You should have seen the other guy. Sorry about your trouble. I find it is easy to get lulled into a false sense of competence with others helping and doing so well. So far I had to replace my bow spirit and now an 8k rudder job.
It sucked the night it happened, but in the end it's just a big ol' piece of plastic. Nothing too important really. It will get fixed in short order. I'm just very glad no one got hurt. Once I realized we were definitely going to hit, I could have called for a crash tack but that would have tacked us right into the rock breakwater on the other side, and since no one was ready, probably got someone hurt. One of the guys ran forward to fend us off, and I'm very glad he thought better of it at the last second.
The good news is that I'll have plenty of help. 3 of the 5 people on the boat were members of our "sisters under sail" group at the YC. Not only do they feel bad about my boat, but they kind of owe me since I let them restore their boat in my shop on the weekends all winter. I found that they don't like sanding much though. I'll have to cure them of that.
I've seen much worse dings. Consider yours a scratch-with-an-attitude.
BTW. Been there, done that (to my dad's and other people's boats). Also dismasted a 420 and sunk a workboat where I worked. Boss didn't fire me either.
...so I didn't jump back behind the wheel. I thought we should tack once to clear the breakwater. Another friend on the bow said we would make it. We didn't.
Yes we have breakwaters in Kansas. It how we keep the powerboats and logs out of the marina. The one in question is a cut up section of old dock with fins about 4 feet below the water. The ends have jagged pieces of I beam sticking out. Not a good design but we are looking for a new one. When the winds are from the South South east they get funneled up the slot and you get headed sailing out. Yes we sail in and out of our slips in Kansas.
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