I’ve Been Shipwrecked. I’ve Rescued Sailors. Here’s What Decides Who Survives. | LIVE
In 2020, a storm wrecked my catamaran on the way to Hawaii. In 2023, we pulled sailors out of the water on the way to Panama. And last year, I nearly lost the keel on a sister ship of the Cheeki Rafiki, the Beneteau 40.7 that capsized in the North Atlantic in 2014 with four men aboard.
This summer, boats have been going down worldwide. In August, an Oyster 825 racing at Hamilton Island Race Week reportedly struck a reef, lost her keel bulb, and turned upside down in seconds. All ten aboard were pulled out of the water. Then sperm whales holed a 52-footer north of Norfolk Island, and her crew spent the night in a life raft before a container ship picked them up.
Tonight we’re talking about what actually decides who comes home. Not luck. Decisions. When to call for help, where your beacons are, whether you can really get your raft off the boat, and what’s hiding under your floorboards.
Then it’s your questions. Boats, gear, passages, buying decisions. Bring them.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⏱️ CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
00:00 - Introduction & Pendleton Teaser
01:14 - Welcome & Livestream Rules (Book Giveaway)
02:35 - Annapolis Sailboat Show & Captain's Locker Downloads
06:32 - Studio Tour & Community Poll Results
08:12 - Upcoming Documentary: Cheeki Rafiki & Offshore Safety Ratings
10:48 - Recent Maritime Incidents: Keel Loss, Whales & Abandonments
17:23 - The Emergency Protocol: Why You Need a VHF Mayday Card
24:06 - Lessons from 3 Real-World Casualties & Rescues
27:58 - Book Giveaway #1
28:46 - Critical Survival Gear: Hydrostatic Releases & Life Rafts
33:28 - EPIRBs, PLBs & AIS Man Overboard Beacons
38:57 - Bilge Pumps: Manual Gushers, Maintenance & Diagnostics
42:38 - Q&A: Visiting Annapolis & Meeting at the Show
45:45 - Q&A: Circumnavigation Budgeting & Monthly Costs
50:52 - Q&A: Offshore Boat Insurance & Crew Coverage
52:42 - Q&A: Mast Steps on a Cruising Rig (Pros, Cons & Styles)
56:11 - Book Giveaway #2
56:26 - Q&A: Best Bilge Pumps, Float Switches & High Water Alarms
01:02:08 - How to Set Up an Emergency Crash Pump
01:04:44 - Q&A: Handing Over Boats in Fiji & Pacific Routing Realities
01:10:20 - Q&A: Hurricane Survival Strategies & Mangrove Holes
01:15:26 - Q&A: Seasickness Testing & Getting Offshore Experience
01:17:32 - Q&A: High-Latitude Routes & Cruising Passages
01:20:21 - Q&A: Safety Briefings, Vessel Rules & Free Diving
01:23:14 - Pendleton Sneak Peek & New Animation Style
01:26:45 - Q&A: Privilege Catamaran vs. Aluminum Monohull
01:31:00 - Book Giveaway #3 & Redraw
01:37:33 - Wrap-Up & Safe Seas
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚓ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
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⚔️ Inner Circle on Patreon (join the WhatsApp crew): https://www.patreon.com/c/bethecaptain
📖 Be The Captain, my maritime field manual on seamanship, leadership, and crisis at sea (unlocks 10% off Defender Marine + 20% off PredictWind): English: https://bethecaptain.com/ · Español: https://a.co/d/08yiAfse
🧰 Free downloads in the Captain’s Locker: https://bethecaptain.com/locker
📚 Getting ready to buy? Come see Leadsman at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, booth O-18. Market intelligence and 17-page vessel condition reports: https://leadsman.ai/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚓ RECOMMENDED GEAR & PARTNERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Defender Marine: outfitting boaters since 1938 with trusted marine gear, expert advice, and refit supplies. 👉 https://defender.com/en_us/
PredictWind: the world leader in offshore marine weather forecasting, routing, and departure planning. 👉 https://www.predictwind.com/
#sailing #offshoresailing #bluewatersailing #liveaboard #shipwreck #survival #BeTheCaptain #CheekiRafiki
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Join James Evenson of Sailing Zingaro as he documents his 2026 technical refit of his Crowther Spindrift 38 in Colombia and his 'Sailing Truth' mission.
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In 2020, a storm wrecked my catamaran on the way to Hawaii. In 2023, we pulled sailors out of the water on the way to Panama. And last year, I nearly lost the keel on a sister ship of the Cheeki Rafiki, the Beneteau 40.7 that capsized in the North Atlantic in 2014 with four men aboard.
This summer, boats have been going down worldwide. In August, an Oyster 825 racing at Hamilton Island Race Week reportedly struck a reef, lost her keel bulb, and turned upside down in seconds. All ten aboard were pulled out of the water. Then sperm whales holed a 52-footer north of Norfolk Island, and her crew spent the night in a life raft before a container ship picked them up.
Tonight we’re talking about what actually decides who comes home. Not luck. Decisions. When to call for help, where your beacons are, whether you can really get your raft off the boat, and what’s hiding under your floorboards.
Then it’s your questions. Boats, gear, passages, buying decisions. Bring them.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⏱️ CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
00:00 – Introduction & Pendleton Teaser
01:14 – Welcome & Livestream Rules (Book Giveaway)
02:35 – Annapolis Sailboat Show & Captain’s Locker Downloads
06:32 – Studio Tour & Community Poll Results
08:12 – Upcoming Documentary: Cheeki Rafiki & Offshore Safety Ratings
10:48 – Recent Maritime Incidents: Keel Loss, Whales & Abandonments
17:23 – The Emergency Protocol: Why You Need a VHF Mayday Card
24:06 – Lessons from 3 Real-World Casualties & Rescues
27:58 – Book Giveaway #1
28:46 – Critical Survival Gear: Hydrostatic Releases & Life Rafts
33:28 – EPIRBs, PLBs & AIS Man Overboard Beacons
38:57 – Bilge Pumps: Manual Gushers, Maintenance & Diagnostics
42:38 – Q&A: Visiting Annapolis & Meeting at the Show
45:45 – Q&A: Circumnavigation Budgeting & Monthly Costs
50:52 – Q&A: Offshore Boat Insurance & Crew Coverage
52:42 – Q&A: Mast Steps on a Cruising Rig (Pros, Cons & Styles)
56:11 – Book Giveaway #2
56:26 – Q&A: Best Bilge Pumps, Float Switches & High Water Alarms
01:02:08 – How to Set Up an Emergency Crash Pump
01:04:44 – Q&A: Handing Over Boats in Fiji & Pacific Routing Realities
01:10:20 – Q&A: Hurricane Survival Strategies & Mangrove Holes
01:15:26 – Q&A: Seasickness Testing & Getting Offshore Experience
01:17:32 – Q&A: High-Latitude Routes & Cruising Passages
01:20:21 – Q&A: Safety Briefings, Vessel Rules & Free Diving
01:23:14 – Pendleton Sneak Peek & New Animation Style
01:26:45 – Q&A: Privilege Catamaran vs. Aluminum Monohull
01:31:00 – Book Giveaway #3 & Redraw
01:37:33 – Wrap-Up & Safe Seas
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚓ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚔️ Inner Circle on Patreon (join the WhatsApp crew): https://www.patreon.com/c/bethecaptain
📖 Be The Captain, my maritime field manual on seamanship, leadership, and crisis at sea (unlocks 10% off Defender Marine + 20% off PredictWind): English: https://bethecaptain.com/ · Español: https://a.co/d/08yiAfse
🧰 Free downloads in the Captain’s Locker: https://bethecaptain.com/locker
📚 Getting ready to buy? Come see Leadsman at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, booth O-18. Market intelligence and 17-page vessel condition reports: https://leadsman.ai/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚓ RECOMMENDED GEAR & PARTNERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Defender Marine: outfitting boaters since 1938 with trusted marine gear, expert advice, and refit supplies. 👉 https://defender.com/en_us/
PredictWind: the world leader in offshore marine weather forecasting, routing, and departure planning. 👉 https://www.predictwind.com/
#sailing #offshoresailing #bluewatersailing #liveaboard #shipwreck #survival #BeTheCaptain #CheekiRafiki
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I’ve Been Shipwrecked. I’ve Rescued Sailors. Here’s What Decides Who Survives. | LIVE
In 2020, a storm wrecked my catamaran on the way to Hawaii. In 2023, we pulled sailors out of the water on the way to Panama. And last year, I nearly lost the keel on a sister ship of the Cheeki Rafiki, the Beneteau 40.7 that capsized in the North Atlantic in 2014 with four men aboard. This summer,...