the end of the year.

I have read the book and watched the vid on Youtube. Both are quite depressing.

Bernard Moitessier's "The Long Way" is a whole lot better read. Uplifting to say the least. He was in the same race.

Yeah mate. The Youtube vid is very definitive. I think there are a few actually. Knowing the story about how he really didn't know much about what he was trying to achieve and then about how he consciously went about cheating the rules, I prefer not to go there again.

My take on his story is that he was a typical "English Boffin" trying to prove a point to which there was no point.

Watch the new movie and give us your take on it.

southace said..
Yep acting .....do you really belive what you see on tv! I have worked with film crews it's never what it seams. Didn't you not the shiny bronze skin fittings in the sides of the hull? Bilge pumps they are. Film crew and supply vessel also in tow . Hair and make up and lighting crew. ? Gullible us humans can be.

Well that is a bit hard.

bilge pumps may have been a requirement to get the vessel "coded" or something. Just because the pumps are there does not mean they used them. They could be a "fall-back option " for use if the boat was catastrophically swamped just as was the safety/support vessel.

I don't think it is so much acting as "selecting". People are placed in situations and the producers publish the video that they think the viewing public will be interested in seeing.

There are some things about "Reality" TV that are indeed farcical, but there are also things that are amusing and valuable in the sense of learning something.

I've watched three episodes so far. It's interesting, and photographed quite well, but I'm not sure the producers and editors are aiming it at anyone who's had at least some sailing experience. The general public who don't get on the water will think it's wonderful and exciting and the advertisers will go wild for it.

I can't help thinking that there is quite a lot of manipulation of situations that cause added drama, and that the people chosen were chosen to promote conflict.

They somehow navigated between two reefs in the middle of the night during some rough weather. Forgive me, and I'm not an experienced blue water sailor, but if you were heading anywhere near a reef wouldn't you either a) give it a wide berth until daylight, or b) well, just give it a wide berth altogether?

This was just one incident that struck me as odd, if indeed any of the crew were experienced sailors. Conrad the sailing master has completed a Vendee Globe, yet he seemed quite content to sail a 23 foot open wooden boat through a reef at night in rough weather, using a sextant and charts..... I don't think even the William Bligh, famed for his exceptional navigation skills, would even attempt that. The boat is also quite spacious with just 8 on board, instead of the 19 that Bligh started out with. So it's not a true re-enactment, just one that the punters who like "reality TV" might enjoy.

I'll keep watching, because it's interesting, but I do think the producers are putting them into situations (to make drama) that no sensible person would actually put themselves into if given the choice and if they really didn't have a big fat support boat.

There are some interesting reviews online, comparing it to Who Dares Wins (which is where Ant, the captain started his telly career) and Bear's Island.... It's amazing what some people will do for a quid, or to get their 15 minutes of fame.

There was a fairly long discussion about it on the YBW forum Scuttlebutt. I missed that a few months back because we had not seen it in Oz. So glad to find it here. I am new to this forum.

The choice of Ant as skipper was a bit perplexing to me. He was in SBS but that is a very diferent nautical scene to an open sail boat
voyage with non-service crew. Someone experienced with raw crew may have been better, like a sail-training ship leader.

sirgallivant said..
One should not judge nor imagine early 18th century naval history with 21st century bias.
Pease read the facts about Bligh and early 18th century naval life in the Royal Navy.

Then, and just may be, then one would have a slight idea of the true magnitude of the historical facts surrounding the original voyage and the participants of it.

I appreciate the crew's work and it was well done but as a historical re-enactment, the film is a sugar coated rubbish for people who have no idea of what they are watching, neither historically nor nautically.

Yep, the 're-enactment' was crap, I turned off not long into the first episode - so disappointing.

The actual voyage is really well described by Rob Mundle in his book 'Bligh Master Mariner'. It truly is an amazing story.
In fact, the entire book, which covers Bligh's whole life, is exceptionally well researched and written - I couldn't put in down.
I traced his voyages on Google Earth as I read. It was so interesting follow them and to see where he anchored and why he gave a place a particular name.
Mmmm- must get it out from the library again...
Another great read by Mundle is 'Flinders The Man who Mapped Australia'

regards to all
allan

Despite my great reverence to Rob Mundle, I am alluding to original reports from contemporaries of Bligh, who was a hard case. So hard and uncompromising, that he brought a member of his crew up on charge for subordination on arrival of his perilous journey, if l remember correctly.
If l am not mistaken, after the courtmartial the Admiralty never ever gave him another command.

Reading about his fiasco as governor of NSW - he was virtually booted out by the criminals of the 'rum corps', Macarthur and his mob, - not long before Macquarie came over, is a revealing research.
So are , the logs of the trip of his 4000 miles journey.
It needs determination to find the original facts but it is not impossible.

I am in no way knocking the crew of the 're-enactment', who are brave souls on their own right. I just could not entertain the notion of the name.
One could, perhaps, call Thor Heyerdahl's Con Tiki expedition a 're-enactment' but not "Mutiny" which is akin to the leasurely stroll of the "Kokoda Trails re-enactment" not so long ago.

I'm glad they finally found the fresh water in the abandoned tinny at the last minute!

Didn't they get the bad water from that blokes tank on Restoration Island......what the hell's he drinking ???.

Well they made it to Timor. Good on 'em.

The situation arose that the crew were seriously dehydrated.

They also had some frustrating calms, which the psychological effects of their dehyd state left them less able to deal with. This is the sort of thing that the 18th century sailor and officer would have experienced many times, and thus would be more able to cope with.

So doc makes this dehydration assessment in the middle of the night,and calls the support ship. Did he tell Ant first? It was not shown. The support medic (was he a doctor? Dunno, but in a physically much better state, and an outsider he was able to forcefully put the case that the crew MUST TAKE WATER NOW!! Or suffer severe/permanent organ damage. Ant seemed unable to grasp that at once. Overnight, he did.

As a Special Forces type I would have thought he should have been trained to recognise the crisis better.

The crew were reluctant. They wanted to do it like Bligh's guys did. I admire their spirit but . . . . the Blighs were luckier on the Arafura Sea. They had clouds and rain at times so got thru OK. This the sort of thing where random Luck, or C18th peeps may have said Divine Providence, plays a very important part.

So the provision of extra water played the part of a random rain squall. No shame in accepting it.

There may have been many captains and crew equally as competant as the Bounties who may NOT have made it thru, just because they happened to get too many dry windless days, or one extra big wave or two, or whatever.

I was grateful to see the series, just to see how people can behave in extremis, and to critically assess the mentality of some special forces people, who are taking a very important place in our lives now. I am not an admirer really.

I wanted to perk when Ant got the "WE LOVE YOU MAN!!" accolade on arrival at he lovely shingle beach.