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Date: Fri Apr 29, 2005
Subject: Swamping
Here's my newest one: Today I went to Pontchartrain with
my homebuilt 12'
sailer. I am still learning to sail it as it handles completely
different
than my 19' Com-Pac. Started out fine even though waves were
pretty steep
and the boat was taking a pounding heading into the wind. I
didn't have
trouble till I was coming back and had the seas to my back while
I was
running. For some reason, I needed to do something at the bow. I
headed
into the wind and not knowing how to handle this boat well, I
tightened the
mainsheet and let the tiller go. I guess maybe I should have
loosed the
mainsheet and let the tiller go. Anyway, while I has at the bow
for a
split second, the boat turned and took a wave from the side and
the whole
thing went over, so fast I wasn't even aware that it had actually
laid over
til I was hanging vertically off the gunwale. I was aware,
however, that
my $50 solar/crank radio was slowly getting quieter as it sank to
the
bottom.
I quickly climbed over it and onto the centerboard and managed to
easily
right the boat, which surprised me. What surprised me even more
was that
although the boat was floating fine, it was under the water. I
untied the
main halyard and stowed what I could grab floating and stuffed
things into
the stern locker. Every time I made a move to the bow, it
threatened to
flip on me again, so I had to move quickly and stay in the stern.
I
attempted to bail with my little bucket, but it was useless,
there was 10X
the volume of water coming in with every wave. I finally resolved
myself
to waiting for help and in the meantime, removed the sail, stowed
it in the
locker, and lashed the boom down to keep from losing it. I
probably
floated there for an hour (forgot my kayak paddle section this
trip) before
I started getting close to the seawall and the waves started
really getting
nasty. I figured I would try to drag the boat along the wall as
it was
being dashed to pieces on it, till I got to the end and rounded
to the calm
side. But then a fishing boat rounded out of the channel and
headed to me
as I waved overhead. They threw me a rope and started towing me
to the
channel, nearly swamped me another 10 times. They brought me to
the end of
the pier where an old sailor was standing waiting for me, he had
sent them
when he saw me out their driving a mast with no sail. He held my
dockline
for me as I bailed for the next hour and got enough water out to
walk the
boat to the beach where we flipped it and dumped most of the
water out. I
was then able to re-rig it and sail it back to the launch area.
Besides
losing my radio and my wristwatch losing 40 minutes and the
built-in blue
nightlight, I got about 2 more hours of sun than I intended...my
back is
fried.
So I learned some things about my little boat today. It can
handle the
rough seas, I obviously cant. Never bring electronics or anything
else you
wish to keep on a boat that WILL flip on you. When building a
boat from
plans, always add the amount of floatation the plans call for.
And then
add some more. You can't sail a bathtub. I always wondered how
you were
supposed to right the boat without filling it with water. You are
not. It
will fill with water and that is the end of sailing for that day.
I saw Multimedia Smith and his fine 16 as I was leaving, he said
he'd seen
me in the shallows bailing...I wish he'd gotten there an hour
earlier so he
could have been taking pix.
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