matnoo
Well-Known Member
A cross between ill prepairation, bad luck, worse than forecasted weather, and two of the three crew (me and my mate) being inexperienced and so unable to react quick enough to what the skipper was saying contributed to our boat, a 23ft fin keel yacht balancing precariously in the mud/sand of the wash in (not horrendous but) pretty ugly weather.
Planning to stick it out until the next high tide, we all got very wet and very cold trying to make the boat balance upright and so set vertical and stable in the sand.
Calling the coastguard, we gave them our position and they (to our amazement) sent out both a RIB (on the way back from another rescue) and a Navy Sea king helecopter, I am glad they did as by the time they arrived we were frozen on the sand, unconfident to get back onboard through fear of it toppling.
I was totally embarassed about the whole thing, and after getting a tug and retrieving the boat we all sat down and compiled a list of EVERYTHING that could have been done to prevent it happening again and also to help us and the coastguard if it ever does happen again.
One good thing that has come from this is my new awareness of the rescue service that is avaliable around our coasts. They are incredible.
Im telling you now because from reading leaflets and seeing 999 programmes and the odd helecopter go past (which is what most sailors can proudly say is the extent of their experience) I now totally believe, until youre actually in the situation where you need them, you cant fully appreciate what they do. Even the guys who were involved in our the rescue, I cant imagine for a second that they knew how relieved we were when that helecopter arrived, and exactly what it meant for us to be scared, and then be safe again.
If youd like to know (and add any suggestions!) the list:
Add reflective tape to the boat/buy a strobe.
Get a back up handheld VHF that can be taken off the boat.
Larger panel GPS
Phone weather report ***5 minutes before setting off*** for any last minute weather changes.
More powerful outboard.
A brief explaination of what happened, if you want to know, we had the anchor and chain laid out on deck ready for me and Ol to learn how to drop and retirieve it. A larger wave hit sending the chain and rope overboard, as far as we can tell it must have got snagged on somthing pretty big on the bottom and about 30 seconds later from 9 knots we stopped dead, nosedived and turned to port. The jib wrapped round itself 100 times and we were heeling badly as we were taking all the wind whilst being teathered to the seabed on the leeward starboard side. The three of us thought wed hit a sand bank, and were in a melee of getting the sails down as we thought wed lost control and that the wind was pushing her further into the mud. Whilst this was going on the wind took us in a large arc (around the snagged line) and bashed us into a (real) sandbank. And there we stayed. The weather picked up continually from that point on.
Thankyou to everyone involved, I will now no longer use mates with sailing qualifications as instructors, im using people with years of experience.
Mat
Planning to stick it out until the next high tide, we all got very wet and very cold trying to make the boat balance upright and so set vertical and stable in the sand.
Calling the coastguard, we gave them our position and they (to our amazement) sent out both a RIB (on the way back from another rescue) and a Navy Sea king helecopter, I am glad they did as by the time they arrived we were frozen on the sand, unconfident to get back onboard through fear of it toppling.
I was totally embarassed about the whole thing, and after getting a tug and retrieving the boat we all sat down and compiled a list of EVERYTHING that could have been done to prevent it happening again and also to help us and the coastguard if it ever does happen again.
One good thing that has come from this is my new awareness of the rescue service that is avaliable around our coasts. They are incredible.
Im telling you now because from reading leaflets and seeing 999 programmes and the odd helecopter go past (which is what most sailors can proudly say is the extent of their experience) I now totally believe, until youre actually in the situation where you need them, you cant fully appreciate what they do. Even the guys who were involved in our the rescue, I cant imagine for a second that they knew how relieved we were when that helecopter arrived, and exactly what it meant for us to be scared, and then be safe again.
If youd like to know (and add any suggestions!) the list:
Add reflective tape to the boat/buy a strobe.
Get a back up handheld VHF that can be taken off the boat.
Larger panel GPS
Phone weather report ***5 minutes before setting off*** for any last minute weather changes.
More powerful outboard.
A brief explaination of what happened, if you want to know, we had the anchor and chain laid out on deck ready for me and Ol to learn how to drop and retirieve it. A larger wave hit sending the chain and rope overboard, as far as we can tell it must have got snagged on somthing pretty big on the bottom and about 30 seconds later from 9 knots we stopped dead, nosedived and turned to port. The jib wrapped round itself 100 times and we were heeling badly as we were taking all the wind whilst being teathered to the seabed on the leeward starboard side. The three of us thought wed hit a sand bank, and were in a melee of getting the sails down as we thought wed lost control and that the wind was pushing her further into the mud. Whilst this was going on the wind took us in a large arc (around the snagged line) and bashed us into a (real) sandbank. And there we stayed. The weather picked up continually from that point on.
Thankyou to everyone involved, I will now no longer use mates with sailing qualifications as instructors, im using people with years of experience.
Mat
