[Rhodes22-list] What Should I Have Done Differently?

[Michael D. Weisner]

Hey Mark (& all other sailors),

As we always say, any landing you walk away from is a good one.  In boating, 
if you are able to sail home, it was a good day at sea.

We are currently on a slightly larger ship than usual, Royal Caribbean's 
Explorer of the Seas.  On Saturday, February 16, the ship made an 
unscheduled 75 mile detour to answer a distress call from a 40' sailboat 
named Tumbleweed of 1974 vintage (not a Rhodes, of course.)   Our captain 
said their radio was so faint that he wasn't sure that they had indeed heard 
a mayday call.  It turned out that they were calling on an emergency 5W 
handheld VHF.  After some tense radar imaging, they were located and we 
changed course to intercept them.  We picked up 3 sailors who had made a few 
mistakes that prevented them from returning to their home and could have 
cost them their lives.  They left the Chesapeake on Jan 31 on their way to 
Bermuda or points south (on a 40 footer in winter!)  They encountered a real 
bad storm on Valentine's Day with winds in excess of 70 knots (confirmed by 
our captain.)  They tried to ride out the storm but blew out their mainsail 
and head sail.  It appears that they made a crucial mistake when they 
attempted to head for shore (they were 20-25 miles out) by replacing their 
blown out jib with a furling 170% Genoa and attempted a partial deployment. 
The wind took the entire sail out when the furling line snapped.  Then all 
hell broke loose.  The lower 1-inch mount for the furler snapped, taking the 
furling hardware, their VHF antenna and forestay with their genny.  They 
talked about the forestay and furler thrashing about the deck like a 
wrecking ball until it finally broke loose.  When all was done, they were 
then unable to sail at all as their mast was now unstable as well.

The seas peaked at 30' during the storm.  When we rescued them, they were in 
19' seas, adrift for 3 days.  With most of their provisions water logged, no 
power, no sails, 150 miles east of Cape Hatteras and taking on an inch of 
water per hour, they made the decision to abandon ship.  They believe that 
the Tumbleweed is now resting on the bottom of the Atlantic.  They are 
currently our guests, until they are handed over to the authorities in St. 
Thomas or Puerto Rico as dictated by protocol.  They all say that they are 
lucky to be alive.

Has anyone heard about the rescue?

Mike
s/v Shanghaid'd Summer ('81)
       Nissequogue River, NY

From: <mputnam1 at aol.com> Monday, February 18, 2008 3:55 PM
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am hoping you can help me learn from my sailing experience today. I know 
> I must have done some things wrong, but maybe I did a few things right 
> because I was able to get back to the harbor safely in the end. Let me 
> describe what happened and then ask a few questions. And let me apologize 
> in advance for not getting all my nautical terms right … I’ll do the best 
> I can.
>
> My R-22 is kept at the Washington Sailing Marina on the Potomac River, 
> just across the river from DC. The weather this morning was unseasonably 
> warm with winds in the 15-20 knot range with gusts up to 29, according to 
> the coast guard weather report. I knew a cold front was approaching and 
> that it would get windier as the day went on, but it was around 11am and 
> while I was a little uncertain about going out, it was one of those rare 
> weekdays when my lack of work intersected with wind on the water. So I 
> decided to try and see if I could handle it and learn something at the 
> same time. I had thought I’d read enough on this group about how to handle 
> the boat in windier conditions – I wanted to put some of that knowledge to 
> the test.
>
>
> I was single-handing the boat and motored out of the marina and down the 
> Potomac to where I usually head for the center of the river before killing 
> the engine, hauling it up and unfurling the main. Before I killed the 
> engine, I noted that the water was choppy, but there were no white caps. I 
> resolved to myself that if I began to see white caps, I'd head home. I 
> pointed into the wind, killed the engine, hauled the engine up and only 
> let out a little less than half of the main (having read so many posts on 
> this group about being conservative in windier weather) and it almost 
> immediately got out of my control.
>
>
>
> The boat swerved into a beam reach and began tipping over, so I let out 
> the main sheet to try and keep the mainsail from tipping me over. Right 
> then I noticed that white caps had appeared (great timing on my part). The 
> clew and the foot of the main sail was thrashing around, with a good 
> amount of airspace between the clew and the boom.
>
>
>
> As an aside, I’ve never quite understood what is supposed to keep the foot 
> of the sail close to the boom besides just securing the sheet. In these 
> stronger winds, the main was actively pulling away from the boom. Am I 
> perhaps missing some key component to keep the bottom/foot of the main 
> sail in tighter proximity to the boom?
>
>
>
> Because I had let out the main sheet to try and control the heeling, I 
> could not reach the line to furl the mainsail back into the mast. The line 
> was out over the water. So I was having to try and pull the boom back into 
> the cockpit to get a grip on the furling sheet … which, of course, led to 
> more heeling. And when I pulled on the line to furl the main, it wouldn’t 
> furl.
>
>
>
> And, most disturbingly, with so much wind filling the small amount of the 
> main that was out, I just couldn’t furl the sail. It wouldn’t budge. I 
> also noticed that more of the main seemed to be inching out. I thought I 
> had secured the main so it wouldn’t further unfurl, but I don’t remember 
> if I had and I don’t remember checking it in all the hullabaloo. It never 
> fully unfurled, thank goodness, so maybe I had secured it to some degree.
>
>
>
> Anyway, every time I tried to point the boat into the wind, it didn’t help 
> give me more slack to furl the main. It was noisy as hell, of course, 
> which I expected. But I didn’t get the slackness necessary to furl the 
> main. And the boat didn’t want to stay pointed into the wind, which I 
> found a little surprising. I thought sailboats, when pointed into the 
> wind, stayed there. But I guess I learned otherwise today!
>
>
>
> I eventually put the motor back in the water, cranked it up and powered 
> into the wind. The swells had increased to the point that the engine was 
> coming up out of the water on every swell, but at least I was seeming to 
> make progress. I then somehow pulled hard enough on the furling line to be 
> able to furl the main. I don’t know how I did it, but I did. At this 
> point, I noticed that my tiller to engine linkage was not working. The 8hp 
> Mercury motor I have only has one latch to hold the cowling onto the 
> engine and it was failing with the severe pressure on the cowling, and the 
> cowling was being ripped off the engine. I had to use the engine tiller to 
> point the motor. I tried to disengage the linkage, but in the frenzy of 
> the moment, I wasn’t able to do that. So I just continued steering by 
> using both the boat’s tiller and the engine’s tiller.
>
>
>
> I eventually made it closer to the shore where the wind wasn’t as severe, 
> and was able to disengage the tiller linkage and made it back to the dock.
>
>
>
> So here are my questions:
>
>
>
> 1) First, the most basic question -- whenever I go out on 5 knot days, I 
> make little progress on the water. And if 15-20 knot days are too much, it 
> seems a narrow window indeed that I am able to sail in. Is this the case? 
> Is the R-22 a boat that should only go out in 10-12 knot winds in order to 
> best enjoy it?
>
>
>
> 2) What should I have done differently when the half unfurled main 
> immediately got out of my control? Should I have steered the boat 
> DOWNwind? Would it have been easier to furl the main if I had done that? 
> Or is steering the boat INTO the wind and the chop the right thing to do?
>
>
>
> 3) Is there something I should be doing differently so that the clew of 
> the mainsail doesn’t get pulled so far away from the boom in windy 
> weather? It seemed very loose and uncontrollable. This was one of the two 
> most disconcerting parts of the experience (the other being the inability 
> to furl the main).
>
>
>
> 4) In a worst case scenario where I can’t furl the main (especially if it’s 
> fully unfurled) in strong winds, should I just try to motor to shore with 
> the main flapping away and catching wind? I didn’t know in the situation I 
> was in if the imperative is to a) try and furl the main first or b) to 
> just get myself out of the windy area of the river even if it means 
> motoring with the main unfurled. I was afraid that if I tried to do option 
> b, that the boat could tip over if I was going in a direction that was 
> putting the main into a position to be able to tip the boat. In 
> retrospect, I’m now thinking that it’s possible to motor with the main 
> unfurled, as long as the main sheet is fully out and allowing the main to 
> go wherever it wants to go.
>
>
>
> 5) Has anyone else with the tiller/engine linkage had a similar problem in 
> strong wind situations? The cowling only has the one latch on the back of 
> the engine (furthest astern) and this one latch was clearly a weak point 
> in situations of stress on the linkage. If I’m going to be relying on this 
> linkage in bad weather conditions, do any of you have any advice on where 
> and how I can get more latches put on my cowling? OR should I not attempt 
> to use the linkage in stronger winds?
>
>
>
> 6) What should be the role of the motor in these situations? Is it the 
> first thing to engage to get the boat pointed in a particular direction? 
> Or is it the last thing to resort to? Should I be able to furl the main 
> without using the engine?
>
>
>
> I have to tell you, it was very disconcerting to have trouble furling the 
> mainsail. I have loved the innermast furling main up until this point … 
> but pulling with all my might on the line was doing nothing. It just 
> refused to budge. I still don’t know quite how I was able to get it 
> finally furled. It must have had something to do with engaging the motor 
> in the process, but I don’t know for sure.
>
>
>
> For anyone out there who is reading this and considering purchasing the 
> R-22, please know that I think this is a marvelous boat. The inner-furling 
> mast is something that I’ve been very happy with up until today and 
> perhaps it’s all a function of this being too much wind for the boat. Or 
> too much wind for me, a relatively inexperienced sailor.
>
>
>
> I don’t know for sure the best way to learn how to sail in weather like 
> this … especially if I feel I have to go back to the dock as soon as there 
> are white caps. Maybe there is someone out there who is experienced in 
> this sort of weather AND knows the R-22 who can tutor me on-board in just 
> this sort of weather, but finding that person would not be easy. But I am 
> ready for any and all suggestions.
>
>
>
> Thanks for reading this very long email and I look forward to any and all 
> advice … including “stay the hell out of 20 knot wind weather.” Maybe that’s 
> the root of the problem, but it seems easy to imagine that going out in a 
> 10 knot day could easily turn into a 20 knot day with gusts in no time at 
> all.
>
>
>
> Thanks everyone,
>
>
>
> - Mark P.
>
>
>
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