Hello all,

...to any vessels participating in one of those organized offshore cattle drives...

Good for him, I say...

"Commencing 2012 Herb will only provide the existing voluntary marine HF service to skippers of yachts who pre-register by providing advance notification via email or other means of communication, that they wish to" sign in" to the SOUTH BOUND II VAX498 NET, indicating passage dates.

In addition Herb will cease to provide weather forecasts and/or routing advice to yachts participating or joining in Organized Race Events or Cruising Rallies, except in case of any emergency."

http://www3.sympatico.ca/hehilgen/vax498.htm

Very, very disappointing to see a finger of blame being pointed at Herb by Hank Schmitt and others... Charlie Doane posted this on his blog after the events of last November:

"Right now the consensus among NARC boats and others in Bermuda, according to Hank, is that volunteer weather-router Herb Hilgenberg was a fount of bad advice. The boats in the NARC fleet that had the hardest time reaching Bermuda were those taking guidance from Herb, Hank told me. This includes Triple Stars, the crew of which were allegedly advised by Herb to not sail south toward Bermuda when they had the wind to do so.

"Herb really blew it this year," said Hank. "Herb gives great weather forecasts, but I don't think people should listen to his advice on where to go."

I reached out to Herb for a response to this and just received the following e-mail:

Hello Charlie.

I think you should talk to skippers of yachts that made the passage to Bermuda starting between November 1st and 2nd, such as Ghost Boat, White Wings, Cimmaron, Mantra, Relentless, still in Bermuda, to mention just a few, and NARC yacht ELLE which was abandoned, Boonastra and S/Y Triple Star (still in transit), of the NARC Rally.

The NARC Rally should never have started on Nov.1 to begin with, and I believe Hank Schmitt is looking for someone to take the blame for his bad decision. Ask him why NARC S/Y SONG was in severe storm condition at 33:34N/69:30W when he activated 2 EPIRBS requiring a Coast Guard C130 to head to his position. I was requested to give advice to get him out of the severe conditions which, I did. He should never have been were he was, possibly because he did not listen to my advice to others, to stay well east. I kept most yachts who I was in contact with well east and north of 36N-37N initially, with heavy weather to the south and they arrived safely in Bermuda. Some smaller yachts had to head west later to avoid T.S. Sean.

ELLE did not follow my advice and he admitted that to me in writing.

I have solid evidence to substantiate my actions and based on that, I firmly believe that Hank Schmitt should have delayed the rally altogether.

Regards

Herb

Fixed HF Marine Land Station VAX498"

http://www.wavetrain.net/news-a-views/291-caribbean-1500-rally-they-leave-without-me

After decades of inestimable service to offshore sailors, and as one of the pioneers of passagemaking weather routing (Herb was doing this long before most of those "for profit" actors got into the game), he has become well known for the "conservatism" of his advice... Seems understandable to me, he's dealing with a myriad of unknown quantities, people he's never met or communicated with prior to their checking in, boats he's never seen, experience levels of crews completely unknown, and so on... If you want a more "agressive" weather router, well... then PAY someone else...

Hank Schmitt saying Herb "blew it", huh? You've gotta be kidding me... Herb advised against leaving Newport when the NARC fleet did (he offers a complete account and timeline of the events of early November on his website) Hell, why were boats in the NARC fleet relying on Herb at all, instead of the NARC's own professional router who gave them the green light on November 1 to begin with?

Sorry, but this really, REALLY pisses me off...

best regards,

Jon