2011 NARC Rally

[Paperbird]

jr_spyder,

after you click on the icon and the info box opens up, click on "link to shared page." That takes you to the SPOT track data.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Was this a full roll? What caused it?

A wave.

[jr_spyder]

Paperbird - thanks. My problem was the link to the tracking picture brought me to a web view of google maps, and there were no additional links for more content. When I looked at the same view in Google Earth then the rest of the links and content was available. I appreciate the help.

JR

[Hud3]

Originally Posted by Bruce Johnson

It was a tough run. I was aboard SONG, a Bill Tripp designed Hinckley 48. Knocked down, and then capsized, she came up fighting. Got us home in reasonably good order, in good part due to Captain Mike's knowledge of heavy weather sailing and knowledge of his boat. Praises to Bill Tripp for building a boat that can take this kind of beating and keep going. The only obvious broken stuff was the modern day fancy electronics in the nav station, the dodger, etc. Seems the electronics can't hold up to the refrigerator lid being impaled through them....

Bruce,

Very glad you all made it home safely! It must have be Hell out there.

We'd like to hear more about your experience, if you care to share it. The last transmissions from Song's SPOT Messenger were last Thursday morning, and show
the boat headed west, away from TS Sean, and possibly toward Morehead City. Did you guys duck in there?

[Cormorant]

I'm curious -- were there any catamarans in this year's NARC?

[Bruce Johnson]

Not sure if it was a full roll. I was below. We were sailing bare poled and dragging a couple of warps. Things were suddenly upside down, fridge emptied itself downward onto the ceiling that I was now crouching on, panels came out of the floor which was overhead now, she rolled back up and all the food on the ceiling fell into the now exposed bilge. We ate a lot of power bars after that. Bob, at helm, just hung on, and kept steering after she righted. His pfd inflated. The batteries had been hanging from their cables, then sat jumbled together on the floor after she came up. Had to disconnect them to fit them back into their boxes, then reconnect. Mike knew his boat so this went quickly. 3 crew was enough I guess, since we made it. 5 would have made it a lot easier!

[Bruce Johnson]

There were no cats this year. (I was on the one that got hammered last year and towed in....wait a minute! is it me?????, am I a Jonas??)
We originally were direct to St. Martin, bypassing Bermuda. Lost comm in the capsize. Got it back a day later and weather router said to head back North due to Sean. We got a couple hundred miles north and hove to till Sean made his move, then we headed for Beaufort. Had a fantastic motor sail across the Gulf Stream, beautiful last day, then of course high winds , very cold, straight on the nose. Within sight of the channel entrance we blew the main sail and ran out of fuel. She is a yawl, so more sails were available, but with the narrow channel, Coast Guard obliged by towing us the last mile or so. Tied to a private dock at 6 am, slept two hours, got chewed out by dock owners, (a condo?) , took on fuel and motored to city marina. Flew back to Atlanta totally exhausted and with some injuries, but went dancing that night anyway to celebrate being alive.

[S/V Alchemy]

Bruce, I have always considered locking, tabbing or otherwise securing sole panels and other lids and covers essential offshore, as I have also with the strapping of batteries. Was this absent in this case or was the inversion violent enough to defeat the securings?

[Bruce Johnson]

We were towed into Beaufort, the last mile up the channel. There were no straps holding batteries in place, or securing systems on fridge lid, etc. Something that will be done next time I bet. A benefit of the yawl is that you can blow out a few sails and still have a few left!!
It is really hard sometimes to post things on this site.

[brishear]

I am pleased to say that thanks to a sturdy boat and knowledgeable captain, the S.V. Tahawus is now sitting at Simpson Bay, St Martin. We arrived last night, the 15th. It was a rather "invigorating" trip down. It became apparent we weren't going to make Bermuda without a serious upwind fight, and we bailed south. Our thoughts go out to those who won't be joining us.

[Hud3]

Glad to hear it, brishear. I was following your progress on the NARC tracking chart. Your strategy of pressing on to get southeast of TS Sean paid off.

[javaboat]

Bruce,

I was on a Tartan 42, SV Seaya, only 40nm from you during that storm. We caught up with Mike in Beaufort on Nov 13 and spoke to him. Both boats had a wild ride. We hove-to for about 36hrs and saw 55+ kts and 40+ waves. Finally made contact with a ship who told us about TS Sean to the south and we decided it was time to run back to the east coast. We were enroute to St John, but that has been given up for this year. Boat suffered that will need to fixed this winter.

SV Song is supposed to be leaving today or tomorrow for St Martin...Fair winds..

Jim

[skipper3]

How come Herb Hilgenberg was involved in this sad story? Who throw the blame on him?

[Naviguesser]

For those who don't know, Herb Hilgenberg was deeply offended by Charles Doane's and Hank Schmitt's statements that he was effectively partially to blame for the Triple Star incident. Herb's site is here http://www3.sympatico.ca/hehilgen/vax498.htm. And his quite obvious offense and quitting? Is announced here http://www3.sympatico.ca/hehilgen/fi...C%20Events.htm

I believe Herb would very much appreciate support...and I'm pretty certain Doane and Scmitt need to take a long look in the mirror.