Ouch!

[Cruisingdad]

THis link was given to me by member DJC. Pretty incredible. All I can say is OUCH! THanks for the link DJC!!

- CD

http://photos.sfsurvey.com/sail1/imagepages/image2.asp

[davideureka]

wow quite quick to go down

[SimonV]

Great pics CD but dont you hate it when some gromet drops in on your wave.

[Cruisingdad]

Originally Posted by SimonV

Great pics CD but dont you hate it when some gromet drops in on your wave.

HAHA! Well, poor guy. He was lucky surfers were there to help.

[arbarnhart]

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).

[bobmcgov]

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.

[thedudeistoocool]

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.

[eherlihy]

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.

[GySgt]

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!

[Sapperwhite]

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?