An old clip!

[Michel]

This is a Sandpiper 565 acting like a daulphin in the waves and wind of lake Erie, near Pelee island.



Winter will be soooooo long!...


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edited the link so it shows in the post - d.scobie
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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Nice!

Looks like you and she handled it well.

[Michel]

Nice!

Looks like you and she handled it well.

That was not me! It is a sister ship!

[lustyslogger]

If that had been the Lusty Slogger out on a day like that you would have gotten some excellent footage of a rescue at sea!!!

[Michel]

If that had been the Lusty Slogger out on a day like that you would have gotten some excellent footage of a rescue at sea!!!

Good one! Are you not too modest?

[lustyslogger]

If that had been the Lusty Slogger out on a day like that you would have gotten some excellent footage of a rescue at sea!!!

Good one! Are you not too modest?

Never seen me sail have you?

Actually, I once was sailing a Bayliner Buccaneer 22 from Palatka FL to Jacksonville on the St Johns River in very sharp and steep seas. The waves were maybe three feet high and 6 inches wide!! Every time we would come off the top of a wave the boat would do like your video. I was not a happy sailor, all I could think was the bow was going to break off the front of the boat.

I am basically a fair weather sailor. I do know I can handle myself in nasty water but I don't really want to!

[Michel]

I guess that nobody really wants to be in nasty water. It just happens sometimes. But one thing is very true: A sailboat, even small, is a lot tougher than we may think. It depends a lot on how seasoned is the sailor! We always can get used to tough conditions if we are often exposed to them.

The trick is to play with these things in a secure way; double reef and get out in heavier weather than usual gradually and get the feel of it.

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Worst conditions we were ever in were on Lake Ontario in a 34 footer. We had dropped the mast at Sackets Harbor near the mouth of the St. Lawrence R. and were planning to motor diagonally across the lake and pick-up the Oswego Canal. Left early in the AM in good weather and forecasts but the wind built continually.

By mid morning we were trying to quarter across 6 ft waves that were about 60 feet apart. At that point we were four hours from any land. We'd come down the backs of them and break water over the deck up to the seahood on the cabin! My fear was the pulpit was going to pull out and several times it was underwater. I really thought I was going to be responsible for putting four people in the water with the boat 400 ft below on the bottom. When the mast started to work loose in the crutches (keel stepped - about 50 ft long and 400 lbs) I gave up and we turned for Mexico Bay and started calling on the VHF for marinas deep enough to take us. That's a shallow bay and if we ran out of lake or depth there it was bad news for the sailboat. And, being shallower, the waves stacked worse. At one point our female passenger lost her seating and slid off the cockpit and smashed her head on the stainless steel rub strip in the companionway. She didn't loose consciousness but did have a gash. That's when I made my first and (hopefully) only "Pan-Pan" call and asked the Coast Guard Auxiliary to keep tabs that we did make it to the Salmon River. We could hear on the radio fishing boats were having problems off Oswego.

If we tried to go directly down wind the waves would break over the cockpit and swamp us, so I was quartering down them and sliding the nose around to "surf" down the waves and roll with them. The waves were steep enough the prop would occasionally surface (inboard diesel - the prop was two feet below the waterline and forward of the spade rudder!).

When we got to Selkirk Light (Salmon River) either side of the inlet has a rock rock jetty and the marina said "Punch it when you come through the channel and the river current hits you". I said "We're a sailboat at hull speed - there is no punch!" We ended up sideslipping and surfing between the jetties, and 100 ft never looked so small. Selkirk Lighthouse doesn't operate anymore but there are two light towers on the jetty ends and the waves were smashing on and over the rocks and splashing that high in the wind. They are 20 ft tall. The wind was 35mph with gusts to 45mph. Coming right down the lake from Toronto east and pushing the water ahead of it. Report had called for winds of 15 and overcast.

There were four people (and two very wide-eyed cats) kissing the ground beside the floating dock we tied to. Two hours of some concern followed by four hours of real terror. And although I didn't say so at the time I was truly afraid people I was responsible for might die that day. My chest looked like I'd been beat with a baseball bat from where I was smashing the wheel when we bottomed out in the troughs. And I was so scared I was the only crew that didn't get fully and properly seasick. I waited until my feet were on shore and THEN I blew chunks.

Gave me great confidence in the boat! It shrugged it off. We got beat up like pebbles in a car tire.

Learned a couple lessons:

Would have been better to leave the mast up - I even had an ATN Gale Sail for storm conditions as a steadying sail. I would have had more control if there was less side-to-side action. And certainly a better ride.

Never have a tight deadline. We were in a hurry to get to Cayuga Lake through the NYS canals and running a tight schedules. That's why we dropped the mast before leaving.

No matter how scared you are assume the crew is more so.

If you have a VHF that uses a masthead antenna have a system to run an antenna separately. This is one good thing I had done before the trip as we call ahead so the canal lock keepers know we are coming (and usually have the lock ready or will wait for us - makes everyone happy. With a "powerboat" antenna mast I had about twice the range of the handheld. When the mast was up that rode in the ceiling liner of the v-berth ICE. Also had/have a hand-held.

Test you inside cabinet and cupboard latches. What a mess! Found out ous needed some adjustments.

It was very much an "expand and grow" experience and one THE ADMIRAL and I still use to gauge other events. I think we gained a lot of trust in each other and ourselves that day.

[Michel]

Impressive story!
Have you meet hard conditions with your small boat?

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Lets see:

Got caught out in several thunderstorms on Seneca Lake in a ComPac 16.

Had to retrieve a Nimble 20 from a municipal marina against wind and currents to a ramp five miles away in a blizzard over an Easter Break on the Choptank River in Maryland (nothing like retrieving a boat and undoing turnbuckle snap rings with wet, cold hands!).

Got hit with a line squall in the same Nimble 20 that 360° flipped a Bayfield 25 twice that was near us. He was de-sailed but not dismasted. Same storm took out 150 years old oaks and a Quonset airplane hanger, destroying two old biplanes. I saw it coming across the lake and threw out the Bruce and 150 ft of rode and dropped main and jib and tightened the mizzen. It was a five foot wall that hit us and we dragged the Bruce about 400 yards until it caught again. Then the wind stopped. Local airport reported it at 75 mph.

Got caught out (first time) in that Nimble 20 one of our first trips out. Thunderstorm came in and we opted to drop sails and motor in. When pulling the outboard rode there was a lightning strike up the lake and I got knocked on my arse with a shock. The wind hit, hail hit. I motored with bare poles (THE ADMIRAL and guest had gone below) for several minutes before I realized I was in neutral! I hadn't done much motoring prior to that (Our ComPac 16 had an electric trolling motor).

Was sailing a Gloucester 11 on what was one of those sunny "last chance" days around Halloween and we gaught caught by a gust and knocked over. The boat turtled and the mast stuck on the bottom. We're both in jeans and hooded sweatshirts. I came up under the boat and unhooked the jib and mainsheet and pushed the board up into the trunk and locked it. When I popped up I couldn't find THE ADMIRAL. Swam around the boat, then went under to look. She had been concerned as I was not knowing I was uncleating the lines.

Used up a bunch of strength leveraging the mast out of the muck atanding on the hull and leaning my weight out on the board. Big brown geyser when it did pop up and the goop came down the mast and sprayed at the mast hinge. I barely was able to roll back aboard and, try awe both could, I was done and just couldn't get her aboard. We were near hypothermia at that point. I managed to sail to shore under jib dragging her by the hood with her arm and leg up over the gunnel. We were spent puppies when we hit land.

In a Sunfish we were sailing along and smacked a submerged stump. Threw me forward and my right pinky jammed in the cleat and I flipped over the board and landed on my back with my arm over the cockpit and my pinky having done a 360°. Looked like a hot dog for a month or so.

One of the most interesting was on our Pearson 27. I was motoring out the channel and onto Cayuga Lake (35 mi x 5 mi x 600 ft deep) and just before we started to raise the sails the engine started to sound odd. I throttles down and asked THE ADMIRAL to tale the wheel and opened the engine access panel. Water like a fire hydrant came squirting up. "HEAD FOR SHORE" I yelled up to her and When she throttles up it got worse! Hmmmmm. Turns out the hose for the engine coolant had come lose from a guide and lay across the shaft coupling. It sawed through. The engine driven water pumpo was pushing however many GPM through the 1" line and spraying off all the moving parts on the engine. So I killed the engine (Ooops - should have told THE ADMIRAL I was about to) and it went to a small garden-hose type spray. Closed the through hull and sailed back in under jib. THAT was a panic when I opened the panel and it seemed like the whole lake was coming in.

And hundreds of those little panic events that make sailing what it is. Dismastings, cleat explosions, groundings, boom smacks, parted halyards. A little adrenaline is good for a body.

That capsize with the Glouster was the only time we've ever had to swim. Have had some wild broaches (had a Thistle 17 and that boat was ALWAYS on the verge of disaster - what a hoot!), some surely close calls. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.