Hi David, Sorry about the grounding. Boats can be fixed. Be thankful you and crew are OK.
I have had many groundings that were no big deal and one horrible grounding that cost me $16K, so I know your pain very well. I hope your insurance comes through for you. Keep us posted on developments. > On July 16, 2018 at 11:18 AM David Knecht via CnC-List > <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > > It is a sad morning here and I need some help to drag me out of my > depression. This list is my support group, advisers, experts and therapists. > Or maybe you will kick my butt for being an idiot and that could help as > well. Aries had a serious grounding on a reef on Saturday and is currently > awaiting insurance to start assessing the situation. We were barely towed > off the reef by SeaTow and the boat is on the hard at a local marina. The > damage is worse than I had hoped and better than it could have been. When > they were able to pull us off the lip of the reef (tide going out, getting > desperate) the rudder hit the reef and bent the shaft, damaged the hull > around the shaft and pushed the rear tip of the rudder up through the hull. > The bottom of the wing keel is also chewed up from grinding on the reef. > That sound of hull grinding over rock is now forever seared into my brain. > South Shore yachts actually lists the rudder on their site (thanks to the > list for making me aware of their C&C parts), and I am hoping there is > nothing else damaged that was not obvious. No one was hurt, except my pride > and confidence. Leaving the marina, I now have an appreciation for the > emotions of people who abandon their floating homes at sea. At least I will > hopefully get mine back. > > I have gone over the incident a thousand times trying to understand what > happened and how I could have prevented it. I thought I was hyperaware of > all the hazards in the Fishers Island Sound area and swore that I would never > ground the boat again after an incident with an unmarked reef during a race a > few years ago. I try to race with a priority of safety, fun and speed, in > that order. I almost always have crew who are not sailors other than racing > with me, which I enjoy, but takes some of my focus away from other things. > We had spent the day in a long race all over Fishers Island sound. It was > blowing 15+ and we had worked very hard to get around the course and the last > leg was a straight downwind sprint to the finish heading due North toward the > CT coast. With 3 inexperienced crew I was happy that we were in second place > in our class and focused on getting to the line. We crossed the line, then > jibed over to head back west to parallel the coast to our home port of New > London and had just taken a deep breath, congratulated the crew when we hit > the reef. It turns out that the Race Committee had set the finish line > inshore and just East of the single offshore buoy marking Horseshoe Reef. I > never saw (or recognized) the buoy because it was behind the mainsail as we > approached the finish and I was looking for the finish line, not other buoys. > By the time we jibed, it was essentially over my shoulder. I did not see > the buoy until I looked around when we hit the reef and realized where we > were. A hundred yards inshore and we would have been fine and a hundred > yards offshore and we would have seen the buoy and passed the correct side of > it. I think the Race Committee deserves some part of the blame for setting > the finish line in a dangerous location but certainly my lack of awareness of > where I was relative to dangers (of which there are many in Fishers Island > Sound) was the major factor. If I had looked carefully at the chart at any > point, I presume I would have recognized the danger of the finishing area, > but we were closely following the lead boat and so our location was not an > issue until we finished. I was in familiar waters but I just did not > recognize precisely where I was in familiar waters. The other boats near us > turned East while we turned West so we were not following anyone after the > turn. > > If anyone has any suggestions, comments or strategies to help prevent > this, I am all ears. A moments inattention is all it took and it makes me > concerned about several factors- age, racing with non-sailor crew, racing in > general. In our Wednesday night races, we race around the same marks every > week, and it has taken time, but I now think I know every hazard and am aware > of where we are relative to them while also keeping on top of the boat and > crew. This was an area I have sailed in many times but rarely race there. > Also in terms of the incident itself, if Seatow had not happened to be in the > area and seen us and we were not able to get the boat off the reef until the > next high tide, I have no idea what we would have done. I know I have > learned from other people’s disasters (always the first thing I read when a > new Sail magazine is delivered), so maybe this will help someone else not > have this happen or make someone feel better about things that have happened > to them. > > Relevant to the issue of thinking you know where you are when you don’t, > if you have not read Laurence Gonzales’s book Deep Survival, I highly > recommend it. He talks a lot about the psychology of visual perception of > your local environment and how it affects decisions. I think there are > lessons there for everyone, as many of the things he alerted me to I can see > over and over in everyday life and this is perhaps another example. > Dave > > Aries > 1990 C&C 34+ > New London, CT > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each > and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use > PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > >
_______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
