[quote=spoulton]Prindle 18 - Annapolis to Oxford 30 mile race of mixed boats on Chesapeake Bay, Sept. 2015. Sailing with buddy who sailed mono hauls but never sailed cats. Weather was miserable, raining cool. Many cats including us and even Inter 20s had difficulty tacking, winds probably 15 - 25 kts. Start was delayed for about 2 hours due to difficulty with prior classes getting to line. Sailing into wind on non boarded boat, thought about heading home but as weather was supposed to "improve" decided to go for it. After 25 miles into the wind in 5 to 6 foot tight waves went up into Choptank River. Crew was not happy and was not having a good time. Looked across bay and a solid gray curtain was headed our way. Crew said "we got to get to shore". Advised him that was the plan but we were not going to get there as winds dropped off prior to storm hitting us. When it hit rain was so hard visability was about 25 feet. Wind direction changed and immediately flipped us. Crew freaked out and said "were gonna die". Advised him that were 1/2 mile from shore with life vests on and we are not going to die. Besides I had a VHF radio in my vest and at worst could hail for help. Went to pull out radio and in getting dusted it must have come out of pocket in vest. Its gone. Uncleated main and jib and turned boat into wind to right it. Asked crew to assist in righting and he said "I don't feet comfortable trying to do that". Tried to right on my own without success. Called wife on cell in waterproof case and told to call Cost Guard and advised her of our location. As could not get mast up enough to get water out of main finally just unclipped main from boom and tried to right boat again and it worked. Got myself and crew back on boat, Coast Guard called me on cell phone. Crew would not agree to sail anymore and Coast Guard hailed Tow USA who towed us to nearby marina. Wife went to pick up trailer to get us but I forgot I had the hitch locked and I had the key. She wasn't happy about having drive another 40 minutes back to get the key from me. Not a good day.[/quote]
No HTML tags allowed (except inside [code][/code] tags)
