i was sailing in the southern end of Morton bay two weekends ago middle of the day 5knots of breezes boat on a beam reach , 6 meters of water. When I hit something vary solid followed by a large splash did not get a look at what I had hit, but I suspect it was a dugong. My boat has a vary deep drop keel. There was no noise on the boat when the collision occurred. The impact on the keel was strong enough for me to lose my footing and make me check the hull for leeks. Has anyone else sailed into dugongs- whales- ect and have you had a collection of this nature with outboard running- music playing????

Not possible

shaggybaxter said..
W8ing,
we hit a whale on the way to Hammo last year. We were planing doing about 11knots, no music, at night with only a couple on deck, the boat was whisper quiet.
Took 10 years off me, sounded like we hit a reef .
After that I kept the music on, saw a bazillion whales and no further incidents.

How big was the boat??

I believe if you play classical music on your boat it will attract dolphins in their hundreds. May work on whales too but make them more friendly in their approach.

Through the efforts of Greenpeace et al and banning of whaling, whale strikes on boats have become a hazard again.

I do not know if whales are colour blind or not but I am going to use RED anti fouling this time around instead of black so that my underwater looks less like a female whale wanting to mate.

This is some real life impact tests on a Delher

Regards Don

hit a dugong sailing 12 foot skiffs out in waterloo bay in the 80s big swim had a whale drag his pectoral fin down the side of pagan in st Helena cup last year felt nothing but saw him scared the bejusus out of me and left a long wavy scratch down the side below waterline

Gee thanks for the timing of this discussion , heading north very soon ......maybe I should stay in my armchair seriously though does having music playing help the whales locate you ( to stay away) or is it a myth. i usually have music on , just reply yes . Ignorance is bliss.

We were coming back from Bermagui in a calm a couple of days ago and got within about three lengths of a mother and calf with our diesel running. I'm not tempted to get any closer to see if they run away, just in case they don't.

This subject intrigued me, last year while doing short coastal runs there was whales everywhere, even tho we were under sail I was reluctent to shut the engine of , So they could hear us. It turn out to be a good plan. Tooth whales ie dolphins, killer and sperm whales have a sorta sonar, the baleen/song types like the humpback that we are most likely to encounter don't, so I guess if the song is a type of language or not , it certainly means they have an aquatic sence of hearing.
What sort of sound to make ? An experiment to conduct ? ( maybe seabreezers could log ship sounds and whale movements ? )
I also really liked Ciscos comment about anti foul colour, could turn out your more likely to be humped by a humpback if you have that humpback sorta colour.

Droplining wide off the Jervis Bay canyons I had whales hanging about my gear. When I was stationary after just pulling a line a whale moved into position under my boat, fore and aft with his flippers either side of the boat, he was just under the keel. Main engine was running and so was the auxillary. I put the kettle on and waited for him to leave.
Previously I had a day further North where I was stationary with the engines running. My mate was parked nearby and we were chatting when a mother and her calf positioned themselves vertical at the bow of the boat with the mothers fluke resting across near my front cabin. They stayed there several minutes. My mate who was in a smaller boat earlier that morning was pulling his set line when a whales fluke slid along the gunwale and struck his deckhand giving him a bit of a surprise. There were dozens of whales broaching all over the place and I think they just like being sociable.

My old grandfather was a professional fisherman off Noosa in the 30s and 40s when there was a lot of whales round. After that whales were decimated buy the whaling industry and as a child we did a lot of fishing off Mooloolaba and never say a whale. My grandfather always said that after they stopped whaling they will eventually become a nuisance again which is now proving correct. The way they would scare them off was to put a kerosene drum over the side and belt it with a stick. This would keep the whales from going under their boat and taking out all their fishing lines.

woko said..

Ramona said..
Droplining wide off the Jervis Bay canyons I had whales hanging about my gear. When I was stationary after just pulling a line a whale moved into position under my boat, fore and aft with his flippers either side of the boat, he was just under the keel. Main engine was running and so was the auxillary. I put the kettle on and waited for him to leave.
Previously I had a day further North where I was stationary with the engines running. My mate was parked nearby and we were chatting when a mother and her calf positioned themselves vertical at the bow of the boat with the mothers fluke resting across near my front cabin. They stayed there several minutes. My mate who was in a smaller boat earlier that morning was pulling his set line when a whales fluke slid along the gunwale and struck his deckhand giving him a bit of a surprise. There were dozens of whales broaching all over the place and I think they just like being sociable.

That would of been strange blend of terror and joy. I've no doubt of ther being social, ok I guess for slow heavy displacement vessels but I don't know if I'd like one of the great beast leaning on a run about or a small yacht !
Last October a couple of fishos motoring to the fishing spot smacked into a whale that that was in the act of breaching, boat broke and sunk, another fisho saw it happen and picked them up, wrong place wrong time. And as w8tingforwind said if your doing 30tks + probably it doesn't count
hey Ramona what colour anti foul did you have ??

I alternated blue and black. I doubt the colour made any difference.