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Ouch!

5K views 28 replies 19 participants last post by  AlpineSailor 
#1 ·
#5 ·
Can someone explain to me what happened around photo 6? Was this just wrong place, wrong tme for the boat? It looks like to me the wave broke into the back of the boat and he was at a slight angle to it. Is that correct? If he had been aimed straight away from it, might he have faired better?
This one gives me the willies; it's not one where the guy looks like a total idiot (or if he is, so am I, which is a distinct possibillity).
 
#6 ·
Also interested in a post-mortem. My guess is that the water gets shallow (see rocks, foreground), causing storm or tidal surges to rear up and break. The surfers seem to know this, if the (San Juan's?) skipper doesn't. I'd posit that *any* sailboat that finds itself among surfers needs to think hard about its position and heading.
 
#7 ·
What I was wondering is if the dropboards were in or if the impact of the wave smashed them.
You can see the companionway hatch is closed but there are no dropboards
if the dropboards were in and survived the impact do you think the boat would have stayed afloat despite the multiple rollovers and the cockpit being swamped ?

I guess when you are sailing amongst surfers you can anticipate a rough ride.
 
#8 ·
Too much wave. Not enough boat. - It looks like a 22-26 footer, in 10+ foot swells under the Golden Gate Bridge.

I beleive that the wind was blowing into SF bay, and the tide was going out. This combination can create some nasty swells.

He *should* have had the companionway hatch closed if there was any chance of getting pooped. He may have stood a better chance if he were motoring, or at least had reduced his sails, (you can see that he actually gybes inbetween pictures 3 & 4) and if the weight were more aft. You can see the bow go under in picture 5. Also note that the transom has a cutout for motor, but there is no motor present in pic 5, or 26.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Well at least they got a good shot of the boat name :) Feel sorry for him in a way, but how do you allow yourself to get so close to shore. Looks like the slot by the golden gate, always a good wind.

Have to give it up for the Coast Guard, looks like they were on top of things!
 
#10 ·
Note to self: Don't sail next to surfers. He was probably trying to "get a rush" and see how fast his boat went surfing down a wave.

SF sailors, Isn't the area around the bridge notorious for having strange currents, eddys, wave action, and even small whirlpools?
 
#15 ·
In a couple of those shots it looks like the boom may have taken out out his dropboards.
 
#17 ·
Why is there always a professional photographer nearby when you broach the boat? A little back ground. The boat pearling was a Santana 22 which the owner (a longtime Bay sailor) kept in nearby San Francisco Marina. The water depth there is about 30 feet (center span it drops to 333'). There is so much water draining from the Sierras that they say it never truly floods through the GG, but rather the top layer turns to flood while the lower layer stays in ebb. Needless to say the currents can do weird things here. (I have spent hours at the Bay Model trying to figure this all out). The Bridge pier, Fort Point, and the hills in the Presidio make for some interesting wind shifts too. Our usual windward mark on City Front Races (Blackaller buoy) is right off of the old CG Pier. I can usually find a lift of up to twenty degrees by hugging the shore along Chrissy Field (I go in to within about 100' of the shore line to find it though). Coming in from Ocean Races we try to go under the Bridge near center span on starboard which gives us a good run down to the finish at either GGYC or STFYC. The Santana was DDW on a poled out jib which probably played an important part when it back winded and helped spin him around. In the owner's defense, more than a few people cut inside the bridge pier and he said that from the back side, the waves didn't look too big. Looking at pictures of Summer Moon, it appears that the Bay was in ebb at the time and the Santana was probably looking for current relief. Full ebb can run at 5kts, problematic when your hull speed is only four and a half. The amazing thing was later that day when the owner returned from the hospital after being checked out, his boat was waiting for him at the dock, already de-watered!<O:p</O:p
<O:p</O:p

One of my friends was returning to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
Santa Cruz</st1:City> from <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:pMonterey</ST1:pl</st1:City> in heavy fog in the pre GPS/radar days when his wife asked: "Why do you think that those surfers paddled out really far this morning?" It can happen to any of us.
 
#20 ·
IIRC, from when this first happened...i think it was a 26' boat, and the owner was charged for the salvage costs of recovering the boat... which were more than the boat was worth. :D I don't believe he was insured either.
 
#22 ·
He must have been a Beginner! He should have not even been that close to land! usually where a wave breaks means there is shallow waters or something....
 
#23 ·
Someone already noted it was over 33' deep there. I think the camera zoom and the sheer size of the Gate makes it seem like he is too close; those breakers were out deep. These kind of pictures convince me that I have no business in that kind of water in that size boat. I might have done exactly what he did. Yes, even seeing surfers I might assume that my displacement hull would not get surfed like that. I am definitely getting positive flotation in the small boat I am shopping for now.

Oddly enough, I might be out in the surf in an 11' boat this weekend. I am taking the Snark I fiberglassed with me to the beach. I will only take it out in the surf if the breeze is blowing toward land (as in NC, not Africa :D ) and I will stay just outside the sand bar.
 
#26 ·
Yup, Santana drivers gotta be made of sterner stuff to sail out on our Bay&#8230; A couple of months ago, a Santana 22 took 5th over-all in the Coastal Cup (San Francisco to Santa Barbara), a race in which there were several broken booms and two dismastings, including a Cal 40 that was using this as a tune-up for the TransPac. Now, if you want excitement, you ought to sail here when it's windy. The following picture was from the Lightship I in '06 (that's going INSIDE of Mile Rock and the "Rock Garden" mind you). Winds were in the mid twenties to mid thirties on the way back from the light bucket and we got 27kts boat speed recorded in one 30 second burst although our average for that run was only 21kts.

 
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