July 24th Race: MORE WIND THAN WE HOPED FOR - YIKES!

Photos courtesy of Kevin Preuss, Lisa Duret and a mystery contributor

After two low-wind races, we really needed a race with some good winds.  We got plenty of wind all right, including some significant capsizing gusts.  Some sailors opted out after sizing the situation up.  Others took the gamble and half of them paid for it with capsizes.  Tom Schroeder's "turtled" boat required assistance from Good Samaritan, Matt Claymon on his jet-ski, to get righted.

Step-by-step photos of the righting process are below.

 

Thanks to Margaret Powers, Arlene Truex and Bob Orben for doing a great job officiating the race.  They stayed anchored in the gusty wind, so well done!   The Voelz family set up a nice long race, appropriate for the winds.  Our safety boat was well staffed also with Jim Riffle at the helm and Kevin Preuss and Lisa Duret assisting and taking some great photos.  Thanks as usual to Beth Auld and Kevin Preuss for organizing. And special thanks to Matt Claymon for helping right the turtled JY-16!

We had fun re-living the exciting race and settling a finish line protest at Arlene's after the race.  Thanks very much Arlene!

Shortly after the start of the race toward 1st mark, all on same tack

 

Boats on different tacks toward first mark.  A gust hits the Thistle (middle)

 

Cartwrights round the first mark (orange flag), while others converge on it

 

Catey and Elizabeth (left) and Tom and Sarah (right) are hiked out and managing the gusts as they head for the second mark

Cartwrights round 2nd mark with Hales right behind

 

Hales round the mark as Tom and Phil approach it, about to meet their fate

Then Laura rounds the mark, just in time to watch Tom and Phil capsize

The strong gust put Tom and Phil in the water before they could stand on the centerboard to prevent the boat from turning completely over.  The centerboard would not stay up, so the only option to right the boat was a line tied to the mast and a pull from a boat or jet ski.  Kevin and Lisa on Jim Riffles pontoon feed out a line for that purpose.

 

Good Samaritan Matt Claymon shows up on his jet-ski and offers to pull the righting line since the jet-ski is more manueverable than the pontoon boat. His generous offer is accepted

 

Matt applied steady pressure to the line which goes up over the gunwale of the boat and is tied to the mast.  Tom and Phil are behind the boat pushing on the submerged gunwale and pulling on the other gunwale.  Shortly after this photo, Tom made his way to the cockpit and lowered the centerboard.  Phil stepped on the centerboard to apply more leverage.

And the boat is righted.

Tom climbs back aboard

Phil's turn

Rescue work completed, Matt departs. Thanks Matt!

Race Results: