Christened

Posted By: Don Schroder
Date: 9/21/06 7:08p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

I went sailing yesterday on Lake Nockamixon in eastern PA and took some pictures. Here’s one of me at http://downloads.c-2.com/photos/1158889363.jpg and one of my good friend, Tom, at http://downloads.c-2.com/photos/1158889521.jpg. It was a partly cloudy day, in the high 60s, with a squirrelly, gusty, 13-knot wind. After a very enjoyable two-hour sail, we decided to head to the dock/ramp. The wind was blowing offshore so it was a lot of tacking. At one point we thought it best to jibe for a better position. With me at the helm and Tom on the jib, we proceeded to jibe ho. Well, before I knew it, I was swimming and Tom was standing on the centerboard! Man it happened fast--got hit with a nasty gust and didn't let the main out fast enough. We were over in a heartbeat. My boat was christened! After the initial shock, I swam around, climbed onto the bottom of the boat and we both tried to right it by grabbing onto the gunwale. We didn't have enough purchase, so I jumped back in to make sure the sheets were released and to tie a line around the foot of the mast (I read about this trick on the Harpoon site, see: www.ruach.net/HarpFAQs.html#Capsize). As I was tying the line to the mast, the boat began to turtle (which was pretty scary as I watched the boat begin to roll over me). I swam out and around, crawled onto the underside, and we yanked on the line with all our might. As it turned out, we were in about 15' of water and the mast came to rest on the muddy bottom. It was stuck solid. A group of onlookers yelled if we needed help and we waved them over. The good Samaritans hopped into their runabout and motored over. They threw us a line, Tom tied up and slowly, very slowly, the motorboat pulled away, gradually increasing power. Eventually, the Harpoon began to move and we followed the boat over and in. As it turned out, I was very lucky and did not damage the mast (sure was muddy though). So there you have it, third time out on the boat and I capsize it. But I'm ready to go out again and practice my jibes...anybody want to come along?