The "tow of shame" two days in a row! :(

You can read about my H14 dismasting in the H14 forum under "Would you pay $250 for this?" thread.

Today I needed a confidence-building day, after 2 bad days in a row. (Three weeks ago the starboard hull on my H16 had an unfortunate meeting with some rocks.) The wind was only about 5mph and I thought I'd just go out on the 16 and putter around a bit. That seemed like a fine idea.

After I got out on the water the wind miraculously jumped from seriously almost no ripples on the water to the whole lake is dark blue from lots of ripples - maybe 15 gusting to 20. Really GREAT weather except that I didn't bring my trap harness or righting bag because I wasn't even expecting to heel over much less fly a hull.

So... I was taking it easy and sailing very conservatively when a gust came along mid-gybe and capsized me. Well almost immediately thereafter the wind let up to about a steady 10mph.

So there I am, middle of the lake, standing on the starboard hull, no righting bag because I wasn't expecting wind, in 10mph winds. Now I can get the boat up without a bag in higher winds because they get under the sail and help out, but try as I might today, my weight alone wouldn't get the boat up. Slowly, ever so slowly, the wind blew me into a huge clump of weeds that sticks out maybe 200 yards from the lee shore. When I blew into the reeds, there I stayed. So now my efforts consisted of leaning back on the righting line occasionally to keep the mast as far out of the water as possible.

I also was keeping an eye on the marina across the lake and asking myself "I wonder if they can see me." LOL Anyway after about 5 minutes I saw some movement and the manager and another guy came out in a fishing boat and pulled me clear of the weeds & helped me right it again. I apologized for them coming after me two days in a row and they laughed and said rescuing people is the most fun part of their job, because it's either that or sit around waiting for the phone to ring.

Anyway, after that I headed back to the dock and dropped my jib and then I went out again on main only so I can get used to tacking that way for when I go out in the H14. Sure is a little tougher, huh? OTOH when you're solo it's one less thing to deal with.

All in all, the day was kinda

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Warm regards,

Jim

where do you live that your in the water in february?
but have at it, fly a hull for me ! i cant wait to hoist a sail this year!!!

Oh, today in W. Texas it was gorgeous! 75° & sunny!

Jim dismasting sucks so bad... I had the tow of shame last summer, the ringding came out of the clevis pin holding the port chainplate to the mast, and as I was making a textbook tack, I heard a pop, and then looked up and all looked fine, looked back down, and looked back up and couldnt find my mast! My jib took the brunt of the force and ripped clean in half down the bottom section seam and my mast slowly fell over, luckily a guy in a sea doo was there to help... I was so bummed...

There is nothing like a dismasting to help the EGO eh?

Luke

Well, like I said in the other thread I've got all new running and standing rigging on the way for the H14, so now I shouldn't have any issues unless the mast or a champlate breaks. Or the hull. Or the frame.

I guess the biggest lesson is "always bring the righting bag when going out solo, no matter what. Even if there's no wind." Would've transformed yesterday into merely a cold dunk instead of the tow of shame.

Just glad there was no mud on my mast.

LOL! Sorry Jamie but thats the funniest post I've read yet. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who visits the weeds! That seriously sounded like my typical day out on the lake minus the help!!:lol:

Yes, allways having the righting bucket when you are solo is allways a good idea. Also as one of my friends learned out sailing with me at Lake Mead with the 16, ALLWAYS wear your trapeeze harness!! You never know when you might need it, and if you do it does no good in the cat box or clipped down to the tramp.

This is a good habbit I got in when I was younger sailing the boat, I ALLWAYS had the harness on, even if just the bottom part, without the shoulder straps fastened, and it paid off BIG time!

2 summers ago my most adventurous friend and I took the cat to Lake Mead, NV, and launched at Temple Bar with maybe 2 knotts of wind. We where litterally drifting out of ramp area. When we where rigging the boat, I even commented, "I bet I look stupid putting on a trap harness.".

So here we are drifting out of Temple Bar, I have the trap harness on with my should straps off, and mad as heck that we just drove 7 hours from San Diego, to a have no bloody wind!

All of a sudden it starts sprinking, and the wind picks up to about 10-11 Knots, GREAT!, I buckle my trap harness, and get ready to actually starting to have some fun. I make sure my trap wire is pulled back to where I am sitting, so I just have to reach up and grab the dog bone.. Jus tthen we get a gust at about 15 knots, and I hook and get out on the wire. YES!!!! This is what I came up here for!!!! We are not done yet. The wind keeps picking up with every gust, soon we are taking disorganised gusts at 20, then 25 knots. I'm fully trappeded out, spilling wind like mad, and yelling at my friend to get his feet under the hiking straps and help me out. He kept asking if I wanted hiim to get his trap harness on, which was tied down to LEEWARD hiking strap!

By the end, we where sailing in 30 knot gusts, and ripped the jibsheet blocks through the clew eye, and had to go in. When the lightening started, we tried to get the cat into the nearest beach where we could actually beach the cat. No go... we couldnt get the cat that high into the wind. On making a mad dash back to the lauch ramp, lightening struck about 1000 ft up the Lake and I got a nice jolt through the water (Felt like I had nailed my funny bone on something)..

I do not want to think what would have happend if I had either left my harness in the cat box, or had tied it to the tramp.....

To me, a trap harness is as important a device as my lifejacket!

dam you must have a horse shoe up some where :( .

glad you were not seriously hurt. but its a cool story.

Yah; all I can say about that story is

And another great Hobie story that could hit the point home of WEAR YOUR DIAPER!

When my dad was first teaching me to sail our Hobie 16 (and my dad is the kind of person who thinks it isn't worth taking the cat our if it isn't blowing SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS or better).

I was back in Jr. High School, skippering the boat off of Point Loma, after getting out into the ocean about a half mile off the point, I thought we where far enough our and decided it was time to bring the cat around and head back into the San Diego Bay. I called "Ready About!" and brought the cat into the wind. Being a "Hobie 16 sailor in training" I brought the cat into perfect IRONS... #@!@, reversered the rudders, and I just couldnt get the boat to go onto the new tack, and got blown back onto the same tack we where on... My dad wasn't very pleased with my helmsmanship.

While we where getting things organised, we say something drift over our field of vision (Something just kinda floating in space), WHAT THE?! looking up the mast and sa. il where roated and canted at a weird angle, and pushed forward.. My dad realising what had happed said, "WE JUST LOST A SHROAD GO STRAIGHT!!!"

Switching postions, we where able to sail the boat with the load on the windward stay into the roccks off the end of Point Loma, my dad used the jib halyward to tie the loose chain plate in place, and we where off back to Shelter Island.

If anyone knows San Diego Bay, half way from the end of Point Loma to the Shelter Island ramps, you have the NAVY degausing station, and sub base, and a spit of land before it (On NAVY property) called BALLAST POINT.).

My dad who was chekcing our Mcguyever rig, noticed the jib halyard was nearly cut through, and beached the cat on there.. We dropped the main sail, and my dad got me on the trapeeze so we wouldn't loose the mast, while he rigged a more secure stay system, that got us back to the beach.

(I got many more Hobie stories abouhttp://homepage.mac.com/svannie/PhotoAlbum1.htmlt my cat)

check out

Seen those pics before! Wish I was closer to CA. I'd totally go to the Tiger worlds.

Regarding unexpected increases in wind velocity:

My guess is folks experiencing sudden unexpected increases in wind, you are sailing on unstable days that are likely to produce thunderstorms. If you are going to sail on unstable days, you NEED TO LEARN about how thunderstorms develope and how they work. One important thing to recognize is the "roll cloud". This is a cloud you can see at a distance and it is a sign that a down draft is blowing hard underneath the cloud. See this cloud, -get off the lake NOW! If you can't make it, then prepare for a sudden blow.

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Jeff Peterson
H-16 Sail #23721
Big Marine Lake, MN

Keeping a close eye on the weather certainly good advice for anyone!

Not to bring back old, bad, memories but, I assume no news is good news? All of your sailing expeditions since your last "tow of shame" have been with out comic antics and or mishaps ? All is well I presume.


-Still not warm enough here but the frogs are out so it wont be much longer. but not soon enough.

Ha! Yes and no.

I've been out on Lake Fort Phantom Hill (just north of Abilene) twice now. There is GREAT wind here and the lake is much bigger. First time I've started to get tired of trapping out. (Lake Nasworthy isn't big enough for that. You have to tack before you get tired.)

Only issue I've had so far (knock on wood) is a broken 1972 gooseneck slide this past Sunday. I've already ordered a replacement from Murray's. Hopefully it'll be here by this weekend. (A broken gooseneck isn't a showstopper for the day, just means you can't sheet in as hard, so it didn't ruin my afternoon.)

Haven't taken the 14 out in several weeks because it's currently 100 miles south of here.

Jim