..pOTEVA aNDARE pEGGIO..

txt courtesy of sailinganarchy.com

This photo is from our Dec 1 Commodore's Cup (attempt at a race, only 3 boats started, none made it more than a mile down the course). We were just contemplating whether it was prudent to continue or not when our boom broke, making the decision for us. The wind was building rapidly around start time (from a nice 15 knot northeasterly as we headed out of the yacht club, to solid 35+ an hour later). This breeze was forecasted to kick in late afternoon / early evening but arrived about 7 hours ahead of schedule.

A few lessons learned . . .

- That old thing about cold dense air packing more of a punch in the same windspeed than warm summer air seems to actually be true. And when it's cold, everything is a little more difficult and time consuming (major bulky clothing, cold hands, etc.)

- We should have completely unrigged the boom and put it down below after it broke. Getting the sail off the boom and down below wasn't enough. As it was, with the boom strapped down in the centre of the cockpit but still attached at the gooseneck, it meant that you had to climb over it to tack or gybe, high centre of gravity, poor balance. While tacking near Cattle Point, Matt was stepping over the boom just when the boat jumped out from under him on a wave and over he went. He was well dressed and had an inflatable PFD on, and we had him back on board in under 3 minutes (one gybe and one tack to get back to him). But by the time he hit the showers back at the yacht club he was pretty cold, even after immediately going below to get out of the wind and getting dry clothes onto his upper body once he was back on board.

- One should add an extra margin of safety when interpreting the weather forecasts in the winter. We should have just headed for home as soon as it became apparent that the forecasted gale was arriving early.

- It's not worth endangering your crew in gnarly conditions just because you feel confident about your sailing abilities and like to sail in big breeze. This situation could have been a lot worse.

Now I've got a project on my hands. I'm looking for a section of mast off another boat to make a new boom out of. I like the idea of an oversized section!

Tail between legs,
Simon

12/12/07

txt courtesy of sailinganarchy.com