hear is mine it was blowing about 20 - 25 mph and i was working at a summer camp on doctors lake in Jacksonville fl at we had a crazy idea to go out i was running in between the crab bowyes out on the lake and i just turned around to go back in and on the way in i was flying a hull i hit a wave wrong and i the front came off the water and slammed back down. i completey brook the fount of the hull in hafe. at this point i was still about 1/4 of a mile out from camp. i looked up and the mast is just about to fall but knowing me i stuck in there and got it all the way back and as soon is i got back in the mast was still on but barely........


NOW IT IS YOUR TURN POST THE MOST AMAZING, WEIRD OR CRAZY SAILING STORY'S YOU HAVE

All I can say is WOW!!!!!



edited by: av8erdunn, Oct 13, 2010 - 07:45 PM

Slip to ship 2010,
Race back from the island to the club.

20-25 Knots, 6-8 foot waves...Downwind run(Spinnaker Up).
Crashing into Wave after Wave, And the Finally, You Pitch pole and Hit into the spinnaker pole going 20 MPH, BUT YOUR SKIPPER IS HEAVIER THEN YOU...So You save the boat...The Spinnaker is still trimmed in and your still going FAST!

Then about 5 minutes later, here comes VERY ODD Gust, And a VERY Big wave, Let me tell you....THOSE DO NOT MIX...
You go over side-ways in Slow motion, and your standing on the hull and the skipper screams, "DON'T LAND ON THE SAILS", But he land's on the leech of the sail and he's Basically body surfing...you jump into the water and hold onto the dagger board and climb on up, and turn the boat into the wind, OH WAIT..What about the skipper? He's still hangin' on for his life!
He comes around and get's on also, then you do the normal righting procedures,(Spinnaker back into sock, Get out righting line, Lean Back, Boat Comes down, Get back on)But we could NOT get back on the boat, and the skipper's hanging onto the trapeze line, and I climbed up over the spinnaker pole, get on and release the main sheet & jib, but oh wait....YOU CAN'T HEAD UP BECAUSE THE RUDDER SYSTEM HAS COMPLETELY INVERTED ITSELF!

You try your hardest to get the Rudder system back to normal, but you can't....so you just head up anyhow, the skipper get's back on, fixes it in 2 seconds...and your back off sailing again(Spinnaker back up)...Before we had flipped, we were in 2nd place!

Once we get into the Channel(Casino Row), It's a Reach and i'm at the back of the boat(Nacra 20) In the Foot straps, flying a hull with my weight as far back as i can get it..
We probably stuffed the bows 5 times, but we had gone from 2nd when we flipped to 8th place, and probably caught up about 3 positions...

Once we rounded the channel marker, it was Downwind again, So I hoisted the spinnaker and off we go!

The wind has probably picked up to 30 knots, and a BIG STORM was brewing, We were lucky though, we got in and de-rigged before the storm had hit, and there was about 5+ boats left out there, Alot of them just went to where they could find land, and some even flipped and turtled on purpose to wait out the storm, and the best part....THE POWER GOES OUT!!!
How wonderful, right? The police come and they start a search party for the boats.....
All the people arrive in safely the next day....

So yeah, that's my story..






edited by: TylerH, Oct 13, 2010 - 10:58 PM

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Tyler holmes
Panama city, FL

Boat whore
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alright heres mine.
my friend and i are doubled trapped on a nacra 5.7 going upwind in 25-30kts. without warning i hear a huge cracking noise and the windward hull had completely broken in half right at the main beam. i had so much load on it it then swung over crashing into the leeward hull with so much speed it busted a bug hole in that hull. the mast leaned over to about 45 degress and i saw the side stay starting to pull sideways so hard it was cutting into the hull and finally gave way. the 4 rivets ripped out of the windward hull and the mast hit the water. when the mast hopped of the step it crushed the main beam putting a hole and bending it. the lifeguard boat came out, we were 4 miles offshore. it took a couple hours to get the boat secure and the mast on the lifeguard boat. the 5.7 was towed in and parted out.

5 knots in mission bay. Two very drunk SDSU students out in a 400-year-old Lido. Sail number two I think. Anyway, great time, lots of laps past the aquatic center when, we find a fully inflated "inflate-a-mate" bobbing in the waves. What to do... Yup - dropped the main, tied 'er off to the head of the sail, and flew her proudly, much to the approval of the 50,000 other drunk SDSU students at the aquatic center. F__king heros we were! So much so, we decided to head out the channel rigged as such. Not so bad, until we got rolled by a 2 foot wave. Damnb near impossible in a Lido, but we we're really, really hammered. Total carnage. Enough Coors tall boys floating around we could have built a bridge to shore. But no, it was not to be. Much better to be picked up by the harbor patrol, amidst our sea of cans and new found inflatable friend. You would think those guys have seen enough to not succomb to the "ack-ack-ack" can't breath laughing, but that's not the case....

If this thread is still rolling when I get back from vacation, maybe I'll share the underwater-car-and-got-hit-by-a-carrier story... (true!)

Chris

lets keep this think roiling so i can hear this story about some car geting hit by a boat
btw great stories so far

my buddy and i launched in the rain. 45 degrees wet, but windy. we depart and start heading down wind for 2 miles. im soloing my H18. all of a sudden its too windy i need to find calmer waters. i start up my monohauler friend is stuck back at the windy side of the lake. he capsizes. i turn back to save him. after a few passes telling him what to do, he hops in my boat, we tied his boat up to mine. (i knew i brought the jib for some reason. we were tacking up wind flying a hull while his boat was plaining

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Nacra 6.0 NA
Ogden Dunes, IN
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slip to ship 10
sailing from cadet point to osyc
when the storm hit

winds picked up to around 45kts, still about 12 or so boats in the bay, worst lightning storm i have ever sailed in.

boats were flipping, ripping, and snapping left and right...missed the finish line by 20', jibed arond and finished but not before we were struck twice by lightning(i got it in the arm and my crew in his feet). never witnessed lightning bolts that close up before. the second time we got hit my crew told me to "sail faster!". when you are that close to a lightning strike, you hear a "SIZZLE" first then the "BOOOOM"! went from last place to 4th! here is a shot from ship island looking north to the coast...note the thunderhead we all sailed directly into!

--
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook!
bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
--

well, i'm hoping that my old monohull stories will be accepted here as the only cat story i have is pitchpoling a h16 20+ years ago.

here goes...we were in the midst of a transatlantic delivery on a custom ron holland designed 88' cutter rigged sloop. there were 7 of us and we had a 4 hour rotating watch schedule. the weather out of tortola was good for the first couple of days. we had a 6-8' quartering sea on a broad reach and about 15kts of breeze. our vmg was steady at around 10kts. almost perfect. but, it was well into the summer storm season and late to be doing a crossing.

sure enough about day 4 the winds starting picking up. the seas built slowly, but steadily. it all culminated on my watch at about 3am (doesn't it always happen like that). the seas eventually built to 15'+ and were very unorganized. there was a steady driving rain and the wind which had been blowing a steady 20kts bumped up to 30 on the anemometer. i watched as the wind speed went from 30 to 40. then it went from 40-50. finally it topped out at 60kts. we were sailing under a storm tri-sail with the main safely furled at this point. the seas were chaotic and i was glad to be clipped into my lifeline. as we surfed off of the backside of waves and passed the theoretical hull speed everything would start to resonate and hum. the boat would shudder and i could feel the cavitation over the rudder as we surfed at up to 18kts off of the big rollers. there was a huge rooster tail shooting out of the back of the boat making a hissing sound that you could hear after the boat would slow into wave troughs and the humming/resonating would diminish.

after about 2 hours of this we started having alarms going off for flooding in the forward compartment. all of the crew was awake at this point and ran to check. turns out someone had left the door to the forecastle open and the entire forward compartment was taking on water through the anchor howse each time we buried the bow into a wave crest.

the forecastle hatch was sealed and the pumps started doing their job, but the forecastle was completely full of sea water. the forecastle was about 10-20sqft and stored all of the fenders and lines for the boat. with the watertight hatch secured the pressure in the forecastle must have been astronomical each time the bow was buried into a wave. finally the deck hatch hinges on the forecastle failed and the 4'x4' aluminum hatch was blown off of it's hinges and into the sea!

we spent at least another 1/2 day sailing through that craziness. we had a 10* bow down attitude b/c of the forecastle flooding. things finally settled down and we were able to put into to faial, azores for repairs. i'll talk about the seized up engines and sailing an 88' sloop into a slip with only bowthrusters in the next installment.

I'll 2d or 3rd the 2010 Slip to Ship race.....

the short version.... 1 mile to go to finish, wicked thunderstorms, wind shifts, everyone's heading off, making for the beach.... I've the got the finish... perfect rhum line...(?)... big gusts, pinch, hike, travel out... ok good, then another, heading up, dead upwind finish is looking great.... thunder and lightening all around, angry sea, "dangerous gusts to 60mph" hit me and we're over. crew stayed on top hull, comptip broke... right boat, goes over the other way... somehow we got pointed DOWNWIND... righted boat... she took off like a mad horse w/2 of us holding on the dolphin striker... I get on the boat... boat speeds up ('cause it's dragging only 1 person now)... my crew can't hold on, lets go, whoosh, he's gone, can't see a thing, rain everywhere... traveller broke, top of mast broke... comptip swinging around.... I'm trying to control the boat.... FINALLY able to gybe her around, and make way to the beach... calling pan-pan for my MOB crew (who got picked up)... VHF is almost useless with all the lightening... power is out at the club, no VHF there for accountability of boats/crew.... make it to the beach, push boat into the sawgrass, flip on side and start walking 2 the club like a drowned rat... wicked wind...still VHF is almost useless w/lightening everywhere... there's ambulances along the beach, catamarans all down the beach, but all in all everyone was ok. after that we had a great dinner, and a live band while the storm raged on... classic summer time at the Ocean Springs Yacht Club! YOU MISSED IT !!!



Edited by robpatt on Oct 18, 2010 - 04:36 AM.

got to mention dauphin island race '10:
winds to strong to race saturday, postponed til sunday.
sundy morning finds it blowing hard, my buddy and i are debating it...
decide to go ahead with only the 2 of us and no storm jib(his boat is a hunter 25 mono).
we have raced this race the past 4 years and its usuely the same thing: no wind at start and rageing by the middle bay light house...this year was different because it blew the whole time.
mobile bay can be the roughest/choppyest place to sail on a good day anyways...
the race was shortened to a triangular coarse around mb lighthouse...thank god
we were overpowered the whole day with the main reefed...storm jib would be nice.
not a cloud in the sky!

were are approaching middle bay lighthouse around 1:15pm when the REAL WIND showed up!
the radio is crackleing with maydays and "OH S#*TS!!" at least a dozen calls in 5 minutes.
we were with a group of about 10 or so trying to make the lighthouse when i notice a 36' mono appear to have his main sail coming out of the cabin...the sail is still at the top of the mast but somehow much of it is sticking out of the cabin. the boat was erradic and there was much scurrying on the deck.

we finally rounded the lighthouse and had a really fast downwind run to the line. SECOND PLACE! couldn't believe it! come to find out we were the only 2 in the class to finish...always finish the race!

as for the 36' with the "peacock" main sail, his mast plunged through the deck and nearly went clean through the hull. it it weren't for the bolts/ss plate grabbing just enough to prevent being run through.

every time i sail on mobile bay, it like a mechanical bull.



Edited by coastrat on Oct 20, 2010 - 10:43 AM.

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Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook!
bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
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