 Something's Gone Wrong Again I would guess I have about 38 years of sailing experience under my belt - no small number. I'm probably not the most complete sailor in the world, but at this point I have a pretty good idea what to do in most conditions and situations. So going for a short San Diego bay sail on a nice 75 degree early March Sunday with my family on our new Flying Tiger 10M seemed no big deal. Perhaps I should have taken it as a sign when we couldn't even sail out of our upwind slip without whacking the dock a couple of times before we got a clean getaway....So we are cruising back from Point Loma after sailing for a couple of hours, beating in about ten true when Bang! the mainsheet block comes off the traveler - the pin had come out of the shackle. And now the main sheet is basically 1 to 1 - not good. So I have my wife run off while I try to fix it - no go - the shackle has opened up too wide. We are fast approaching some rocks off the Zuniga jetty, so we tack over with a flogging main in a now building breeze of maybe 14 or so. We're on our ass (two small kids and a novice passenger) and we tack back to port, beating back towards Shelter Island, limping with a main that can't be trimmed. I figure I'll furl the jib, and then we'll eventually get the motor going and just motor in - we can't go upwind with the cockpit floor looking like it wants to rip out with the 1 to 1 mainsheet loading up. Two minutes after furling the jib, I hear this huge flapping sound - the jib has halfway unfurled and is flogging around like crazy - also not good. It is twisted and the furler is jammed, shaking the shit out of the rig and I can't do anything to it upwind, so we again run off and I tried to un-fuck it. We are again almost near Zuniga and I finally get the thing halfway down. Good Christ, this is not fun anymore. We half ass our way reaching on the other tack, unable to go upwind at all. I go to fire up the motor - no key! I scramble down below, find it, try to stick it in - it is bent and won't go in the god damn ignition. Fuck! Now I am almost in a panic because we are overpowered with just the damaged mainsheet and it looks like it is about to break, the jib is inoperable, and I can't get the god damn engine to start. I bend the key back, wedge it in and fire the fucker up - hallelujah. We doused the main and motored our sorry asses back to the slip, in conditions that would have normally been fun to sail in. I was glad to get back to the dock, and was tripping on how a pleasant Sunday sail had gone wrong, and how easy it would have been for it to have been much worse. What if the mainsheet failed completely? And what if then the motor doesn't start? We'd have been on the rocks in a matter of minutes. I don't know what the moral of the story is other than make god damn sure you have equipment that works, do a check of all the rigging that you can, and have back up plans. I had none of the above and it nearly ruined the day, and maybe much more. Been there? 03/06/07 |