Safety Aboard

[HideAway]

We can all agree the Compac line of sailboats are a sturdy well built craft and come with a feeling of comfort and security.  In our fifteen year relationship with HideAway we have been through our share of scary storm moments, large seas and high winds. Rarely does the deck get more than a splattering of sea and never until a few weeks ago had we been pooped, seriously drenched or in need of advanced protection from the elements.

How far can you push the boat?  At what point does sailing change from fun to life threatening?  Are those special sunsets at a quiet anchorage really worth the risk? 

While we have been sailing these waters the last 25 years we seldom venture into Tampa Bay.  No reason really, we usually sail north to Anclote Key or directly south to Long Boat Key.  Our last cruise took us almost the whole length of Tampa Bay from the Skyway Bridge to Pine Island near Apollo Beach. Lots of wind and mostly sunny skies excepting one bit of rain that contained a micro burst strong enough to invite the cold bay water over the coamings and this during lunch.

Tampa Bay is really not so much a bay as it is an estuary with an average depth of about 12 feet.  Swells roll into its wide mouth from all the way across the Gulf of Mexico unhindered.  Add the wind and tide to the mix and conditions will change in the blink of an eye.

You will see the moment of our decision on the video once I get it completed.  Had we stuck to our sail plan and motor-sail past St Petersburg to Pinellas Point we would have not learned an important lesson.  About an hour into the course change we failed to complete not one but two tacks and found ourselves abeam of four foot choppy seas and winds in the low to mid twenties.  (I checked the wind reports next day)

In the space of minutes conditions changed from challenging and fun to dangerous.  The tops of the waves were blown a third of the way up the mainsail, HideAways decks streamed water to her coamings and often soaked her crew by waves off the stern.  It was far too rough to go forward to lower the jib, tethered or not, however I had rigged a down haul for this occasion.  The combination of wind and seas later blew the jib into the water.  The solution was to have Linda pop open the forward hatch while she stood on the berth to corral and tie off the jib to a stanchion.   We managed to tie in a sloppy reef and start the outboard.

At times HideAway would get caught at the top of a particularly tall wave and drop thunderously into its trough only to be blasted by another on her quarter, each event keeping her rail under for a time a longer than any reasonable comfort zone.  I watched in amazement as the outboard motor appeared horizontal to the water wondering how it could possibly keep running.  At one point our carvel planked dink crashed under HideAways rail accompanied by the loud crack of breaking wood.

Had one of us fallen over board, and that seemed likely, it would have been almost impossible to get back on board.  Remember the boat was in 5 foot seas.  Have you ever tried to board in just power boat wakes?  If the ladder doesn?t get you the outboard will. 

Later I thought maybe it would be possible using a life sling but in those conditions just setting the rig would have been extraordinarily difficult.  If one of us had taken a serious fall among the many minor ones it would have been time radio for rescue yet that may have failed as I learned later from a bridge tender who had difficulty hearing us over the wind.

What makes this kind of situation different from a summer storm is the length of the event.  Whereas our usual summer storm lasts about a half hour we found ourselves in dangerous seas for more than two hours and rough seas for the next three.  It does not take long for folks in their sixth decade to become tired, cold, heat exhausted or injured.

A combination of factors saved the day for us.

I?m not sure a center board boat would have fared as well as the Compac 23 keelboat.
The jib down haul system so a trip on the pitching wet deck could be avoided and the concept of using the forward hatch as a working perch was a big help.  Next our jiffy rigging and knowing how to use it in extreme conditions added greatly to our safety.
My recent routing of the out haul forward made sail shape control safely possible. And perhaps most importantly of all was staying aware of the possibility of cascading failures. 

In the final analysis with her main sail in tatters, her jib damaged and her battered dink in tow it was the skill and courage of the crew as much as the solid little boat called the HideAway that brought us safely home.

We have reached the point in our sailing where our cruise planning must consider HideAway?s strengths and factor in our limitations.  For instance, our sailing club is planning a cruise to the Dry Tortugas in a couple of weeks.   We will now consider that neither HideAway nor her crew is best suited for open ocean cruising that includes two round the clock watches.  However I bet there is a boat ramp in Key West somewhere that would make the Marquesas a possibility.

Here?s a video of the conditions on Tampa Bay before they got too rough to film.  Note the horizon line stays level.  We were doing six knots pulling the dink.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNJppmzEg9M

[Bob23]

Matt:
   Glad you are safe. I've never encountered conditions like that in my 23 but your preparedness sure makes me want to be ready. Nice to know the 23 can take it.
   I once encounted conditions not quite that bad here in Barnegat Bay but accompanied by lightning..while in my old Seapearl 21. The entire boat weighs less than half our keels! That was scary and came out of nowhere, too. Didn't last 2 hours, though.
   Again, glad you are safe.
Bob23

[kchunk]

I think one of the most dangerous misconceptions of our little boats is that infamous saying, "Don't worry, the boat can take more than you can". While that might be true in some or even most cases, it's a dangerous way to approach a new challenge. The last time I ever said that to myself (and my wife) was transiting a sketchy inlet and she said, "Maybe we should turn around." And my reply was, " Don't worry, the boat can take more than we can." Of course we made it through...and lessons were learned. Had we had more length and more displacement, that transit would have been completely a non-issue, but my false reliance in the myth that the boat can handle more than me (and personally, I wasn't anywhere near my limit yet) could have ended in a very bad way.

If I may make three suggestions (and many of you know, I'm the farthest thing from a safety nazi), tie yourself to the boat, button up the cabin and hatches, and always consider your leeway. The three most likely worse-case scenarios would be you falling overboard or broaching and swamping the cabin or crashing on the leeward rocks. Other than that, don't worry, the boat can handle more than we can!  ...lol 

[HideAway]

Kchunk - That is my point --- the boa can handle more than we and that is the risk.  It is kind of like 4 wheel drive pickups vs the two--both will get stuck in a snow drift but the 4 wheeler will be buried deeper!