On Saturday April 6th, I left home around 8am to go to False River. Normally I like to sleep in on Saturday, but I was willing to get up early so that I could participate in a sailing regatta. For those of you who don't know, a sailing regatta is a series of three sailing races. I arrived at False River shortly after 9am to meet up with the skipper and other crew member. We would be sailing the Flying Scott.
The two of them actually had their heads buried in the engine of the motor boar. The skipper also has a motor boat, and uses it to help set out the marks for the race. It also stands ready as the rescue boat in the unlikely event of a needed rescue. The motor boat had not been used all winter, so it was taking some extra work to get started. They left it running and we went to rig up the sailboat.
The weather was beautiful, it was supposed to get up to around 70 degrees, and there was a good wind for sailing. We were excited. A while later a couple other people arrived. One of them walked over to greet us. He was dressed like a serious sailer and appeared to know what he was talking about. He even had a shirt with a different sailing club's logo. He chatted with our skipper for a little while and then headed off to ready his boat. Our skipper commented that this other sailer was a campaigner - someone who goes from race to race to sail. We on the other hand sail for fun and as a hobby. I have sailed a number of times, but the other crew member had only sailed 4 or 5 times before. I commented to the other crew member that I was out to have fun sailing, expecting to lose, and then to enjoy some good food.
After getting everything ready, including some more work on the motor boat, we had a skippers meeting and were ready to begin. We were a little behind the other boats in getting ready because we had been working to get the motor boat running as well. Once we were in the water, the main sail was a little cantankerous in going up, but after a few attempts, we had it raised entirely and were ready to go.
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| Sailing back and forth behind the starting line. |
The regatta happens in three sections, and we race against the same kind of boats. We were in the first group. Before we began, there was a five minute flag, and from that point we sailed back and forth behind the starting line, attempting to be as close to crossing it as possible right at the starting time. For each race we had to make two loops around the marks. This is interesting because we had to deal with the direction of the wind. On the way back to the starting line from the mark, we raised the spinnaker, which is an extra sail out in front of the bow that catches the wind from behind the boat. This was only the second time I had sailed and flown a spinnaker. We were not in the lead, but during this time we were able to pull ahead of another one of the boats. Sadly, on the second time around, we caught some bad wind and fell behind, coming in third out of the three Flying Scotts.
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| Flying the spinnaker. We are the middle boat. |
We stopped over at the dock momentarily to try tighten our main sail and to see if we could figure out what was causing us to pull a little unusually. The skipper commented as we were sailing that the balance seemed to be off. I took advantage of this time to shed my sweatshirt and apply some more sunscreen. The sun was nice and warm, but with the wind, I was glad that I was in pants. Then it was time for round two.
We started off well, but then ended up getting knocked a little off course by the wind. This simply caused us to lose some time. We were still able to move with good speed - which by the way makes for a great ab workout as we 'hiked' (leaned) way out over the edge of the sailboat to counterbalance. I love going quickly, but it does get tiring. As we were tacking (making a 90 degree turn) to get closer to the mark, I was shocked to see that we were tipping a little farther than normal. I thought through everything, and I had done what I was supposed to do this time. There had been a few times earlier where I had not done as well, which is dangerous because it could cause us to flip.
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| Hiking way out to counterbalance the wind. |
Well, everything had been done correctly, but I remember thinking, "we are actually going to flip." I have never even gotten close to flipping in this boat before. I was vaguely aware that the skipper was already gone, and then I decided I should jump in the water. I also had the dreaded realization that, not only were we tipping, we were actually going to turtle the sailboat. The skipper had gone over backwards - like we are supposed to if we flip - and tried to grab the centerboard right away for leverage to try prevent us from turtling. Turtling a sailboat is much worse because that means the boat is completely upside-down and the sail is completely in the water. There was not much I could do about it at that point. As I jumped into the water my comment was, "ah, cold."
After that we attempted to right the sailboat, but because it was turtled, we were unsuccessful. So we climbed onto the bottom of the sailboat and waited. I remember consciously thinking to keep my toes together while in the water to save my flip flops from falling off, even though I had worn my old ones just in case something happened to make me lose them.
Well, we were thankful that the other crew member's dad was there taking pictures of the race for the skipper and his wife. He has a motor boat ver similar to the skipper's and was in it very quickly and headed our direction for the rescue. He arrived and right away checked to make sure everyone was okay. With the help of the motor boat, we tried to flip the sailboat upright - at this point I think we were disqualified from the race. We were unable to flip it. He commented that our time was limited. I asked why, and he responded that the water was cold. He was worried about hypothermia, which was amusing to me because although the water was cold upon first contact, I was not even cold from it. The water temperature was similar to lakes in late summer where I grew up. The skipper and I were fine, but the other crew member was cold so we sent him into the motor boat.
The next step was to tow the sailboat back closer to the dock, with it still upside-down. The skipper and I rode on the keel of the sailboat for this trip. We had made a couple of loops with some of the rigging on the boat so that we would have something to pull on as we tried to flip the boat over. Once we got closer to the dock, we attached another rope between the motorboat and the sailboat. This rope was spaced out from the first one. By this time, some of the other sailers were providing advice. They had finished the second and third sections of the regatta.
The motor boat, pulling full speed ahead was not able to entirely flip the sail boat over. The skipper and I were still on the bottom of the boat, pulling our ropes and pushing down with our feet, hoping to get the sail at least level with the water. The problem was that both the main sail and the jib (the smaller sail in front of the mast) were tight. They are both right triangles, and I am estimating that the main sail is probably about 10 ft on the short side and 20 ft on the longer side. If you want to calculate to figure out the length of the hypotenuse and the total area of that sail, go ahead. Anyway, with that sail and the smaller jib were both pulling up a lot of water.
As we continued to pull, I remember hearing a popping sound. I had no idea what it was. Then the skipper and the rescue driver were asking if everyone was okay. At that point I recognized a significant pain in my arm. I quietly said no, then they asked again and I said, a little louder this time, that I couldn't feel my arm. I looked at it quickly and didn't see any blood, which was good. I could move it, but it hurt. So, they sent me to the motor boat. As I was swimming in that direction, I realized what had happened. One of the two ropes between the motor boat and the sailboat had snapped, it had then hit me on the upper part of my right arm.
Shortly after this, with slow progress, the mast came about level with the surface of the water. The motor boat did not have enough power to continue to flip it, but thankfully another sailer in a Sunfish (a smaller one person sailboat) was able to stand in his boat and lift the end of the mast. He then moved towards the boat continually lifting the mast as he went, until the boat was flipped upright again. Then, with the skipper in the sailboat and the motor boat pulling, we were able to get it back to the dock.
We were greeted by some of our fans, who once they had realized we had flipped, had scrounged up dry clothing and towels for us. I commented that all I needed were my keys out of the skippers vehicle because I had a bag in my car with everything I needed. I always go to the lake prepared, just in case. I stayed to help with the boat for a little while, but there were many helpers at that point and they sent me to go take care of my arm.
After I changed, I went to go get my flip flops. They had been in the motor boat for most of this time. I couldn't reach them, so I borrowed some in the for a while. I was quite hungry at this point. I tried to help out some more, but then realized that I really needed to eat some lunch. By this time, it was getting close to 2:30. We had started the races around 11:30, and the first one took about 45 mins. We were probably in the water for about an hour and a half trying to get the boat upright.
Getting the boat out of the water was still a significant challenge. It could not simply be put on the trailer because there was too much weight and the trailer could not be backed far enough into the water without endangering the vehicle. It was done in stages, with bailing in between. Back the vehicle in, winch up the sailboat, bail some water, repeat. Just as the sail boat was winched all the way up, the person there tied some extra ropes around it because the winch strap was fraying. It actually broke shortly after the ropes were tied. Thankfully the boat was still secure.
The bailing process took time, especially because they could not find buckets anywhere at the club so they had to make do with a pitcher and a jug. Later I found the buckets outside around the side of the club. Someone had used them for cleaning and left them out to dry. Eventually enough water was removed that the trailer would not banana from the weight of the boat, and the boat could be pulled out of the water. The plug was out, so the remaining water could drain slowly that way. Then those who had been working on the boat could have lunch, and all the other sailers could bring their boats in because the launch was clear.
I sat in the sunshine with my lunch, and a bag of ice on my arm. The breeze actually made me a little cold, even with the sunshine. The ice on my arm didn't help me warm up any either. After we all ate, and everyone was in dry clothes we were able to properly stow the boat. Thankfully the only things lost were the spinnaker pole, the boom crutch, and the cranks for the sail. These are quite replaceable. The iphones, keys, and wallet in the water bag survived. The bag did its job, keeping everything dry and floating under the boat, even though it was only hooked on something and not fully secure.
At the end of the day, I looked back and was thankful. Although things did not go as planned I was still able to enjoy my day. The weather was great. No one was seriously injured. The only things that were lost are fairly easily replaceable, especially compared to some of the other things on the boat. I was also thankful that the rope only hit my arm, not my face or my eyes, my sunglasses could easily have shattered into my eyes. I was thankful that the other crew member's dad was there and could easily drive the rescue boat to help us out. God knew what we would need for the day, and he definitely provided for us.
**Some notes to finish:
The names have been omitted to protect those involved.
The pictures are property of our photographer Tony Johnson.
If you are curious, my arm did swell quite a bit, but with icing and advil it was much better after 5 days. It is still bruised in some places, but doing much better.
