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Hello all, my brother and I had a heck of an adventure yesterday and I figured I'd share.

First off we haven't been able to get the boat out in anything better than a 4-5 mile per hour wind, while that keeps her moving its not super exciting hehe. So when the largest lake in the area had 25 mph winds forecasted and I wasn't worried about damage since I had to give her an overhaul due to delamination of her deck. We figured we go give her some good stress testing.

When we finally got off of work we eagerly drove the hour out to the lake full of expectations of some great winds. Now this lake is 8 miles long and 5 miles wide and is almost shaped like a rectangle. You can just barely see the far side of the lake from the long ends. Due to the lack of trees for a few hundred miles the winds are usually strong and steady on this lake.

Unfortunately when we got there the front had past that had been blowing all day and there wasn't even enough air moving to twitch a leaf. However it was a partially cloudy day so we figured we'd wait around for a few hours and see if it picked up. So we launched the Thornbat and paddled out to about half a mile off the beach (around the point from the boat launch.) and started waiting.

After about half an hour we decided to turtle her on purpose and bring up on the other side to see what would happen with the lines and the items in the cockpit to simulate a wipe out. Shes flipped under and back up the other side without an difficulty and had hardly any water in the cockpit.
So we threw the paddle back in and started to dry out.

Thats about when we noticed another sailboat coming around the point of course she was motoring once she got closer we could tell she was a 24 foot cabin cruiser named the Sirocco. the took a couple passes looking at our boat then came withing shouting distance, they invited us about for a beverage . The two gents on board discussed boats with us for a little while and of course we complained we could never get enough wind. We had noticed a small row of clouds hovering at the other side of the lake with some rain coming down from them the guys laughed and said we'd probably get wet, but at least we'd find a bit of wind.

At this point I should have clued in to what was about to happen as the water tempurature was 62 degrees (these guys had a depthfinder) and the air was beginning to cool past that point due to the approaching shower. We didn't though so we decided to move back onto our boat and get ready for the breeze that was starting to move towards us. We figured at the least we could use the bit of wind to get us back to the boat launch.

once back on board I relized somehow the rigging at the back had become detached from the back handle and gotten tangled while I was trying to untangle it, my brother was watching the the small cloud front move onto the water at the far side of the lake, at this point the water became MUCH warmer than the air. All he had to say was HOLY CRAP!! and the cloudbank literally transformed in front of his eyes into a massive thunderstorm in a matter of mins. Lightening start striking to the north of us and the wind raced across the water at us.

I still hadn't untangled the rigging and so left the sail loose to do its own thing I'm glad I did because when that wind hit us it was like a wall. The waves started to grow quickly and I had just finished hooking the rigging back up and was untangling a block when it got to full strength.

Then the rain began. I couldn't turn my face upwind anymore as the rain felt like needles striking the skin, but at least we were ready to run! So I reversed the rudder pulled the sail in slightly and let it push us backwards towards shore and start turning the boat. As soon as we got to a decent angle I pulled the sail in some more my brother and I leaned out and we started moving forward. Then she started to heel :twisted: we started hooting and hollering and generally screaming into the wind in delight as almost instanly our speed increased to a rediculous amount. Once we were almost at a broad reach, SNAP!! The rudder box cracked and my eyebolts came out.

Here is a picture of the aftermath



So now the waves had built up the sky was dark and raining, but at least all the lightening was striking to the north of us. The waves were roughly 3.5 to 4 feet in hieght with a trough longer than my boat so we were surfing down the face of them backwards. I removed the first nut attaching the bolt thru the eyeholes on the transom and rudder box and DROPPED it! Being in rough water and knowing I couldn't loose the other nut (I use two to lock them on) I managed to get it off without a repeat. I hauled the rudder assembly onboard and put the same screw eyes into new positions in the wood you can see them in the picture as well. (they were still on the bolt).

At this point my brother had enough time to look around and he noticed the larger sailboat trying to make its way back to us.they got close but couldn't head upwind at all as he was caught with his main at full and with a 175% genoa up! They were forced to tack backaway from us or risk being washed into the beach. By then I managed to replace the screw eyes and put the rudder assembly back into place with just the one nut.

As soon as we tried moving again however the lower screw eye snapped right off where it went into the wood! We got hit by a heavy gust at the same time and the sail got away from us and the rope pulled thru the pulleys it was dangling from the last pully and well out of reach. (I had recently replaced the rope and forgotten to knot the end :oops: ) Frustrated drenched and missing out on all the wind I asked my brother to see what he could do with the rudder while I tried to grab the wildly flapping boom that was 90 degrees to starboard.

Thats when we got to do our second turtle test.....

Again knowing that we were both great swimmers with life jackets and a boat filled with foam that the only danger was lightening which was well north of us by now we started laughing and yelling with the fun of it. Plus the water was much warmer that sitting on the boat so we weren't shivering anymore. Of course the warm water just kept feeding this thing but it was all fun to us :twisted:

So I swam to rescue the paddle which was floating away and that was a mistake. The boat and my brother were drifting faster with the wind than I could swim (even with the boat upside down). So my brither grabbed the painter at the bow and sterted swimming towards me, we finally met up and used the rope to pull us both back to the boat.

I took the bow and pulled it into the wind while he started pulling on the daggerboard. She didn't want to right herself in the waves however! finally Henry climbed out of the water onto the daggerboard grabbed the side and started heaving on it. Then she slowly came upright. Laughing our arses off we struggled back into the boat so see if anything could be done to bring her in.

We couldn't see the other Sirroco anymore but couldn't worry about them. last time we had seen them they were heeled over as far as I've ever seen a boat heeled with out flipping (he had a 3500 ballast set into his keel). And they were headed out away from us.

after taking stock of the situation and wasting a bunch of time trying different things we realized we could make headway if Henry manhandled what was left of the rudder while I was near the mast manhandling the sail by the boom. I could only catch a bit of wind at a time or Henry couldn't use the rudder to direct us it just took too much strength.

We finally got past the point and turned down wind to head to the boatlaunch. Thats when things got really fun we were surfing down the face of the waves and actually going in the direction we wanted to!

the last few hundered yards went easily enough compared to what came before. and we got to the boat ramp without further incident. as we pulled her onto the trailer a truck pulled up and the two gents off the other sailboat got out! We were glad to see them unharmed and obviously assumed they made it back in with out too much damage. We assumed wrong the owner of the boat showed me his hands they had to get to a hospital he had only strips of skin left on them and muscle was showing in many places. The ropes had torn his hands to shreads as they tried to drop thier sails they told us they couldn't get them down and the Sirroco had been blown onto the rocks at the end of the bay. We immeadly offered assistance to attempt to help them while they took the one guy to the hospital we'd see if we could salvage anything from his boat. But the kindly refused saying it was stuck a ways off shore and it was too dangerous to attempt anything with her until tomorrow. We said our goodbyes and they left for the hospital.

Thats when we realized what had happed to my deck where the deck had delaminated. I was amazed at how strong the weather was that we had just ridden in. here a pic of the deck from this morning.



needless to say there is going to be some major work before we go do that again :twisted:

Oh we found out how strong a mess we were out in as well
on the beaufort windforce scale it was a force 8 wind, also classified as a fresh gale. The actual wind speeds were between 39 and 46 miles per hour and 62-74 kph.

Man you're lucky you didn't end up in a really bad situation like the other sailors. Glad you made it out safely. You're boat is a mess though. That deck looks like typical luaun though, sometimes you can do anything with the stuff but most times it's just crap. You should try soaking a piece of plywood in water for a few days to see if it holds together before you re-deck your boat again. Some say you might try boiling it as well. That would be a quicker test of the laminations I suppose. Good luck with your re-work

Keith

yeah I fully intend on checking everything out when rebuilding its all good though.

A quick update they got Sirocco off the rocks and amazingly for them it seems the wind died right after they went aground there is only minor damage. However the sailor with the hurt hand actually did more damage that I initially thought all of his fingers and hand were torn right down to the flesh and on one finger right down to the bone. Hes gonna need some serious rehab on that hand

Now that sound like a ride to rival any amusment park :wink: You guys were lucky. looks like it's backt o the shop for some modifications. I found the screw eyes to not be too reliable for fastening the rudder, you might try gudeons and pindles bolted to the transom, they are usually stronger.

Greg

what the heck are gudeons and pindles? I was thinking of welding up a plate for both inside and outside the transom and a U shaped plate for the rudder box and running some stupid thick eye-bolts right through and tacking them after bolting to make sure nothing can come loose.

I still think I'll have a problem with the rudder not biting as the mast is too far forward so I have a retarded time trying to turn into the wind. also when running downwind the bow tries to dive below the surface, It probably because of my weight being too close to the back of the boat so the Center ofG Gravity (or Center of Resistance) is well behind the Center of Force. I don't know enough about boats yet to tell though and know what else could cause this problem?

Man sounds like quite a time out there, sounds like quite an adreneline rush for sure good luck with your rebuild, heres a pic of what I think Greg is talking about....

You can find them here...
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/p-g.../index.htm

Brian.

Another thing to consider if you stick with the eye-bolt arrangement is to use T-Nuts to hold the eyebolt on rather that just screwing them into the wood. Lee Valley has a good selection and you can often find them at the better hardware stores too.

Here is a picture of what I was thinking of, it's from the Duckworks site
Boat craft in Edmonton might carry them as well.

Greg

wow thanks for the responses guys nice pics of the gear too and they look almost exactly what I have in mind of fabricating myself (since I can weld and have the equipment) although I intend on going a bot heavier duty and I believe I'll be switching out my rudder for a larger slab of wood to help it bite better in heavy winds but thanks for all the pics!! that will definately help me to refine my ideas!