Re: towing -- self rescue ideas

From: Gary Ward (gary@central.fmi.fujitsu.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Tue Aug 22 1995 - 13:59:38 PDT


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Date: Tue, 22 Aug 95 13:59:38 PDT
From: gary@central.fmi.fujitsu.com-DeleteThis (Gary Ward)
Message-Id: <9508222059.AA16377@central.fmi.fujitsu.com-DeleteThis>
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Subject: Re: towing -- self rescue ideas
Reply-To: gary@fmi.fujitsu.com-DeleteThis


> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 13:13:32 -0700
> From: justin@booza.mcm.com-DeleteThis (Justin Gordon)
> To: Multiple recipients of list <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>
> Subject: Re: towing -- self rescue ideas
>
> The fellow that had the accident (name not disclosed) dropped his
> sail in the water and it sunk. Another time, he tried derigging in the
> water and dropped his mast foot (which was particularly frustrating b/c
> the wind came back up and he could have sailed to shore).
>
> Does anybody have any suggestions for the best way to self-rescue:
> 1. swimming stance to swim in with board rigged
> -- I usually do backstroke with board held between my legs.
>
> 2. derigging at sea
> -- does it work?
> -- best ways to do it?
>
> Justin
>

Earlier this year I managed to snap a mast in two about 1/3 mile out of
Coyote Point. I derigged at sea, but it didn't work out all that
well.

I sat on my board until I managed to flag someone down. I was hoping
to flag down one of my friends, but they were too far upwind to see
me. A nice young lady stopped and helped. I derigged the pieces and
she helped hold on to them as I got things arranged. A length of cord
would have been a huge help here, I could have tied things to the board
as I got them loose. I tried to do the trick mentioned here earlier of
putting the top half upside- down into the bottom half. This did not
work out for several reasons. First, the bottom piece slid about 4
feet up the top peice, and secondly, the inverted top half of the mast
would not fit far enough up the mast sleeve. (This probably varies
with the sail and where you break the mast). Third, there were about 3
foot high waves making all this much more difficult. I finally gave up
and just rolled up the sail and tried to gather everything together.
Unfortunately, I set the rolled-up sail on top of the board and was
manuevering mast pieces, boom and mast base when a wave swept my sail
away. It sank immediately. Again, a piece of line would have saved
the sail. Fortunately, it was an old sail I was planning on replacing
anyhow. I then swam the board in. I put one arm over the nose of the
board and side-stroked in, switching sides when one arm got tired.
This worked pretty well.

I learned two things:

  o A piece of line is a great thing to have along, even if you don't need it
    for towing.

  o Walking a board up the beach with half a mast and no sail makes a great
    conversation starter.

By the way, you can see the remains of my mast any weekend. It is the short
flag-pole in front of ASD.

-- Gary Ward



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