Season Slips Away

	This is not the way to float your boat as the crew of Fred learned. The good news is no one was hurt and Fred is now back on top.

Atlantic J24 Chair Greg Blunden wanted one more event to close the season out in style so he scheduled and organized the last J24 regatta of the season for the weekend of October 14 and 15. It all looked good too. We were well underway with one of those really good fall seasons you sometimes get in Nova Scotia where the weather is warmer than in June and the rain is intermittent at worst. The enthusiasm was there too as eleven boats were committed well before the event.

When the weekend dawned, it was still looking good, with comfortable temperatures and lots of sun. The only qualifier was that it was blowing as it sometimes does ’round these parts in October as hurricanes pass to the south and gales whip up the coast. Blowing enough by October 14, as a matter of fact, that four of the eleven prospective entrants thought better of it when they got out of bed. Another got out to the start line and decided that 30 kts plus was not the last thing he wanted to do this year and bailed right away. I was getting the mast out of my J29 as the time and I watched others straggle in over the course of the day wide-eyed and exhausted with stories about multiple broaches, keels out of the water, and all manner of terrifying events.

Sounded like so much fun that I decided to try it myself when Dale Robertson told me he was shorthanded the next day. There were only three boats left by that point: Dale who was leading the regatta with a 1 and a 3 from Saturday, Greg who was nipping at his heels despite having shown his bottom to the fleet while leading the second race, and Fred, helmed by the ever fearless Evan Petley-Jones. Sunday was really no different from Saturday except that the Race Committee agreed to set up the course inside instead of outside Lighthouse Bank so as to avoid the considerable sea that had made the competition a bit too interesting up to that point. Before the race, we on Dale’s Slam understood that an agreement had also been reached not to fly spinnakers in the interest of cooling things down a bit.

As things transpired, Evan and company on Fred apparently didn’t get that memo and the first time they went downwind up went the chute. I saw Evan with a crew of five on the J29 Satisfaction pop a spinnaker in 40 kts on the Wednesday night two years ago when I broke the mast in my J-Zeus II9, so I wasn’t surprised to see them do just fine with a full crew in a 24 and mere 30 kts of breeze. On the next leg, however, they replicated Greg’s move from the previous day and laid Fred over in front of us for about 30 seconds before recovering decently.

Notwithstanding, they kept at it and Greg, who won the first race responded. Being older and more prudent on Slam we stuck with winging the blade, which we eventually discovered was nearly as fast once we figured out how to use the spinnaker pole to get the sail out a bit farther. The wind, anyway was dying a bit and it all seemed pretty reasonable until Fred rounded the second downwind mark of the second race and without dousing the spinnaker. As we learned later, the gooseneck on Fred broke shortly before or as they went around the mark. At the same time, a know in the halyard prevented the spinnaker from making it all the way to the deck.

As Evan’s crew scrambled to deal with it all and he tried to make progress to windward, a series of events ensued that should be considered by all sailors and particularly J24 sailors. With the spinnaker halfway down and the main flapping with its gooseneck broken, the crew of Fred other than Evan headed to the middle and leeward areas of the boat to deal with the problem. In 25 to 30 kts, obviously, the boat was heeling a condition considerably aggravated by the distribution of crew weight. It didn’t take long underr the circumstances for Fred to hit the critical point at which a J24 will tip and I soon looked up from my spot on Dale’s bow to see her keel out of the water once again. Not long after (according to Evan it was very quick) she was completely upside down with the keel out of the water.

As the boat immediately behind, we new we had to help. I dropped the blade on Slam as quick as I could and Dale sailed over to offer assistance. It was immediately clear that the crew was in good order with all five clearly visible and working on the problem at hand. We helped out by providing rope and equipment, and circled the scene until two Zodiac crash boats showed up followed by Mike Evans in his Bavaria 39. Our rope soon got tied between Fred and one of the Zodiacs and in maybe ten minutes Fred was dragged upright.

Unfortunately, while all of Fred’s crew were safely on board other vessels and Fred herself looked to be no worse for wear, it didn’t last long. Fred floated on her gunwhales for about 15 seconds by my estimate before her bow started to descend and she did a pretty good impression of the Titanic going down minus the band. It’s not the first sailboat I’ve seen sink in Halifax Harbour and most of us know the drill at that point is to tie some rope and something that floats onto the mast before everything slips out of sight. Evan and the Race Committee crew were able to do so and everyone decided we’d seen enough for the day. Dale won the regatta despite Greg winning three of the four races that were completed and us finishing last in two. It would make a good Grade 6 math problem (Seven boats entered the reagatta and Boat A won three of four races while Boat B finished last twice. How the heck … ?).

Boat	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total	Net
Slam	Dale Robertson	3	1	3	2.0 RDG	9	9
Adrenaline Rush	Greg Blunden	1	7.0 DNF	1	1	10	10
Fred	Even Petley-Jones	4	2	2	7.0 DNC	15	15
Juvenile Delinquent	Ted Murphy	2	3	7.0 DNC	7.0 DNC	19	19
Lightning McQueen	Ian Dawson	7.0 DNF	7.0 DNC	7.0 DNC	7.0 DNC	28	28
Dark Star	Ben Rubarth	7.0 DNF	7.0 DNC	7.0 DNC	7.0 DNC	28	28

Epilogue

Fred has since risen from the deep. The bouy tied to her mast did its job. I understand the salvage operation, which took place the next day was challenging, as Fred has apparently grown to like the harbour bottom and made three more trips down there when her sails filled (Monday was windy too) and she repeated her Titantic thing. Eventually, though, she stayed up long enough to be pumped and dragged to shore. She’s worse for the experience but arrangements have been made with the insurer to get her back on the line for the 2012 season.

My inquiry into this event has been informal but as Borat would say there have been a few learnings. One is that spinnakers can be tricky in a breeze even in experienced hands. Evan has sailed big boats offshore and managed to roll his boat through 180 degrees without getting his feet wet. At least three of his four crew also qualify as highly experienced). Two is that there are times when it makes sense to give up. Evan has said that they had decided to retire when they realized the gooseneck was broken but it seems that the desire to see if they could compete overtook the obvious reality that the day was done and the sails needed to come down. Third and less obvious is the design of J24s. I don’t know the exact point but there is clearly a critical angle at which a 24 is destined to go the rest of the way. Even more important is the design of the lazarettes in older 24s like Fred. They are L-shaped and tend to flop open when a 24 reaches 90 degrees. Once they are open, they are only a few inches above the water and it doesn’t take much wave action to start filling them up. The aft tanks, furthermore, are open to the cabin so that once they start to fill there is little to stop water entering the entire boat with inevitable consequences.

I have seen this issue discussed in relation to many other J24 sinkings and I am probably not getting all the details right but the long and the short is that the larazettes on a J24 should, at the minimum, be latched at all times. It actually makes plenty of sense to fibreglas and seal them and, for good measure, to enclose the aft bulkhead to ensure the positive bouyancy of the aft tanks. I understand boats have been modified this way and it makes good safe sense. Check the Class rules and talk to someone who knows more than me before you proceed but do it if you want to maximize your safety and the safety of your crew. Here in Atlantic Canada, we now have six months to deal with it. And whether you do or you don’t modify your boat, make sure to wear a lifejacket when sailing in a breeze if not all the time.

Advertisement