Broken Universal & Rescue (long)

From: Gr8Jibe@aol.com-DeleteThis
Date: Tue Jun 13 1995 - 22:45:09 PDT


Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.8/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA04629; Tue, 13 Jun 1995 22:48:55 -0700
Return-Path: <Gr8Jibe@aol.com-DeleteThis>
Received: from mail06.mail.aol.com by hplms26.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP ($Revision: 1.36.108.11 $/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1S) id AA270888933; Tue, 13 Jun 1995 22:48:54 -0700
Received: by mail06.mail.aol.com (1.37.109.11/16.2) id AA036898709; Wed, 14 Jun 1995 01:45:09 -0400
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 01:45:09 -0400
From: Gr8Jibe@aol.com-DeleteThis
Message-Id: <950614014509_94531374@aol.com-DeleteThis>
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Subject: Broken Universal & Rescue (long)

Okay, here is the post about my broken universal the day before Memorial Day.
 Happened to be the same day as the guy spent 13 hours in the bay. I only
spent about 1 hour in the water.

I was sailing 3rd Avenue in the channel near the bridge at 6:15 pm when my
rig lifted off the board en route. I caught up with the board and Ian and
Carol grabbed the rig.

The broken part was the 1/2" stainless steel pin which attached the universal
to the board. This pin sheared where it narrowed to 1/4" to thread into the
bottom of the universal. The universal stayed intact, which is why the
webbing around the universal did me no good.

Ian headed for shore for a new universal for me while I took Carol up on her
offer to stay with me. After about half an hour, Carol and I were both
getting chilly so she started sailing and trying to stay close by, but lost
me upwind of her.

One other sailor stopped by and headed in for a universal. Then, for 30
minutes, no one saw me as I drifted first northward then more or less east,
following the same route the large ships take.

I could easily see many sailors half a mile away downwind. I sat on the tail
of my board, tied to the submerged rig, and held the white board almost
straight up in the air without being seen. I blew my whistle, but no one was
really very close by.

After an hour in the water, starting to get cold in a 3/2 convertible (It was
a warm day.), I figured out how to sail without a universal. I ran the
downhaul line under the base plate and tied it tightly. I slid the mast base
pad down to pad the base. Then I waterstarted and began to sail.

Just as I waterstarted, Ian and Tom--who had been searching for me for nearly
an hour--found me and followed me in. It was a 2-mile broad reach, fully
powered, and the best run of my life.

When I ran up the ramp, I found the Coast Guard Auxiliary searching with
binoculars for me near the bridge, where I had broken down an hour and 15
minutes before. They quickly notified the CG, who diverted a boat to looking
for the other missing windsurfer.

I learned a lot that day. I learned that you can tie your mast base to the
mast track. You should carry a nut with you, threaded onto a piece of line,
with stopper knots about two inches apart on both sides of the nut. You can
slide this nut into the mast track, pull on the line to snug the stopper knot
under the nut, and use that line to attach your rig to the board. (I
recommend you carry the nut already on the piece of line.)

I learned that I didn't understand the currents at 3rd as well as I thought.
 I broke down at 6:15. Low tide was 6:30. People were searching for me
between 6:30 and 7:15 where I went down. But the ebb current in the channel
continued for an hour after the local San Mateo Bridge low tide! The Call of
the Wind current predictions for Coyote were deadly accurate. When your rig
is entirely submerged, you go with the current. I ebbed until almost
precisely 7:11, the slack water prediction on the beeper, and in the tide
table charts.

Slack water seems to coincide with low tide on the inside, but not in the
channel.

I never regretted having a life jacket. I wished I'd had a warmer suit that
day. I wished I'd had a cellular phone or a radio. But I was very confident
that I knew those who set out to help me--Ian and Carol--would keep looking
and call the CG. (They did.)

The equipment I was using is from ART (Fanatic), but Chinook uses the same
idea--a stainless pin inserted into a plate mounted to the board. I
understand they narrow down to 1/4" to attach to the bottom of the universal
joint.

I've heard differing reports of how frequently these pins or plain 1/4"
stainless bolts break. Who knows of others who've had the same problem?

Bill



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Dec 10 2001 - 02:29:24 PST