Hey there, Well lets see Friday was forcasted for 5-10kn SW by NOAA, Hurricane IVAN was coming up the coast and we were watching that pretty closely. The race went from Stonington CT to Gardiners Bay, (Long Island) NY, approx 20 miles as the crow flies. The forcast on Friday morning for Sat was 15-25 with gust to 30 SW shifting to NE. What really happened was Friday was 5-10 SW, beautiful sailing conditions, but a little light, 5kt more would have been perfect. Sat we woke to a bit more wind and watched the weather channel and listened to NOAA to get the forcast, still 15-25 gusting to 35 from SW with shift in the afternoon to the NE along with possible thunderstorms. We felt that we could handle it and actually had grabbed a Coast Guard Cadet to come with us as an extra hand and ballast if needed. We went to the start and the other Tri had no reefs, but we had one reef in and the breeze seemed to be dieing at the start. There was dark strom cloud on the horizon, but it was still pretty warm (to the point that we were just wearing spray tops and shorts) We tacked our way up the course and about 3/4 way up the course the temp dropped ~20 degrees in <10 sec, and reversed to the NE. This shift was not supposed to hit until later in the afternoon. We rounded the mark under screacher (code Zero), and headed back up the course. This was < 5 min after the temp dropped. The wind was building and I looked up and saw 5-10' wall of white coming at us. I immediately ordered the jib dropped to the deck and secured, and the boat went into irons. We bore off and were able to get going forward after 5 min, but the wind continued to build, probably around 45-50kt and we went into irons again. Visibility was nill, maybe2-300 ft, and there was probably 10-15 mono's around us that still have sails up when it hit. Every one of them laid flat at one point or another. We began sailing with just the mast (foil shaped), on a tight reach, with seas on our starboard quarter, but needed to start the motor to come up 15 degrees to make it to the port, according to the GPS. We sailed into port using the GPS/Chartplotter, got a mooring, and went to take showers and warm up next to the fire. Nothing broke on our boat, and nobody was injured. Reports in the harbor was that the winds hit 60 kt, and 3 miles away they had 83kts (force 9-11) The other two tri's that did race had blown jib head, blown Jib, Blown main (although the main blew out the following day on their return, and it was an older kevlar main. I have all carbon and cuben sails now, and I think that is part of why we didn't have any problem.)
Now the two other tri's that didn't race! Both boats were being doublehanded, one because the the third person kids were ill, and the other because they just couldn't get crew but felt they would at least race on Friday and sail back on Sat. Both boats left early to catch the SW that was predicted and avoid a beat back in the NE later that afternoon. Milagro, F9R, had storm jib and double reefed main, but was cought on the wrong side of the island when the winds switched, They hove too for two hours, but were very frightened. He is a very good sailor, but I personally don't think heaving to was the answer, dropping all sails and getting an anchor out would have been a better choice, or dropping the jib and sailing to the lee shore a few miles away. Most likely I would have dropped sails and anchor, set up a bridal and gone down below, out of the wind. The other boat, Andiamo wasn't so lucky. They were halfway home and felt the temp droped. They had double reef in the main and the roller furling jib up. When the temp dropped they immediately put on drysuits, and foulweather gear and I believe furled the jib, or they may have been going to sail jib only. One of them went up to the mast to roll it on the boom, and it was almost all the way down when a gust hit them. This was an older F31 with Trampoline like material for nets (it doesn't let much through). Apparently the wind got under the boat and lifted it up and over, directly Bow over Stern,, and both went into the water. My understanding is that Chris (the one who died and was at the mast) may have hit his head on the spreader and then the boat landed on top of him, one or the other he was unconscious when the helmsman came up. Both had automatic inflatable vest, and both inflated trapping Chris under the boat, and tangled in lines. Peter, the owner, removed his vest to dive under the boat, he had the drysuit on, and pulled Chris out and back on the nets, apparently getting a bit to far away at onepoint because of the current and swam for 20 min to get both back to the boat. Where he began recussitation efforts for nearly an hour, while also trying to waive down fishing boats, one finally stopping and taking them both to the hospital where Chris was pronounced dead.
We hadn't heard about this but after warming up realized that we had a couple options to get home, first was to sail, second was to take the ferry accross, get the truck and trailer, and take the ferry back, pull the boat, and drive down through NYC to get home. The later would have taken approx 10hours, and $500. We decided that we would take four adults, all experienced sailors, double reef, and sail main and jib back. If it looked to bad we would return and go the other way. When we got out in the bay we were in the lee of the land and sailing in pretty protected waters. We then tacked through Plum gut, which was running about 6 kts and against the wind so there were some pretty good standing waves that we were able to surf at 14-18kt boatspeed. We then continued to the CT shore which was protected and one tacked up the coast at about 18-20 kt with double reef and jib. About 2 miles from the harbor my crew informed me that he had recieved a phone call just prior to leaving telling him of the days events with Andiamo. He waited untill we were about ready to arrive, and I am thankfull that he did, although it was very sobering.
As I look back, I believe I, along with my crew, did everything exactly the way we should have. We didn't panic, and never really pushed the boat harder than it should. All pretty amazing considering the winds that we were most likely in. Had the boat on the trailer by 8:45 pm and home by 2am in New Hampshire.
