[Rhodes22-list] Grounded My Boat on a Sandbar

[David Culp]

After 3 years, I finally did it.  My lake is shallow in places and I know
most of the spots.  The wind forecast was 10-20 mph with a cold front
approaching but not forecast to arrive until the evening.  The wind at that
time was only supposed to pickup from 15 to 25 mph.  10-20 is my perfect
forecast for Rhodes sailing and a friend was going out in his boat and we
agreed to meet down the lake about 6 miles from where I slip.

We met up and were going to have a race as we sometimes do.  At the time, we
were in a very narrow area and we were trying to sail into one of the bigger
basins.  To expedite getting there, I was cutting across and just adjacent
to one of those shallow areas.  As we rounded a bend in the lake, the front
hit.

We have a very sudden and dramatic wind change around to the north and my
friend estimated that it was about 30 kts almost immediately.   At the time,
I had full main and about 150% of the jib out.  Neither one of us could tack
into it and my only option was a jibe toward the shallow area.  The result
was that I ended up in the shallows and sliding up on a sandbar in about a
foot and half of water.

I had the board out at the time and I wasn't moving very fast.  Predictably,
the boat just came to a smooth stop as the board retracted into the keel and
then rolled over like a drunken whale to about 45 degrees.  I had gotten
most of the sails in by then thank goodness.  The wind was blowing so hard
at that point (we estimate between 30 and 40 mph), that I really thought the
boat was going all the way over and so I secured everything and the just
climbed up on the high side and sat there.

My cellphone rings and my friend is asking "What are you going to do now"?
I said " $#*t, I don't know what I am going to do"!  What can you do?  Have
a drink I guess because surely nobody is going to come out on the lake and
help in those conditions.  It's not like I can wait for high tide either.
Fortunately, I didn't have to ponder my situation very long.

The wind let up a little bit and I convinced myself that the keel was heavy
enough that the boat wasn't going to broach.  I climbed down on the low
side.  With all that wind pushing on the hull and just enough water; my
weight on the low side floated the boat just enough to where it eased off
the sandbar.  I used the motor to make a quick turn to get out of the
shallow area.  A quick assessment showed nothing had been damaged except my
pride and now all we had to figure out was how to make the 6 miles back
home.

Now the wind is still blowing about 25 kts at this point and is out of the
north.  The waves are at least 2 feet or higher and I have never seen so
many white caps on a lake.  It's a reach and then a run home, so I must get
back on this "horse" and be a sailboat again.  On a b