A very scary video

[leffklm]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

You do have to ask how they got into such a desperate lee shore situation.

It isn't like the rocky cliff they're pinned agaist magicallly arose from the ocean floor just for them to hit.

I don't know; I couldn't find any reference to how they got there, and I'm not an infallible sailor like many on this site, so I can't pretend nothing like this would ever happen to me. It would be interesting to find out what the real story was.

Sometimes people do stupid things, but sometimes bad things happen even when one does everything correctly. I don't know on which side of the spectrum this incident falls.

[jrd22]

I read a report from the Vessel Assist captain that took the tow from the CG. He asked the owners what happened and they said the engine quit. He then asked them why they didn't sail and they said the sails got "stuck". I'm guessing they were motoring close to shore and when the engine died, for whatever reason, they tried to unfurl/raise sail and got things fouled up. Looked like the South end of Lopez to me, which would make sense because the wind Saturday was from the SW in Juan de Fuca. There was no mention about the extent of damage to the boat, it was towed to Oak Harbor(Whidbey Island). Captain Rodriguez (vessel assist captain) has a blog on Blognet that is pretty interesting at times, he is a former sailor. Vessel Assist & Rambling Maritime Information: Tow to Oak Harbor

[sailingdog]

Generally, I try to stay as far from shore as possible, especially in bad weather, when I am pretty sure that making a safe harbor is not likely. Being close to shore and relying on the motor to keep you safe is generally foolish at best. Always best to keep some distance between you and a possible lee shore whenever possible.

Read the Vessel Assist Captain's blog... I find it hard to believe that all three sails were rendered unusable at the same time.... also have to ask how the rope fouled the prop...if it was from their own boat, that is sloppy seamanship at best... idiocy at worst—but the blog didn't say where the line came from.

Finally, I have to wonder why they had the dinghy out... in seas like that, it isn't very likely that getting in the dinghy would be anything close to safe... especially on a rocky lee shore like that... with the waves pounding the boat against the rocks... having the dinghy out probably didn't make the situation any easier.

[sailaway21]

I rescued some guys off the breakwater in Guam in a similar situation, although they'd managed to get the hook down and my RHIB was much more modest. I believe they deployed a 1.25 to 1 scope, that being all the line they had.(g) And grateful just begins to describe how they felt when we towed them off. (vbg)

In the interest of lessons learned, how many of us carry a 50-75' heaving line? The CG does and, even so, were lucky the seas were moderate enough to get so close. A sailboat, rendering similar aid, would need to stand off further due to lack of horsepower, and the lack of a good heaving line would probably make passing a hawser impossible.

That's either one tough boat or their keel was holding them off just enough. I heartily endorse the dog's point of staying offshore as much as possible, whether under power or sail. You'll stay out of the breakers too. I suspect the dinghy was the largest lifering that could be put over the side.(g) It would have probably still been afloat when the sailboat was eventually reduced to it's individual components.

[blt2ski]

Faster,

Being as you are from BC< this may not be the boat I am thinking of, but hopefully it is not the owner of Braveheart? Or a different TP52. Either way it is good to know the victim will survive. That is teh only current TP52 locally I know of. The other IIRC is sold, but not sure where.

Sounded like a wooly weekend of sailing up their!

marty

[ughmo2000]

Heh, heh, doesn't matter what the conditions were,

God bless the men and women of the USCG!

[chuckg5]

thats getting to close to a lee shore

[T34C]

Mark up another one for the Coasties. Risking their lives to save dumb asses everyday.

[ScuzzMonkey]

Not to say there weren't mistakes made (obviously), but for those of you who have never sailed in the San Juans, you should understand that there's quite often a "lee shore" somewhere close by--a lot of pretty narrow passes up there, and sometimes pretty shifty winds coming off all that geography. Easy to end up in bad places with the wind coming from somewhere it wasn't a few minutes before.