It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
Water is still near 80, air 86, sun's out, wind looks nice. Last nights forecast was for 30-50 clicks (30mph), but by noon both stations are showing 13ish, & the mid lake buoy 14.
My buddy is tied up driving #3 daughter off to start University, so I decide to take the 5.7 out, solo, with a plan to make Orillia-Cooks Bay return, appx 50 miles. It all starts well, but once I round the point, again the wind is stronger than the stations indicate.
I travel out a ways & enjoy the ride. Pretty soon I travel out some more, then more. What the Hell are these posts about letting out 6-8"? I'm now out past the hiking strap, & 1/2 the mainsheet gone too. Eventually I decide to abandon the line to Cooks Bay & just head down the shoreline, the wind is really honking, I'm a pussy & feel better staying in sight of land. Pretty soon I can't even hold that line, traveler is to the beam, lots of sheet out, blocks are 3-4 feet apart, & it still won't stay down, I have to increase pointing til I'm headed at Carthew Bay.
I get hit with a big gust, lifts the boat past 45*, then immediately drops it, hard. As I'm regaining traction another big one tips me nearly 90*, & with most of the sheet out, I don't have much in the way of quick power release. I'm hanging as far as I can, & pushing the tiller hard, but at that angle the rudders have almost no bite. We have come nearly to a stop, & just as I think it will come back down a final snotty gust administers the coup de grace.
Damn, I wasn't planning on swimming to day. Throw the righting line over & start to untie the bag. Make a mental note NOT to let go of boat, as we are drifting way faster than I can swim. This is happening with the mast still pointed dead DOWNWIND. Standing on bow or stern makes no difference, so I jump in & pull myself along the forestay to the mast hound & start swimming it around. I get it 1/2 way & figure it should swivel on its own now, so I get back on the hull & hike out, thinking I might not need the bag. Sure enough, in this wind, my skinny 170lbs is enough & it comes up. I grab the DS to prevent it going right on over, then realize I'm being drug, so fast I can't get my legs forward of the beam in order to monkey up the hull. The damn jib line has jammed on something & we are sailing.
After several tries, I realize it is going to remain current heading, I can't get my legs forward, & can't hang on forever. I take a chance monkeying underneath the tramp to the rear beam by hooking 3 fingers into the underneath of the tramp side lacing, & going hand over hand til I get to the rear beam. I can now hook both arms between the tramp & rear beam to hang on. With my legs being swept further back, I can get one foot on each side of a rudder & twist it enough to head up & stop.
I quickly get around the side, grab a shroud & trap handle, flip onto the tramp, then start sorting out the mess.
In a few minutes I' m screaming along, trying to spot the buoy marking the only nasty reef in the area. I do spot a bare mast, & as I get closer it turns into a small tri-hull, (Hobie sail, WindRider?)with a guy & his gal. He says they are OK, couldn't make out why the sail is down.
Conditions are getting worse, & the wind shifted, so I abandon the plan & turn for home, now a broad reach to make Home Bay. I've never reached in wind this strong, but hey, isn't a broad reach really stable?
With the traveler to the beam, the main way way out, not a single tell tale flowing properly & the GPS at 21 mph it is a very spooky ride. The gusts keep wanting to turn me over, there's almost nothing left to let out & the bows keep diving for China, thank God for those high forward flotation Nacra hulls.
My 5.7 is "nervous" at 20+ water speed, steering gets real twitchy. I'm standing on the very end of the hull to prevent a pitchpole, so far so good, the bows keep surfacing.
After about 5 miles of this I'm, feeling like I might make it. Then the Wind God slaps me uspide the head, & over it goes, in really slow motion, so slow I'm eventually trapped off the skeg. I finally give up, & step over the hull, clear the hook, & slide onto the sail, no way am I jumping clear & losing contact.
Wind catches the tramp & drives the mast down, way down, sh*t, the damn thing goes full turtle. This cannot be happening. This is really bad. My mast is sealed, BUT, there is no way to totally seal the rotator wishbone as the bolt fully transits the mast, & it is now underwater. I know full well that in a very short time there will be a gallon of water at the mast head, preventing righting.
As fast as I bloody well can I get the righting line over the upwind hull, across the tramp & over the bow of the downwind hull. It is more difficult than imagined to climb up an inverted skeg hull. I do it, move right to the tip of the bow, & hike out, wishing I had a few knots closer to the end of the line. It seems like ages, (enough time to think about how long will it take to drift to the far shore, while turtled, can I retrieve the radio from the pocket, which is now underneath, & am I in range of the Coastgaurd station)in reality probably only 30 seconds pass before it starts to roll onto its side.
I'm actually amused by the fountains of water squirting from holes in the beams
As it rolls I slowly move down the hull & keep pulling in line.
With barely a pause, the mast comes clean, so I hike harder, & up it comes...twice in one day sans righting bag, 2 points for big wind.
Again I scramble on board & sort things out. Downwind rudder has popped the pivmatic & steering is a bi**h. At least I've made enough way to round 8 mile point & now am able to point for our Bay. I try heading up to lock down the rudder, but it's jammed solid, fully up. I know it's the pulldown line jammed, but there is no way to free it. I need to get on the hull behind the tiller tie bar, & use both hands to push the blade down about 30*. This means letting go of the steering, & each time I try the wind grabs the hulls as they point skyward off a wave & the boat quickly starts to turn, nearly flipping it again. I decide to just pinch the 5 miles to the windward shore, this takes an hour. The boat makes significant leeway pinching & I miss the beach by 2 miles, but at least I end up in calm water thanks to the forest. There is a tiny clear spot with a rocky beach, so I essentially pull into someones yard. The owner is there in 10 seconds, asking if I need help, she has been watching me for 20 minutes, wondering why I'm going so slow. I pull the boat onto some smooth rocks & get the rudder freed. Her husband comes down & says he has seen our Cats, looks like tons fun, & so bought an old Hobie he is restoring for next season. Another Cat sailor, score 1 more point for the Nacra.
After a chat I head for home, misjudge the approach to the dock, have to pull up & go around. With little searoom I misjudge again, blow the tack & have to back down. Not good because the water is going to get real shallow real quick.
It comes about just in time. I make sure not fuck up the second approach, get it spun upwind in the shallows & walk it to the dock, drop the rags.
My wife walks out from the deck & comments about how much fun it probably was & how maybe she should have come, broken leg & all.
I'm thinking, that wasn't sailing, that was survival, you'd probably have two broken legs. But I did make 21 GPS MPH, solo on a 19' boat!
Edited by Edchris177 on Aug 31, 2012 - 09:45 PM.
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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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Sail from Hell
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Posted: Aug 31, 2012 - 09:28 PM
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Posted: Aug 31, 2012 - 10:42 PM
good story
when it blows
it blows -
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Posted: Aug 31, 2012 - 10:51 PM
=) Glad it worked out.
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Rob
OKC
Pile of Nacra parts..
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Posted: Aug 31, 2012 - 10:56 PM
I've been there, albeit without the jib sheet stuck. It sucks how quickly you can tire from trying to climb up from the DS with the water washing over. Last time I just said screw it and let go, let the boat go over me, and grabbed the tiller crossbar on the way by. It jerked the rudders hard to the side which stopped the boat, and most importantly didn't break the xbar, although she flexed a ton. I actually pulled myself straight over the rear beam as soon as the boat stopped. I figured that was my one and only chance to have a boat to sail for the 2012 season.
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Rob
OKC
Pile of Nacra parts..
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Posted: Sep 01, 2012 - 01:43 AM
So Ed, how long did it take for the adrenalin to wear off? -
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Posted: Sep 01, 2012 - 07:44 AM
That is a proper story. Damn good thing you have skills and stamina. Nice job on how to fight back and win. You might forget where you bought your first car but you will never forget that day.
NICE!
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82 Hobie 18 Alter Signature Model. (The Cisco Squid) Complete refit down to the rivets in 2012.
81 H-16
Rescue California
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Posted: Sep 01, 2012 - 09:43 AM
Great story you should be a writer
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Posted: Sep 01, 2012 - 03:20 PM
Holy moly!!!! -
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Posted: Sep 02, 2012 - 10:38 AM
Its funny reading this because we all know that feeling when all goes to hell and it's survival time.
I had the same thing happen with the jib sheet getting stuck, dragging me underneath, but I wasn't lucky enough to stop the boat. It took off without me and didn't stop until 10 minutes later when a jet ski pulled up alongside it (wondering where the skipper was) and turned it into the wind. It would have been a long swim across the intracoastal had Scott, the Hobie dealer in Melbourne, not come out to pick our stupid selves up.
Sail it like you stole it!
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-Zach
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Posted: Sep 04, 2012 - 11:47 AM
I was thinking about your lake, with those surrounding high hills & winds from everywhere at once.
That idea crossed my mind, BUT, you only get one chance! I thought, if I missed it, I'm 3 miles off shore, & doubt if I could swim back as the wind was offshore. It would be at least 10 miles to the next shore, depending on drift angle, & there are so few boats around, I probably would not be seen or get picked up. I think those handheld radios have 6W max power, the Coastguard Station was 10 miles away, not sure if it would reach. Plus the fact that the radio was in the tramp pocket...dumb place to keep it.
HA HA, I must have had some, as I scampered up that hull PDQ. In hindsight it would have been much easier to climb onto the tramp near the front beam, then shinny out to the bow. You don't realize how sharp the underside of a skeg hull is, very little area to balance on, too sharp to be on your shins/knees. I don't know if standing on the stern would have worked better. The hulls are very buoyant when inverted, due to the flat shape. I don't think they were submerged an inch, the tramp was just at the surface. I thought I might have more leverage on the bow, & being a finer profile, standing on it would push it down further than I could get the stern to go. I knew I only needed to get the mast 10-20 degrees off vertical & it should come up. I think standing on the downwind hull is important. The boat is drifting, & the mast, sails, rigging etc all create quite a bit of drag, helping to move the masthead towards upwind. Once the hull/tramp starts to come out of the water, the wind grabs & does the rest.
The biggest scare was going full turtle. I was not looking forward to the idea of having to ride it all the way to the other side. The GPS log showed it drifting 2-4 kph, (1.25-2.5mph). That meant 5-8 hrs, with only 3 hrs daylight left. Once I got it wrestled onto its side, I knew I could get it sailing again. If the rudder hadn't jammed it would have been a final screaming beam/broad reach home. I experimented with footing off, but the tiller force was so high I thought I might break a blade, or the hiking stik pull apart, dumping me again. By that time I'd had enough for one day
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Hobie 18 Magnum
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Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
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Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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Posted: Sep 04, 2012 - 04:37 PM
That brings up a good point. Does anyone have real world experience with the range of a handheld. Thought
about getting one after being offshore on Lake Ontario this weekend.
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Pete Knapp
Schodack landing,NY
Goodall Viper,AHPC Viper,Nacra I20
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Posted: Sep 04, 2012 - 08:07 PM
Most of the places I have sailed don't have any sort of Coast Guard presence at all. On a big lake I thing it would be prudent to know the range of your radio and have a backup just in case (flare guns are pretty cheap).
I used to be kind of blase about preparation and attention to detail, but I'm getting more and more crazy about it every time I have a bad experience. I used to think Andrew's rants were a little overboard until I got myself into some dire trouble on my little 10 km by 10 km lake. Realizing the he sails in the gulf where they may find your boat in England when things go wrong kinds of gives some perspective.
Hey Chris, wow that is an amazing story! Just another weekend in the Hilliard household eh. :) It takes nerves of steel and brass balls to get through one like that without losing it. After having met you I know that you have both and a load of common sense to boot. Must be all the flight training. Hope I can do the same under similar circumstances!!
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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Posted: Sep 04, 2012 - 08:41 PM
on our small gusty lake we don't really need any emergency electronics, within 30min after a capsize the boat would probably be getting smashed up on the steep rocky shores and the crew could bushwack up to the ring road and then flag down a car or walk home
but as i have a waterproof, shockproof casio g-shock type phone i always sail with that. in 4 years of high pressure water sailing it has never failed
if sailing coastal i would still sail with it, possibly over a uhf as it would also report a gps position back with a call to emergency services
but as said in an earlier post while there is a certain thrill to mastering a bucking big 2man cat solo in the rough
i find more fun in the shorter, wider weta that planes like a skiff under it's flat gennaker in big air
an excellent video here of the recent san fran bridge to bridge
the 18 skiffs were there for a championship, coincidentally won by the nz team which is crewed by 1 of the weta factory owners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nLUcCW9xoM
their skiff is C-TEC
note how the big cat just doesn't look as much fun ploughing through the waves as the planers who skip along the crests;o)
Edited by erice on Sep 04, 2012 - 08:47 PM. -
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Posted: Sep 06, 2012 - 10:03 PM
I called the Coast Guard station once, just to make sure the thing worked. I was only about 4 miles away, they said it was 5x5.
I have heard they only have a range of around 6 miles. I did the same run today, in less wind, (Stayed upright, & did 21 mph max, can't seem to break that number) but was having too good a time to break out the radio. VHF is "line of sight", so anything to get the radio higher would help.
I did try calling them from my dock, only 1.5 miles as the crow flies, but, there is a peninsula about 30-40' high between my place & the CG Station. I could clearly hear them talking to another boat, but they could not read me.
Next time out I'll try to get an accurate read on effective transmit range.
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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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