A few months ago I was in a pretty bad accident on my newly acquired TheMightyHobie18. Sustained winds of 70 mph and gusts up to 107 bent my mast in half, de-masted, cart wheeled it across the water for 50-100 yards (this is a guess as I was knocked unconscious by the mast -I think- and the crew member who was tossed from the boat watched it "cartwheel away".) I still have no clue how I ended up back on the boat.

Anyway, with this amount of wind and damage that it caused, what should I be looking for in terms of unseen damage? Shrouds (they were new when it happened), cross bars, what? I just want to make sure it's sound the next time I get on the water. If I do get back on the water. I'm still kinda freaked out about the whole thing.

Thanks in advance,
B

That's really hard to say - I would recommend using a camera to take photos from inside the hulls through ports. If you don't already have forward ports, I would install them to look at the front bulkhead and beams.

I'm surprised you were able to step your mast and set your sails in that kind of wind. I definately wouldn't go out when the gusts are in the triple digits. In gusts of 107mph you should be able to fly at least two hulls. In the future, if you go out in that kind of air you should look out for pieces of buildings, flying cars and pets. These types of projectiles can get caught in your shrouds or tear you sails ruining a good day on the water. You're the man in my book.

I'm assuming that was a summertime microburst. Where do you sail? We've had some very docile days turn into nasty boat trashing weather quick. Luckily, I have never been caught out on my boat when these cells come through. I usually have my kids with me and I don't take any chances with gusty wind or worse... lightning.

-Rob V.
Panama City
Nacra 5.2

NO. Really? Why?
All you need is your little dog, Toto and you've got a movie deal.

WOW.

someone had to say it.

how did you know that the wind was at a sustained 70MPH (with hurricane force gusts)? How did you ever get the boat "onto" the water with that wind?
70MPH winds are impossible to sail an "off the beach" boat in, that sort of a wind will rip the tiles off of roofs and even collapse some building structures, have you got the wind strength correct? Even for a "micro burst" that 70 MPH would be on the "high" end and it would only last for a relatively moderate length of time. At 107MHP winds you could have sailed without even the use of any boat!
Your girl friends name isn't "Katrina" is it?

Ok, so I knew I should have put a disclaimer up, but I thought fellow sailors wouldn't accuse me of trying to sail in 70 mph winds.

The official news report was 70 mph, people on the beach had wind meters, I heard 86 and a gust of 107.

The story that follows is rather long:

I was at Lake McConaughy in Nebraska. Except for the fact that I only had this boat about a week, I usually sail (when I had a boat before this one) in Colorado. Here, you have to either use "storm" wind or "evening" wind. That's pretty much the main time we have wind. This time at McConaughy i was trying to use some nice evening/storm wind. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but a very nice wind good for flying hulls. Not more than 1 minute after leaving the shore the wind picked up really bad. I could not turn the boat into the wind (I wanted to drop the main) no matter how hard I tried. The jib was furled. I had the sheets out as far as they would go but the howling wind flipped us about 2 miles from shore. I couldn't turtle the boat as I had a mast float, but honestly, I wasn't expecting it to get as bad as it did. My friend swam out to the end of the mast to disconnect the main so if we did flip it the main would come down (remember, still hoping for the best.) well the wind caught the tramp and flipped the boat again. My friend ripped off the mast float. I swam out towards the end of the mast to try and get him and finish the job he was doing.

I don't remember much after this. but the boat just started to "cart wheel" away and my friend said. I think I held onto the mast, it bent, hit me on the head or something, I don't know. All I know is that I woke up on the boat with the wind literally howling, 4 - 7' waves, mist all around, half my mast laying across the hulls with the other half in the water, and my friend nowhere to be found. I was convinced I was dreaming as it was literally like something out of a movie. So I sat there for I maybe 10-15 minutes before I realized I was getting cold, and you don't get cold in a dream. I freaked at that thought because if it wasn't a dream, where was my friend? I started screaming for him, and after a few minutes I saw him crest a wave. He told me to stop yelling, he couldn't hear me and finally got to the boat. He said was really loopy and he had been swimming for 10-15 minutes at least. He thought he was going to spend the night out there. I regained my senses after a bit and we tried to get back to shore.

About an hour later (it's dark, and has been for a while) cars on the shore start shining lights out to the water (finally my friends on shore do something) and a punk kid on a jet ski came and rescued us.

On shore a 20 cart wheeled away, slammed into a trailer and ripped it's hulls in half. Tents blew away, a motor boat by us sank, campers blew off their jacks, it was insane.

My friends on shore said they thought a tornado came through it happened so fast. complete sand storm.

So only damage really so far is a taco'd mast, ripped sail, and some punctures in the side of my hull where the mast was dragging.

I'm glad the thing bent and stuck in the water. If it hadn't been for that, my frined never would have caught up to the boat. It was a nice sea anchor. Made it hard to get to shore though.

Funny about the girlfriend. Her name is Keri. Close to Katrina, eh?

This is ............................................................................................................................................................................................!

Oh, and one more thing. The girlfriend went the the hospital that night (unrelated, and she was fine, another long story) and she said there was a guy there that got caught up in some shroud wires and was pretty much skinned.

[color:"blue"] Hey There BBB

One suggestion is that you verify the Squareness of the boat by taking measurements diagionally to help determine if the cross bars have been torqued. [/color]

[color:"black"] Also lift the front end of one hull and see how much lift (looseness) there is with the frame. [/color]

[color:"purple"] Sailing in all weather conditions may provide some skills benefit for when sudden storm situations arise and you get caught out on the open water. [/color]

[color:"black"] Best to you and glad you are able to be sailing again. [/color]

Besides squareness also check for excess toe-in or toe-out of the hulls, which should be parallel. I beach-crewed for a good friend of mine who was in the disastrous Worrell 1000 start at Jensen Beach in 2001, and ended up sailing 800 miles with enough bend in the main beam that the bows were 4" closer together than the sterns. We checked so many things, and replaced so many parts, but somehow missed that little detail (for ten days!)

http://hobiefleet61.org/photos/BigMac/2005/4th/broken.JPG

I like how the tiller extension is still connected.

Nice touch. I give it a 8.5 on style but 3 on execution.

That's the one. Thanks for the link John. I definitely didn't feel so bad after seeing his boat. A shame for sure.

That's my boooat... (spoken with my best Forest Gump accent)

The wind estimate is correct. One second it's sporty with a 25 mph breeze and the next it's nuclear. The storm came racing across the lake blowing sand and mayhem, catching everyone off guard. The sand screw holding my 20 down was no match for the 100+ mph gusts that tore it free. It was nearly a total loss. I managed to save the main; it was stored in the sail tube on the trailer. Luckily I have insurance and it replaced the boat and paid for damage to two fifth-wheel campers. Even more lucky is no one was hurt when my boat when tumbling down the beach. It's scarry to think what kind of punishment this thing would have dished out on someone unfortunate enough to get in the way.

To the guy with the damaged 18: Don't throw in the towel. Contact me or someone else on the Fleet 61 board and we'll put you in touch with Steve Cooley who can help you determine if your boat is in safe condition.

Hi Steve,

I just sent you a PM. I'm glad you had insurance and everything seemed to work out ok.

Brandon

Beard, you suffered the worst Big Mac Attack I've ever heard of! Damn that's scary! Please report back on your H-18's aftermath.

I had many a fun and hairy time out there when I lived in the Boulder-Denver area, but never one approaching that extreme... DAY-UM!

Even in "normal" times it's foolish to head to McConaughy without at least 4 good sand screws. On at least 2 occasions that I remember, those of us who "screwed our boats to the beach" had a great 3-day weekend, and those who didn't had broken boats and went home p*ssed.

Still, that NIGHT WIND can be great fun when there's a full moon, and someone to man the shore lights!