by Vanalien » Tue May 14, 2019 11:14 pm
OK, so here's my capsize story:
I bought my DS2 Anniversary Edition in early August 2017. I keep it at a dock on Lake Gervais, a 234 acre lake just 7 miles north of downtown St. Paul, MN. I was still an excited new boat owner on September 30, 2017. Bad conditions and bad decisions led to a capsize.
The winds were very gusty, up to 20+ knots, and extremely changeable. Winds often change direction on a small urban lake, but this was more than usual, shifting from E to SW and back quickly. I should not have gone out that day, at least not single-handed. I headed out, thinking I could handle the wind by keeping either close-hauled or spilling most of the wind out of the sail. By the time I got 150 yards offshore, I realized that plan was bad. I didn't think I'd be able to control the boat to return to the dock with the wind. I wondered whether I might be able to roller-reef the mainsail if I could find some wind shadow off a peninsula in the lake... when I got there, I'd lost hold of the jib sheets and they were whipping wildly in the wind--the knotted ends were up by the cleats, out of reach. I pointed the boat into the wind and waited for a moment of calm to try about a two foot lunge to get a jib sheet back--I did not have a tiller extension (I do now). I didn't bother re-tying the tiller in place, I'd only need a couple of seconds to get back to it.
Well, wouldn't you know, about a half-second after I let go of the tiller, a gust hit the sail, turned the boat enough to catch more wind and pushed the tiller out of reach. By the time I got back to the tiller 2 seconds later, it was too late: not only was the wind now fully in the sail and heeling the boat, but the wind got under the port side of the bow and helped flip it over. I grabbed my seat-cushion PFD as it went over, I wasn't wearing a vest.
Within seconds, the mast was sinking, and in less than a half a minute, she was completely turtled. Really fast. There's no way anyone would have been able to keep that from happening--even a fast swim to the mast without delay would not be enough.
I took a dive under to have a look and found that, unlike a capsized canoe, there was no air trapped in the cockpit. I wrestled a couple of lifejackets out of the cuddy, which was difficult due to their buoyancy--you have to pull them down with some force to get them out of the cuddy opening.
I tried climbing onto the hull, which was slippery. The centerboard had fallen back into the trunk, and was hard to pull back up--by this time, a passing kayaker was helping, and he got the centerboard up. I tied a line around it to keep it from falling back into the trunk. We both tried standing on the centerboard to right the boat, we heard a somewhat loud "crack" and the kayaker left. (I never have figured out what "cracked".)
Soon a fisherman with two young sons stopped to help. I uncleated the main halyard and tied a life vest to the end, so as not to lose it. I asked the fisherman to take the halyard and motor away from the boat with it, but he was too timid/careful about it, and we did not get the boat righted, even with my 200 lbs on the centerboard and him pulling on the halyard. He brought me to shore.
I walked home, put on dry clothes, and called 911 to tell them there is no emergency, everyone is safe, in case they get calls about the capsized boat. They put my call on through to the sheriff's Water Patrol, and in a half hour they arrived, helped me right the boat, and towed me back to the dock.
So what technique righted the boat? The Water Patrol pulled on a dockline tied to the mast, while a neighbor on a pontoon boat 30 feet away pulled up on the main halyard.
No damage to the boat, save for some chipping of the gel coat on the centerboard from the Water Patrol boat's sharp stern edge, but it did take most of an afternoon to get maybe 900 pounds of water out of the boat.
Steve
"Nellie Ruth" - 1985 DS2 Anniversary Edition #12819
Little Canada, MN