What happens doesn’t matter, it’s how you deal with it!
Last time I posted a blog we were just wrapping up the loose ends getting ready to leave San Francisco. Now we are at Driscoll boat yard, Shelter Island in San Diego a few hundred miles down the coast not far from the Mexico border. The trip down was educational.
We set off from Sausalito early in the morning with little breeze but knew full well that a few miles offshore we would be in a nice solid north westerly which would allow us to do some good testing of how the boat sails down wind in a breeze.
Unfortunately the winters in San Francisco are fairly light wind affairs and all the sailing in the bay the past five months has been a little on the soft side. Now it was time to take Dorade into the Ocean and give her the shakedown she needed. As the wind filled in as predicted we sailed further out so when we finally bore off we would have a good deep run with plenty of room from land. When we were happy with our sea room the pole was set and the kite was hooked up. We bore down and the shout was given to hoist the S4. I was on the halyard and stared to pull like crazy to get it up as fast as I could. Unfortunately due to the small jib we had up, a heavily rolling boat, and a little user error the kite filled with wind; I stumbled and lost my wraps on the mast winch and found myself holding the halyard in my hand. Before I could let go I was half way to the first spreader ( maybe a little less but that sounds better). I came down to the deck on my feet and Chewy was there to help me get it back up. The crew kept cool, we didn’t get it in the water and once we got the jib down it was a case of tidying up and settling down. Finally I thought I better get myself some first aid as the halyard running through my hands had taken a lot of skin and flesh from my left hand and it was burning a little!
Fortunately just two weeks before we had all done our first aid update and everybody knew exactly what to do. Once I stopped the burning by running water over it I chose Paige Brooks as my nurse and she helped bandage it up. Keeping this kind of injury dry is difficult on a small boat so we covered it in a latex glove which would help prevent infection.
Enough about me! The new guys on board seemed a little alarmed with the rolling motion of Dorade and were saying things like “is this normal”. I would say “yes” and they would get on with it. It takes a little time on the helm in these conditions to get the hang of things. Dorade is counter-intuitive to drive in these dead down wind conditions and it is easy to over steer and create more trouble for yourself. It was only a short time before the guys had tamed the beast and we were sailing Dorade like we owned her.
Dorade’s length, narrow beam and long boom make it difficult to keep the end of the main boom out of the water on a downwind course in a twelve to fifteen foot sea state. We had a gybe preventer set and everything was going nicely. In my experience on other boats, dipping the boom in the water is not something I would bat an eyelid at and certainly would not get out of bed for. If you aren’t dipping it in occasionally then you aren’t trying hard enough! Anyway Dorade is an old lady and perhaps I was wrong on this occasion. As night drew in we doused the kite, reefed the main, poled out the number four and I served up a delicious freeze dried Spaghetti Bolognaise. John Hayes thought he was eating an ear but I guess I have grown to like the taste and went back for seconds.
The night went smoothly with everybody driving, wind gusting up to the mid twenty’s and only dipping the boom a handful of times. By day light the wind had eased to around fourteen knots and the boys shook the reef out after breakfast to keep us moving along so we could arrive in San Pedro in daylight. At about 09:30 I was summoned on deck from my little navigators berth and I knew from the tone in John’s voice it wasn’t going to be good. Within a couple of seconds I was out of my sleep and standing on deck in my boxer shorts. “Look at the boom” I was told. It didn’t look good! The boom had split from the goose neck about 8 feet on either side. I quickly called for “all hands on deck” and Chewy had already started to drop the main. The guys acted quickly and I think it could have been a lot worse with a lesser crew. We un-bent the main sail and lashed the break as best we could using North Sails sail ties. The mood on board was a little subdued now and this was not the best start to the day, especially before a cup of tea.
Just previously to the break the guys were getting the boat ready for a kite hoist and had gybed the boat over so we would be going in the right direction. It was immediately after the gybe the break happened but in such light breeze at the time I feel like the damage was done before. So the day went on and we still made good speed with jib, jigger and A2 combos.
By the time we were in cell phone range at the end of the day, there had been a lot of discussion on board as to how it may have happened and how we could have done anything different. To be honest I was just grateful it had happened now and not a few days into the Trans Pac which would have left us with a very difficult decision of whether to carry on or retire and go back. The various People were notified and a plan was thrown into action.
On arrival at San Pedro Greg Stewart of Nelson Marek Yacht Design was standing by with his spar builder Douglas Jones to take the boom away and start the repairs. With the Islands race just around the corner the pressure is on so that we can hit the start line on time. At first Greg and Douglas seemed skeptical but with some explaining and encouragement regarding the goals at stake I knew they understood and could get it done. Yesterday I saw the spar for the first time and Doug was building up the varnish and sealing the ends. She looked amazing and he is truly a master craftsman. Now we are just waiting for the new goose neck to be fabricated and polished up and we can put all the bits together. Manny Melo is the fabrication guy who works in the same yard as Doug so the fluidity of the project has been seamless so far and I am pleased with how things have progressed and confident we will be getting off to a good start next Friday.
San Diego seems like a cool place and Chuck Driscoll who owns the boat yard here has been extremely helpful in accommodating our needs and making us feel at home. Last night Greg Stewart gave a Dorade talk at the South Western Yacht Club which Chewy and I attended. It was a great opportunity to meet some of the locals and answer a few questions everybody had regarding Dorade and the project. Chewy has been working with me since Tuesday and helped bring the boat down from San Pedro, he has been a major asset getting the lists out of the way and we would be in much worse shape next week if I did not have his knowledge and skill to bounce ideas off. I think the work that can be done probably more than doubles when you have two people as many jobs require an extra set of hands and even though you have a list to do, along the way more things are bound to crop up.
I met Dennis Conner last night and had another chat with him this morning; he didn’t seem too keen to sail on Dorade with us as he thinks she is too nice. I think he may be a little old now anyway but it would be something to write about next time.
Chewy is probably thinking I should do some work and that I have just been checking my Face Book this whole time. So fingers crossed everything goes well this weekend and we will be back up in San Pedro on Tuesday or Wednesday morning to meet the race crew.
More Later
Ben