Took a Beating

[ken smith]

With 20-30 mph winds I headed out onto the Gulf and began to sail around Sanibel Island down at Fort Myers. Another day in paradise as we say down here, the air temp was 80-84, seas 4 foot building to 7-10 by the end of the day. The wind out of the south made it hard to get around the corner of Sanibel but once I did the sail up the coast became more and more downwind. After about six hours of sailing the winds began to lighten up and it was getting late in the afternoon so I decided to put up the asymetercial to sail the last bay before Red Fish pass and head back home down the ICW because it was getting late and I didn't want to be on the ICW after dark. Almost as soon as I raised the sail the winds picked back up to at least 25mph and I sailed a very short and wild last mile or so with the mac doing at least 10 mph and a wake behind me that was very loud. This is where the trouble began, the snuffer didn't work right so up on deck I went with no one at the helm. On deck I slipped and fell and cut my foot but had no time to look because I needed to get the sail down and back to the helm. After I got the sail down I stuffed it into the front hatch, now with the main reefed and up alone the boat became unbalanced and I had to watch from the front deck me do a few uncontroled jibs. It's hurts to watch from the deck doing jibs as the main snaps across and the consel shakes. I have the grab bar that goes to the floor and is bolted to the floor as well as to the wheel unit. Now when I get back to the helm I see the blood trail I left on deck and regain my composure when the BOOM comes across and hits me in the head. I stand there and am thinking to myself that I just got hit by the boom, next I realize I need to get down out of the way. As I sit down the blood starts to drip onto the floor and I'm fast approching the pass with the main reefed and going a good speed down wind with waves 8 to 10 foot following seas and needing to pay attention to the boat because with the following seas the helm is needing a lot of control so as not to broach. Now with blood driping my foot cut and my head pounding I can see the pass has huge waves braking and I'm thinking I need more control so I let out a little of the furled genoa to rebalance the boat. I check my map and I see no real shallow areas but I do remember reading in red letters that the sand bars do shift. As I rescan the pass I can now see the waves crashing on the sand bar on the port. Now fifty yards from the pass I can see these huge waves hitting something and spraying water up into the air so I think I need to untie the rudders so they don't get ripped off if the water in the pass is shallow. After unsecureing the rudders I'm now sailing thru the pass where the waves are now going in all directions and realize that what I was seeing was the outflow of the ICW meeting the waves from the Gulf and there were no shallows. Now for a half of a second I feel better knowing it's not shallow, when the boat swings sideways in the middle of the pass and I see the rudders swung up because of the turbulence. Now I got waves hitting both sides of the boat and the waves and water splashing up over the boat and the salt water everywhere. As I feel the saltwater my head starts to sting from the salt and reminds me to keep my head down. I'm now heading for the shore and need to get the rudders back down to regain control. After a struggle to get the rudders down with the floor of the boat beginging to look like a murder scene from the blood and water mixing I know I won't be able to tack into the wind because I don't have enough room to get up to speed to tack so I do yet another jib. Now I'm almost on the floor because I don't want to kiss that boom again. When I jib and the sail snaps across I'm thinking the whole helm will be tore out, but it wasn't and as I sail into calmer waters I look back at the pass and my hat blows off. I don't even look back because I know I'm not going back there. Now I can lick my wounds because there are very small waves on the ICW. I now have time to realize how much my head hurts and how much blood there is all aver the boat. I'm thinking that's enough sailing for one day and the sun is beginging to set. So I get on deck once more and lower the main, as I'm up there I see bloody footprints and try to remember how long I stood there after I got hit with the boom but I can't recall. When I got home my wife said it looked like I had a bad day, I told her it was a bloody good day. Just a little story for you winter boys, I can't wait to get back out there.
Ken

[LOUIS B HOLUB]

...KEN...next time, dont forget your DECKHAND...

[Jim Cate]

Ken, that's an exciting story. - The kind I don't want my wife to see!!!

From your report, I'm assuming that taking all the sails down and motoring into the channel would have been difficult, or that you thought the sails would give you greater control with the winds and seas you were experiencing toward the end of your cruise. Is that so?

Regarding the problem with rudders fixed in the down position and possibly running into a sand bar or other obstruction, has anyone come up with a good mod that would minimize damage under such circumstances? - Like using bungie cords or something similar? - In our case, the problem has occured as we maneuver toward or away from the dock at low tide.

Jim

[Chip Hindes]

Replace the rudder tiedowns with marine bungee. I did this three years ago and it has saved my butt several times.

Unhooking the tie downs to save the rudders is six of one half a dozen of the other; IMO the exact wrong thing to do though others might disagree. The steering loads on the rudders when they're not fully down is incredible. Might not break the rudders but it will certainly overload the steering gear, notorious for it's failure tendency.

[Night Sailor]

That seems a high cost for a brief 10mph rush. Hopefully you learned a bunch of lessons and won't repeat this experience deliberately. One of the biggest ones is in heavy weather keep things as simple as possible when alone on the boat. Singlehanding with that kind of weather forecast in very shallow water is more risk than necessary for fun, and can be done in emergencies, but I think should be avoided in all prudence. It is an exciting story, but I think a lot of us would have used that 50 hp on our stern to get away from the rough stuff sooner, in a safer manner.

I agree with Chip.. leave the rudders down for maximum control and predictabililty whether you are at the helm or not. With the rudders not tied up or down, you couldn't use the motor to save your boat from a reef or lee shore if they popped up to float or get horizontal, because the prop would eat them up.

You are wise to not rely on charts for depth in that area. I grew up in Bradenton, sailed every river, bay and the coast from Cedar Key to Everglades City many times in over 20 years there. The changes in depths and even the shape of the coast line is astounding since the last chart datums if you look at a Google Earth view today. Islands split. Inlets closed up. Peninsulas are now gone. And that's just mother nature working, not the damage and degrading done by developers. Last year's storms rewrite all the charts in sometimes major ways.

Happy sailing.

[craiglaforce]

Thanks for the story Ken. You need to do the bungee mod as Chip suggests. (I hate when Chip is right) Just get a couple of 10 foot lengths of the heaviest bungee they sell at the marine store and replace the hold down line with it. You can make a little loop at the rudder connection by clamping a few hog rings (like big staples) to hold the loop. (You can't really tie heavy bungee in a knot) The bungee I bought was white with black specs and is too big to go through the rudder hole, so I simply put another loop of regular line through the rudder hole and the bungee loop. I also bought those cleats that hold the line by inducing a few sharp bends. Not sure what they are called, I call them wiggle cleats, since you just wiggle the line into the cleats in an S shape.

I would also suggest the inverted Vee method to hold the mainsheet fiddle blocks as being much more solid and also forgiving of powerful jibes. Just put a heavy SS genoa track eye car on each side, a triple block under the boom and put a fiddle on each genoa track eyelet car. I did this for a bunch of reasons, but one effect is that it can handle any jibe you can throw at it all day long, forever.


After having gone through the big wave situation, against a strong tidal outflow, I am convinced the best way to go through is with the rudders fully up and under power. If the rudders are left down the rudder bracket heads are very likely to break. (The force imposed on the rudders when the boat is picked up 10 feet and hurled sideways into some other water is just amazing). Also bear in mind that when the boat i being tossed around this much, any dirt in the fuel system gets stirred up and can clog the carbs up in a heartbeat, leaving you wondering if you will have enough power to get back.

And please consider getting an autopilot so you can go forward without going totally out of control. It is dangerous enough going forward in wild conditions all by yourself without having the boat's wild gyrations making things worse.

Stay safe.

[ken]

Ken, that was probably a good example of what not to do when sailing by yourself. You could just as easly been knocked out cold and fallen overboard. In those winds I would tend to be a bit more cautious when sailing by myself and there would be no way I would go forward to do anything unless in an emergency.
Anyway, I appreciate the story and I am glad you made it back home.
Check out the link below and read about Tom Scott's trip from Key West to the Tortugas. Tom is a retired Air Force officer who sails out of Florida on a Precision 18. The story is a good read with some great pictures and Tom talks about how he prepared for the trip and the precautions he took.

Fair winds,
Ken


http://home.earthlink.net/~y2k_forester ... Report.pdf

[midget]

Damn Ken- was this today or last weekend when we had damn near hurricane force winds on the Cape! And to think I spent all day replumbing the pool heater. Guess ya didn't "bleed out" but how bad were the injuries? I prefer singlehanding myself, (just 'cause I'm learning this boat/sailing and don't want someone to see me screw up 'til I learn how to do it right!) but I'd go with you if need be, rather than you gettin' killed!! Not tryin' to be a pest, just want all of us to live.!!!

[Frank C]

Good story Ken. I remember you as the guy who took knockdowns on the Hudson or Niagra, just to measure the boat's boundaries, so I won't much second-guess you. But agreeing with somebody else above, I think if I'd been worrying about the rudders over a shoal, I might just have switched from sail to motor ... and even that's not so easy in those conditions, eh?

[Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL]

If you had your obm stering dis-connected, it would be "quick and painless" to re-connect your steering linkage, according to Don n Cheri who was able to do it in 9.14 seconds.

[Jim Cate]

Replace the rudder tiedowns with marine bungee. I did this three years ago and it has saved my butt several times.

Unhooking the tie downs to save the rudders is six of one half a dozen of the other; IMO the exact wrong thing to do though others might disagree. The steering loads on the rudders when they're not fully down is incredible. Might not break the rudders but it will certainly overload the steering gear, notorious for it's failure tendency.

Chip, I have the 26M, and when the rudders are in the down position, each of the lines holding one of the rudders down extends forwardly from the front portion of the rudder through a hole (with friction-reducing sleeve that doesn't seem to help much) in the rear shell of the transom and into a closed chamber extending laterally behind the cockpit. With the rudder down, there is only a short length of line between the front of the rudder and the rear of the boat. Also, when pulling the line to pull the rudder down, the line is pulled through the hole, and there is quite a lot of friction and resistance on the line as it is pulled in, partially because the rudder floats initially and is being pulled down in the water. The top of the line is also subject to friction as it is pulled upwardly through a hole at the top of the transom.- So, I'm not clear how I would conveniently attach a bungee cord to the rudder that would be long enough to do much good. Am I missing something?

Jim

[baldbaby2000]

Thanks for sharing your experience Ken. I also wonder why you didn't use the motor? Even with the rudders down and the motor position locked it still seems like it our help.

when pulling the line to pull the rudder down, the line is pulled through the hole, and there is quite a lot of friction and resistance on the line as it is pulled in, partially because the rudder floats initially and is being pulled down in the water

On my Mac 25 I added pulleys to double the purchase when raising or lowering the rudder; it was easy and helped a lot. On the 26M it looks easy to add one for the pullup line. I'm not so sure about the pulldown line yet but it may be possible too.

[Frank C]

... Chip, I have the 26M, and when the rudders are in the down position, each of the lines holding one of the rudders down extends forwardly .... Am I missing something?

Jim,
Chip was speaking of a 26X. If you identify your boat & motor in your member profile, Sig or Location fields, it's lots easier to judge context of posts.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Good story Ken. A lot of us know how you felt at the time. Cuts don't matter much once you get into survival mode. Those passes can be hairy even on pretty light days when the wind opposes the current causing breakers. I remember going into Blind Pass decades ago in a 16 ft bow rider I had just bought. The Gulf was fairly calm, maybe a 10-15 mph sea breeze with 2-3 ft waves. But in the pass, they were more like 4-6 and breaking, really caught me by surprise. To get back into the safety of the ICW, I submarined into a couple waves coming over the bow and flooding the boat with inches of water. This is not a good situation in a wide open powerboat with no pump...good thing the engine didn't quit that day! (and I had been having some intermittent fuel delivery problems) You have to keep the bow up in those situations or you are toast.

I do agree with other comments though, you should have at least had the engine down and running in neutral even if you wanted to sail the pass. I do that under bridges too. I also agree with the AP being a necessity for single handing. There is too much to do on the boat other than steering.

You can make a little loop at the rudder connection by clamping a few hog rings (like big staples) to hold the loop. (You can't really tie heavy bungee in a knot) The bungee I bought was white with black specs and is too big to go through the rudder hole, so I simply put another loop of regular line through the rudder hole and the bungee loop.

Craig, I disagree. I bought the thickest bungee WM carried (probably same as yours) which I think may be 3/8, and I was able to force it through my 2000 model rudder holes as well as tie a bow line in it that holds the regular line just fine. It's an extremely simple mod. I didn't cut anything, just extended the stock lines with the bungie part at the end. I think I got the exact lengths as recommended on this board (probably in 2003 on old board though). Can't be more than 3-4 feet per side and when I want the rudders down, the bungie part is about the perfect length to stretch to the cleats. The loop in the bowline clips right to the horn of the cleat. When you pull the boards up, it is the regular line which holds the rudder and is wrapped on the cleat. I'm pretty sure it is the simplest mod ever done on my boat and I'm hitting (the soft) ground all the time around here so it is used frequently.

[Jim Cate]

... Chip, I have the 26M, and when the rudders are in the down position, each of the lines holding one of the rudders down extends forwardly .... Am I missing something?

Jim,
Chip was speaking of a 26X. If you identify your boat & motor in your member profile, Sig or Location fields, it's lots easier to judge context of posts.

Frank,

All my notes have the big "M" picture in the left margin. - Do I need to do something else?

Jim