Texas 200

[Bluedog225]

First, thanks to Chuck and everyone else for bringing this together. I think it was a great success.

With great humility, I wanted to post my experience in the hope that it might help others for next year. As some may have heard, I capsized my Sea Pearl 21 several hours into day one ("it was as 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour....") I read the account from last year about the unfortunate family and thought to myself, "those poor people shouldn't go out if they can't sail in these conditions"......

I have been sailing this boat for years with this same set of lugsails and have been on many downwind runs both on Lake Travis and once spend two windy days on Matagorda bay camping near Army Hole. In all that time, I have never come close to being broached. On a scale of 1-10, I would have rated the Matagorda Island sail a 5 with regard to challenge and instability.

I didn't realize that 3-4 feet of chop and a folloiwng sea could make such difference.

I started the Texas 200 late on Monday (10 am or later). You all know the conditions. We started late so it was a little windier and choppier.

I started with both main and mizzen lugs reefed. The destination was due north.
I alternated reaching and running while I tuned the sails and reached the ship
channel. Both leeboards were fully down.

I was having an occasional wave try to turn me from the run but noting too
serious and I seemed to do better if I took them from dead astern.

My main kept twisting badly so I pulled out of the channel, pulled in the mizzen
and took off the jaws I was using on the main. I also brought the downhaul back
to about 18 inches from the front end of the spar so I could get a better vang
effect. I also unreefed the main since I didn't feel overpowered. I left the
mizzen reefed.

Given my previous experience with the boat, I wasn't on high alert.
Nonetheless, we were both wearing vests, I had one hand of the tiller, and one
on the main sheet.

We had about 4 minutes of perfect sailing before things turned bad.

I was running on a straight course, with the wind, with the main and mizzen
about 20 degrees forward of the mast when I capsized. Here is how it happened
as far as I can tell.

When I unreefed the main, I increased the boats speed and generally powered up the boat. This left me on top of
the swells longer and raised the rudder out of the water for longer periods of
time. Alternatively, it could have kicked the rudder up due to the speed (we were flying). A larger wave raised us up and we slid down into the trough on our
starboard side very quickly. Turning this way powered up both sails since
they had been running forward of the mast. Additionally, my oversized bimini caught some wind.

I had no tiller control (the tiller
was hard over trying to bring us back downwind) and as we started to roll, the
main sheet got fully released, but not the mizzen (no time). As the wave
gathered itself up, I think the fully extended lee board caused us to "trip"
onto the side.

The boat didn't hesitate when the sails hit the water but continued to rotate
quickly down to fully inverted. We both got out as she went over (both wearing
vests).

Her main mast was abut 18 feet long and we were in 9 feet of water. The spar on the main stood much higher. I think the spar caught the bottom almost as soon as the sails hit the water. This drove her main mast about 8 feet
into the shell and mud.

A 3 foot piece of upper spar floated to the surface. It was a piece from the middle, cracked at both ends. She could not right herself as she was impaled on 8 feet of mast in 9 feet of water.

Dan, Rick, and Keven (thanks again guys) noticed we had disappeared and came back to see what had happened. Kevin bravely jumped into the water to help me try to right her. We finally got her back over but it required all of your weight and we had to crack a lee board and snap the mast (sitka spruce-sob) and mast tube.

I was able to retrieve the mizzen mast but the main mast and both sails
were badly caught on some underwater object and had to be abandoned.

Wen righted, her rails were above the
water but the waves were breaking over them somewhat. Bailing her out
completely only took a medium effort.

Once we got her back over and bailed, sat at anchor until towed. The wind was
too strong to row back.

In retrospect, I was flying too much sail, too high up. I should have had the leeboards less deployed, and I should have secured the weight in the hold better. I also should have packed for submersion like I do when I sea kayak. Most of the watertight gear I had failed.

I was simply
ignorant about the possibility of losing rudder control on a swell and similarly
ignorant about needing to raise the leeboards on a run. I'd never had a problem
before.

I take full responsibility for this incident. it was beyond my limited experience and totally unexpected. I endangered my
passenger, lost a lot (a lot...) of gear (in addition to the mast and sails),
and damaged my boat.

The major losses were the sails and main mast and most of the medical gear my girlfriend, Maura, was bringing along (she's and RN/Search and Rescue paramedic). Fortunately, no one was hurt and most of the boat was recovered.

From what I can tell, this was a rookie mistake. The pics may be instructive to show how differently a boat will behave in a lake test verses open water.

Thanks in advance. Pic to follow.

Regards,

Tom

[img][/img]
_________________
Tom Best
Sea Pearl 21

[SailorJohn]

Tom,

Charlie told me last year: "The difference between an adventure and an ordeal is attitude." Until last week my families capsize had been our greatest adventure. We slowed briefly for a moment of silence and contemplation when we neared the spot where we capsized last year. Then after that, everything was icing on the cake for us. Two of our biggest problems last year were over packing and leaving late. I hope that everyone who reads this will trim their gear for next year and keep a tight time schedule. (There’ll be time to sleep more when you get to camp.) Another thing that I hope all participants will do before they shove off next year is to capsize and self rescue their boats while fully loaded. As we saw with Andrew Linn, in his Salem Electron PDR, this year - Capsizing isn’t the bad part but as my family found out last year an you and others found our this year the inability to self rescue is the deal breaker. I hope that you make the whole trip next year.
_________________
John Miller

TX-200:
'08 BUSTED
'09 Completed
'10 Planning

[DaveK]

Awesome story!

I just found this place from Sailing Anarchy.... I'd hope that more was posted about it there but there wasn't much. Maybe I'll try this next year.

[SailorJohn]

ARGG

Tis a'nuder vicktom hooked Capt'n

Taint no better time, tin sailin with the mates on the watters
_________________
John Miller

TX-200:
'08 BUSTED
'09 Completed
'10 Planning