Tri Flip

From Latitude 38
http://www.latitude38.com/LectronicLat/2007/0407/Apr11/Apr11.html#anchor146558

The Full Story on Friday's Trimaran Capsize

April 11 - San Francisco

As promised in Monday's 'Lectronic Latitude, we've got more about the trimaran that capsized last Friday evening while out practicing for the next day's Doublehanded Farallones Race.

According to Alan Prussia, who was steering Phil Medley's Corsair F-24 Mk II C-Creature, the pair went outside the Golden Gate at around 4:30 p.m. looking for a little less breeze for their practice. They found calmer wind, but also good-sized rollers and some shipping traffic. Not a problem for the experienced sailors who won the Doublehanded Farallones three years ago on the same boat. But on starboard tack and 100 yards from the red nun buoy at the South Tower, they jibed

at the worst possible moment.

The leeward ama hooked a big wave - a combination of a tanker's quarter wake and some sloppy ebb chop - and the result was a slow-motion tumble. Since Prussia was on the high side when the boat rolled, he stayed relatively dry. Medley was down to leeward and briefly went in the drink.

A kiteboarder came over to see if everyone was okay and a Red and White ferry wasn't far behind. Within 20 minutes the Coast Guard was on the scene. With everyone safe, the biggest issue was flipping the boat back over.

I kept thinking we would right the boat and race the next day, but obviously it's not a Hobie cat or a dinghy,

Prussia said. He was eager to get the boat right-side up as soon as possible, but the Coast Guard insisted that they were only there to help get the sailors off the boat and wanted no part in the salvage process. They did tow C-Creature, still upside down, for an hour-and-a-half back to Anita Rock near Crissy Field. By this time it was getting dark and they decided to anchor the boat for the night and come back the next day.

The next morning Prussia and Medley, along with Gary Helms and a salvage boat operator, got back to business. Medley suggested rigging a bridle on the forward crossbeam with a line attached to it, throwing the line back towards the rudders and, like you'd tow a water skier, pulling the boat upright. It worked, and all things considered, was a fairly quick process thanks in large part to the momentum of the water inside the boat pushing the hulls down.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, and while the insurance company will be involved, damage to the boat was minimal. Just about everything inside the boat was lost, including all of Medley's personal gear for the weekend (he'd flown up just to do the race). The tiller and boom sustained some damage, and the boat's racing sails were destroyed. Since the boat was anchored in 40 feet of water, the 34-ft mast was relatively unscathed, save for a small bit of corrosion on the spar.

It's amazing what 18 hours submerged in salt water can do to equipment,

Prussia said. Amazingly, however, the outboard engine started up after a quick flush in fresh water.

Prussia - who in addition to having a wealth of experience on mono- and multihulls, is a self-confessed speed freak - is adamant that their spill was not indicative of any safety issues surrounding multihulls.

Half of me wants to say that we flipped because of a bad combination of waves and the quarter wake coming off the tanker,

he told us.

But the other half of me says that I know better, that I should have seen the bad voodoo chop and gotten out of there. But that's all hindsight.

Either way, Prussia is quite certain that he's a lot more knowledgeable about how to right a trimaran now than he was Friday morning, and he and Medley are eager to share their newfound knowledge with other sailors.

The waves we saw weren't short chop like you see off Pt. Blunt during an ebb, but they were shorter than most ocean waves. They were almost like river rapids. People need to be aware that you don't want to be in those kind of conditions on a multihull. And if they do flip, they need to know how to right the boat and stay safe.