First, we always keep our
life raft on the floor in the cockpit and have a piece of plywood supported by fids fastened to either side of the cockpit well jut below the sail locker
hatches. Had the
life raft been kept on deck it would have been torn off the cabin top by the force of the water. It was that piece of plywood we used to cover the companionway
hatch that was ripped off.
The main boom, which had been sheeted tight to the mizzen mast, was severely bent. Using a block and tackle secured to the toe-rail and the boom we were able to almost straighten it out. By 1200 (the knockdown was at 0200) the wind was down to 35 kts and we were able to set a storm
jib, a reefed main and the mizzen. (I believe that we did not lose the
rig because we had re-rigged in New Zealand with galvanized
rigging three sizes larger than what was on there as it was the only wire available at the time)
With that rig we sailed into New York harbor and after cleaning up the engine, I was able to get it started (the engine was an 18 hp Albin diesel that I could hand crank) to get through Hells gate and around to City Island. The next day we sailed to Westport CT our home port and spent the rest of the summer fixing our 30 foot Allied Seawind Ketch "Bebinka" and in the fall we sailed her back to St Thomas to spend another winter in the Caribbean. Below (if I have figured out how to do this, I have posted a picture of what the interior looked like the morning after the knockdown
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/n...rrent=0312.jpg
His connection to reality is somewhat tenuous.
