Wednesday July 20, 2022 Transit Port Dalhousie to Kingston Yacht Club
The Storm
I didn’t dream that the boat would do 14.2 knots in a 43-knot breeze, but a lightening storm caught up with us about 10:00 and pounded us for 2 hours with 43+ knot gusts and waves that built to 4 meters.
Matt was my crew on this adventure and the short story is we survived without knowing what damage the boat took. Special kudos to Otto the helmsmaster (Autohelm) who tirelessly steered for 24 hours and to Matt who was calm and professional the entire way.
The storm hit quickly. I had just asked Matt to reel in the genoa and the storm hit. He brought it in a bit and then the wind wrestled the furling line out of his hands and the genoa went full. I was holding the genoa sheet and it was wrenched from my hand. The genoa was hidden in the darkness and behind the main so we weren’t sure of the damage to the genoa. The boat was still screaming downwind so it wasn’t safe for anyone to go forward and look at the genoa, and they couldn’t have really seen much anyway. We continued downwind with a flogging genoa and a reefed main that had the last reef point ripped out so it was more of an accordion shape instead of a sail shape.
At some point towards the end of the storm, we came upon a laker. It seemed to be coming at us from the east. With the wind behind us we had limited options for maneuvering, and we changed course to starboard to avoid it. Then he seemed to change course to his starboard and we were in a collision course again. I turned the boat to Port and cut inside his arc. While I was doing that I lost track of course in the dark. I do remember moving from a consistent course of 63 degrees and then avoiding the tanker and ending up on a course of 311 degrees. The darkness and lack of any reference point other than the laker confused me. Unfortunately, the track on the navigation display doesn’t show the dipsy doodle we were doing to avoid the laker and regain our course.
After the storm there remained big waves and wind all night making it unsafe to go forward. In the morning we found that the genoa had been ripped, a giant hole about 8×8 feet, and the reefed main looked like an accordion that clearly would not be going upwind. However, it was downwind all the way to Kingston. And the closest port was Coburg to the north of us, which was not reachable by reaching under sail. After Cobourg were a few ports on the north shore, but in the circumstances they were all wired for failure because they contained some degree of upwind sailing, which we could not do with a messed up genoa and main sail. It would also box us into a lee short against Prince Edward County. The only option was to take the south route around Prince Edward County and in it’s lee, make for Kingston. Kingston has a big sailing culture and a robust Canadian Coast Guard where I didn’t think Cobourg and East to the County had.
Somewhere in the night a slam gybe happened and the boom became slightly crooked and the starboard traveler car block was smashed. The traveller block has now been replaced (7/23). The gooseneck looks ok so the boom goes far down on the to do list.
The trek around the County was interesting. Matt had to do a controlled gybe and executed it perfectly. We didn’t know if the main was damaged or if it would survive the gybe. It seems to have survived the gybe. The genoa continued to flog and twist and tear and my greatest fear would be that the tightly wrapped genoa might unravel and give us more unwanted speed. It did not, thankfully. We were doing about 8 knots with the tiny inefficient main.
When daylight came it was still 20-25 knots downwind with up to 2 meter waves and still unsafe for anyone to go forward and try to fix anything. Matt or myself could not have fixed the genoa. We were sure of that. And in the downwind direction we could go the main was pushing us towards Kingston at 8-9 knots. This was just great luck.
The Aftermath
- Calling the Coast Guard and Brooke
Since we landed in Kingston Yacht Club we’ve met some amazing people. Bob, the head of a very robust junior sailing program pitched right in and led the recovery of the genoa and went up the mast to bring down the forestay and furler. He has offered us the club workshop to work on the furler which is very welcome.
We took the sail up to JC at Kingston Yacht Sails and he looked it over and was just shy of condemning the sail but agreed to fix it for next Friday. His quote was an amazing $500 which I think is low but I’m not a sailmaker.
The first thing tomorrow morning I must call around to find a mechanic to fix the accelerator and gear shift linkages. We want it done right but Jeff and I will try to play with it this afternoon (7/25) but I still want a mechanic to bless this boat.
The genoa furler is f*cked. It won’t turn very well and we can’t get some Phillips head screws off and an Allen screw. These need to come off to assess the damage. We took the manual to the local Marine Outfitters but the Harken furler dates from 2007 and all he could do was suggest to call Harken which we’ll do Monday AM (7/25). If we need a new lower end of the furler, so be it. I hope I don’t need a new foil.
List of known damage
- Ripped genoa, about 8’ x 10’ (see photos)
- Deflated dinghy front inflated part
- Broken Furling system
- Broken Mainsheet traveller
- Broken lazy jacks starboard side.
- Broken reef lines on main
- Broken furling line
- Worn Genoa sheets
- Consequent Costs
- Kingston Yacht Club dock rental
- Slanted boom
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- And more to come. I’m very tired and will fill this in later.
