Crissy self-rescue Sunday 4/26

From: Bob Prevett (prevett@nvidia.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Mon Apr 27 1998 - 09:42:49 PDT


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From: "Bob Prevett" <prevett@nvidia.com-DeleteThis>
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Cc: prevett@nvidial.com-DeleteThis
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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 09:42:49 -0700
Subject: Crissy self-rescue Sunday 4/26
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Sailing at Crissy Sunday 4/26. About 2/3 the way across I jibe over from port to
starboard tack and my Chinook boom broke apart once I powered up onto the new tack.
Examining the trashed boom, things didn't look good. The boom snapped up near the
front end on the starboard side and then snapped at the rear end on the port side.
This sucks because I couldn't flip the boom and sail in on the intact side; there was
no intact side.

What I ended up doing was pulling out the back end and reinserting the intact
starboard side backend into the intact port side boom/frontend. Basically, it looked
like a big "S". Then, I flipped the boom upside down and put in on the starboard
side. Tied off the clew of the sail to the backwards back end, pulled off a very
clumsy waterstart with this contraption, and I was on my way back to the beach.
Powered up, my sail looked like a big sailboat Genoa jib, but it worked fine for going
on a broad reach. In the 20 minutes it took to jury rig the boom and sail, the strong
ebb current had carried me to almost underneath the bridge, so broad reaching was
fortunately the appropriate point of sail to get back. I actually was able to plane
most of the way back with this hokey setup.

While I was out there trying to work out a way to get back, I only saw one other
windsurfer that came close (I was fairly upwind). As he sailed by me, I tried to wave
him down. When he got close, I yelled "broken boom!" It would have been great if he
had stopped, checked out my situation, and gone in for a boom for me to use to get
back, or hung out and helped me put something together. Instead, he just kept sailing
right by me, with a smug look, maybe thinking I was a struggling novice having
waterstart problems.

Lessons learned:

* Most boom failure breakdowns will allow for some sort of self rescue, as long as the
head remains intact and can still attach to the mast. Even if the backend was
completely gone, I could have attached the clew to the boom spar with some line and
sailed it like a spinnaker sail.

* Breaking down in a full ebb out in the middle at Crissy is scary; it's amazing how
fast you can get pulled out past the Bridge.

* Never lose your cool; stay calm and try to work out a viable self-rescue plan if at
all possible.

* It's a good idea to checkout downed sailors. I usually do this at 3rd, as do
others. You just cruise by, see if things look OK. If are not obviously OK, just
yell out "Everything OK?" and get a response.

BobP



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