Southern Straits 2010 Report from the Edge of Disaster

The 2010 Southern Straits will go down in the history books as one of the wildest races in BC on record. Winds ranged from 35-55 knots with gusts above.


It was pure chance that I did not wind up being able to race in this year's Southern Straits. Family commitments wound up dictating that I would be sitting this one out. The evening before the race I found myself reviewing weather reports and getting ready for a day of being green with envy. I had no way of knowing that I would be thanking my lucky stars that I was not able to go out.


In the morning I headed off to work and on the way I pulled up the forecast and saw the expected low had moved farther south quicker than anticipated and extreme conditions were forecast. I have to admit I felt a little uneasy, I had a lot of friends doing this race. I soon found that my fears were justified as reports began to come in about the conditions and later about the havoc they were wreaking on the fleet.


Someone came up to me to report that FANCY FREE, Ian Lloyd's boat, was limping back into harbour with no rig. Other sketchy reports came in of other dismastings, injuries, crew over boards and even a vessel going down. As I understand it at one point there were 12 distress calls to the Coast Guard from the fleet.


Soon the race was called off and I watched the "Last Known Position" report to see where everyone had wound up. Then the phone calls started. Text messages and emails began to flood in. Websites like sailing X were a buzz with the latest news from crews who made it to Naniamo.


In the end the stories came in, photos, videos and the debates about the race and its administration. I wasn't there and I am sensitive to not come in on a high horse. I do have opions about ULDB doing the race in heavy weather and the safety inspections that follow the race but I thought I would let the words and opinions of those who did the race speak for themselves. I have harvested these reports from forums, news websites, youtube and emails.



The start off of West Vancouver.



The boats heading off into what almost proved a deadly race.


West Vancouver Yacht Club Press Release:
"The 42nd annual Southern Straits Yacht Race commenced on schedule April 2, 2010 at10:30 Good Friday morning at the starting line off Dundarave Pier in West Vancouver. The weather conditions at the start were generally as predicted at the Environment Canada weather briefing with strong but manageable SE winds. Most skippers made the decision to start the race. During the day on Friday the wind conditions continued to build rather than subside somewhat as predicted and many of the yachts in the fleet decided to drop out of the race and notified the Race Committee of their decision.
At approximately 3:45 PM Friday the Race Committee received a message that the yacht Incisor had been lost and all six crew had been recovered and were being transported to Nanaimo hospital. At approximately 4:00 PM the Race Committee reviewed the number of yachts in the fleet continuing to race, which had by that time been reduced to approximately 20 percent of the starting fleet, the weather conditions as compared to the forecast and the amount of daylight time remaining and took the decision that it was prudent to abandon the race. Through the Yacht Club communications centre and with the assistance of the Coast Guard, competitors were advised that the race had been abandoned and all vessels on the race course should seek safe harbour and report in when they were secure. Through the evening, the Race Committee made contact with or otherwise established the whereabouts of each vessel and communicated with emergency contacts.
The six crew members of Incisor all suffered from hypothermia and were treated at Nanaimo hospital. Four crew were released on Friday evening, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.
On Saturday afternoon the Coast Guard advised the Yacht Club that the yacht Incisor had been found and was provided information on the location. The Yacht Club advised the insurance broker who made arrangements for a salvage operation to be undertaken. We understand that Incisor has been recovered.
In addition to the damage to Incisor, two yachts lost their masts and rigging. In both cases the yachts proceeded either on their own power or with assistance to a safe harbour.
The Yacht Club wishes to acknowledge and thank the competitors for their efforts to communicate with the Race Committee to establish their whereabouts, and to the crew of the yacht Radiant Heat, the Coast Guard, BC Ferries and all other persons who participated in the recovery and care of the crew of Incisor. Your professionalism, quick action and concern in difficult circumstances is recognized and appreciated."

A rescue in affect.

From Sailing Anarchy:

"I've been racing around Puget Sound for over 37 years now and have noticed that most RC's no longer want us to race "at night" or when the winds "exceed 30 knots". I fear that many sailors have not been given an opportunity to experience extreme conditions. And without the opportunity, sailors never get the chance to gain the skills that would get them through conditions like this last weekend.
Now I am not saying that we should sail out in the worst conditions and not exercise due caution. I just think that what I recently read in SA about racing only in limited wind ranges and yacht design is a sad truth. That's why those old 6kt sh*t boxes with 1/2" thick fiberglass hulls and stumpy masts were so great. You could sail them in a force 10 and have a good time."

INCISOR.

Report of the Rescue of the Crew of INCISOR:

"I have done the Southern Straits race before 3 times I recall. Twice on a Hunter Legend 35.5 and one on the J-30 Radiant Heat. I have also sailed Swiftsure and Patos Island races several times and one Vic Maui and a trip on a friend's boat up the Inside passage to Skagway and Glacier Bay. I do not consider myself a very experienced sailor but one who has been around a little bit and who is generally comfortable on and around a small sail boat in various conditions.

I had been away for 5 months and just returned to North Saanich in time to prepare the boat for Patos Island 2010 and other races and was entered and registered for the Southern Straits.

It is always difficult to have a regular crew who is available the same time as the skipper so often these races are done with short crew or strangers on board.

As both races were requiring a PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL YACHTING ASSOCIATION (PIYA) Certificate signed and on board for Category II, I went online and got the most recent copy of the updated certificate and reviewed the required boat equipment.

Category II states it is for "Yachts capable of racing in semi-protected waters, day or night, where heavy weather may be encountered." There is then a long list of requirements which must be met. This includes the specifications of the boat and the equipment to be aboard.

Category I states it is for " Yachts capable of racing exposed waters where the vessel must be self sufficient and capable of enduring heavy storms."

It would seem clear from this that Category II are not expected to race in off shore conditions or in heavy storms. Light Storms maybe??.

I checked all the supplies and placed extra harnesses, strobe lights, Flashlights and floatation gear aboard. I replaced the batteries in the man overboard gear and made sure the gear was easily deployed. This included the mandatory Life ring, MOB pole, drogue and light as a single unit (a big wave snatched it off and away it went. I was glad to see it deploy perfectly. Now I get to buy another one and do it all again) and also the rescue collar which was unpacked and repacked with the attached floatation light.

I was, I thought ready to pass inspection by the race committee if required. At this point I have not been involved in any rescues or man overboard situations although I had practiced drills but in low wind conditions and flat seas.

The inspections by the race committees were more something of a nuisance to be rid of as they usually occurred after the race was finished and only to the boats likely to place in the race results. I submit that they were treated more of a fear factor that could disqualify one from the race after the fact and so deny the prize earned rather than a real safety featured requirement.

The exception to this was the Vic-Maui Race I did in 1996 where inspections for safety gear etc were carried out before the race. Non compliance meant that one did not take part. This ensured that all participants were fully compliant before the start.

On the day before the race I took Radiant Heat from North Saanich to the West Vancouver Yacht Club. Aboard were two crew, one who had sailed with me the previous week in the Patos Race and another who had sail a few time with me. Both had some degree of competence having owned their own sail boats for some years. Two other crew drove and met us in West Van. One is a member of the Coastguard auxiliary and owns his own boat and the other a stranger to me but with good credentials for sailing experience. I felt comfortable with the number of crew and the general level of experience. Subsequently this was to be an important factor to our survival and success in the rescue of two men afloat.

The evening before the race was a skippers meeting and weather briefing at 8 pm. As we were at supper I barely made it there on time but my crew were not there nor required to be.The briefing was comprehensive and detailed by the Canadian Environmental weather forecaster, Meteorologist David Jones.

Charts, graphs, and computer simulations were displayed and as I recall the forecast went something like this. Race day would be windy with sustained winds of 25-35 knots in the morning with 30-40 knots in the midday from the south East. Around 4 PM there was the expectation that the wind would ease and veer to the Southwest. My plans were to be low of the mark on our approach and if the wind moved to the South West we would not be headed badly enough that we would overstand the mark by much and make a rounding. There was also a line drawn on this graph for "gusts". Gusts were generally in the 50 knot range but one place about 3pm showed gusts to 58 knots. This caused a level of apprehension in me that I noted. Some people muttered that the committee would postpone the start until the wind abated.

I later told the crew of the weather forecast and talked about the sustained 35-40 knots to be expected. I have sailed in 40 knots before but in protected waters. I knew it was not the wind one had to worry about but the seas. It was forecast they would reach 5 meters if the wind was as forecast. He was proven correct. The crew agreed they would sail.

We were in the club lounge and a stranger came by and sat for a chat. It was revealed that he was a lawyer from Calgary. In conversation he offered the opinion that the committee was treading on dangerous ground if they let the race continue having received the recent forecast, if there was injury or death. All skippers sign a waiver and agree that they are responsible for their own boat and crew and make their own decisions as to whether they will sail or not. However this person suggested that the committee would still have some liability in the current situation.

At this time I thought that the race would be called or postponed if there was no change in the forecast. The following morning, Race day, while at breakfast the weather was discussed but it seemed about 30 knots and there was no announcement on the bulletin board and it was a surprise to me that there was no morning pre-race skippers meeting. Talking to another competitor it was mentioned that the centre of the weather system had tracked further South over Victoria and that the race day weather was expected to ease. It seemed everyone was heading out.The Start line for the race was off Dundarave Pier in West Vancouver. We motored out and our first indication of strong wind was the beat to English Bay. The head winds were strong enough to slow us from 6 knots plus down to three and a half. This was because of the heavy chop as well. We made the start area just in time for the warning gun for the first sequence and with a reefed main and jib sailed around the area until our warning and had a decent start with the wind almost dead down wind. The wind picked up again and after a short while of trying to sail wing on wing I decided the conservative sail plan was the best and we sailed with only the reefed main. Before we passed Point Atkinson we were doing a steady 8 knots with touching 9 now and then. It looked like plenty of wind for us and we were staying with the fleet. Our course was about 250 magnetic and this gave us a deep broad reach and lots of speed.

Over the next two hours the wind strengthened as as we moved out into the strait the seas grew more tumulus and bigger. It was hard to keep the boat on an even keel sailing with the one sail and the helm was sometimes very heavy and we suffered from more than one round up but generally the course was dead downwind and we were shooting down the backside of the waves with a steady recording of 12 knots plus. 13 and 14 knot plus were now regular events. We were largely on our own out there. We could see no other sails except 2 some way behind.We recorded over 15 knots.

At this point we had an accidental jibe and as the sail came through the stress was too much for the wire pennant on the main sheet which parted. There was no other damage and a repair was quickly effected with the placement of a new shackle and a direct fitting of the sheets to the boom. At this point we took the time to put in a second reef in the main. While this was accomplished we were slow in the water doing 3-4 knots and we were overtaken by a boat sailing under jib alone. This we now believe to be Incisor. We attempted to sail with the double reefed main but we were unable to hold a course without rounding up. The wind was much stronger. At this time we decided to quit the race and called in to the committee to let them know. Seas were now estimated to be up to 20 feet on a regular basis and we motored on a course for Nanaimo. Most of the time the boat was at a 15 deg heal due to the wind and the seas were slightly forward of abeam. We we making about 5.5 knots and all seemed well when the warning light for the engine heat appeared. This of course was a concern but I hoped it would be ok as it has happened before for no apparent reason. I had had the engine fully serviced the previous week and there appeared to be no problems. Water cooling was passing through the exhaust. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Contingency plans were talked about and abandoned as we spotted this mast above the waves. I could see no hull but I thought it strange that a boat would be healed that much. It was a strange thing but I now lost all sense of urgency and all my concentration was on the mast. Wind, seas, course, engine all passed back to the subconscious. Back to automatic pilot in my head. After saying, "Well we had better go over and see what that is about ", I simply turned downwind and shortly revealed to us was a boat, capsized, with no more than 2 feet out of the water but regularly over washed with the seas. Along this space were six people sitting, hanging, on.

My impression is that the seas were a little less at this point but I don't know. I did not dare to go too close to Incisor as the windward side would blow me on to the submerged craft and the leeward side had the mast. The crew of Radiant Heat were all active and talking to each other. I was busy with the piloting and circling around. May Day calls were made, The rescue collar was deployed and trailed behind. We yelled to Incisor that help was coming and they should stay with their boat. However two of their crew jumped into the water and one swam out to the trailing life sling but we were passed by. It is pretty hard if not impossible to slow a boat off the wind in 30-40 knots of wind. Then if the throttle is cut turning into the wind the boat comes to a halt without steerage. The men in the water were too close to their boat for me to pass by and turn up and circle around without fouling Incisor.

We came around again and the men were further away and this time one grabbed the rescue collar. As I could not stop the boat even at idle I was doing 5 knots and dragging him further from Incisor. He finally let go. I came around again and this time slowed down to 1-2 knots and we pulled him to the boat. As this man was large and waterlogged he was heavy! It took, I estimate, 15 minutes to get him aboard. All 4 crew had a hold but there was nothing to get a hold of. There was nowhere to hook a line on. Nobody could get a line around the man. Nobody dare let go. Finally with several concerted shouts of heave the man was moved an inch at a time inboard over the side and under the lifelines and then he was aboard. He went head first down the companionway.

By now Incisor was a quarter mile or more away so we went back to circle around. 200 yard from Incisor we suddenly saw a man in the water. We were going upwind at this time and so I did a parking job next to the man and as he came along side he was grabbed. Same procedure all over again. This time everyone was more tired. The man in the water was weak. Another 10-15 minutes saw him finally pulled aboard, but not before we thought we had lost him. Several times his head went below the water. Finally a leg was lifted up and the crew with more coordinated shouts of heave finally got him aboard.

The Coastguard had now arrived and we turned for Nanaimo, One of the rescued had severe hypothermia in stage two and uncontrollable shivering. One was sick. Our crew helped them strip off and gave them dry bedding . An hour later we finally made it to sheltered waters and handed our passengers over to the RCMP Cat who had followed us in. All this while the engine ran with the hot light on and we made it into Nanaimo harbour and docked without mishap.(After adding oil and checking out the motor I ran the engine for 7 hours with no red light appearing while motoring back to North Saanich, Was it the oil light on??)

Our crew (in no particular order ) of Rick Slauenwhite, Stefan Gashus. Blair Kelly and Bill Schuss are to be commended for the way they worked together and achieved the unlikely and pulled two people from the water."

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

1. I think the Race Committee should have called the race and postponed it pending clarification of the weather forecast. Category II is for inland protected waters. The Straits are not that protected and in some regard are worse than open ocean being subject to shallow waters and stronger currents.

2. Most skippers should have decided not to sail. Admittedly this is a hard call when you have paid the money and done all the preparation. I should not have gone but did.

3. There should be a morning meeting and not just for skippers but for all crew with a final weather update which is 12 hours more current than the one we received.

4. The inflatable floatation devices are useless when being rescued and hauled aboard. One of the men had his ripped right over his head. He was left hanging on the side of the boat in a storm with no floatation gear to keep him afloat . If the crew had to let go he would have been drowned shortly afterward.

5. It should be mandatory that all crew wear proper harness at all time as well as floatation devices. Radiant Heat has gear that can be quickly attached to the topping lift and hauled up the mast to a sufficient height, then the other end can be attached to the harness and the 4:1 purchase would have allowed the person to be hauled aboard. The person hanging on to the rescue collar did not wear it as described and none of our crew thought to tell him to put it on so it was impossible to use the tackle to get the man aboard. This is attributable to lack of preparedness and lack of practice. This includes me too.

6. All harness must have a crotch strap to prevent it being pulled over the head of the person wearing it.

7. Category I,II,II or IV requirements should mean all boats are inspected prior to racing and not allowed to race if not compliant. The committee has then done their due diligence as far as boat safety is concerned

8. Skippers should take the time to explain the safety equipment and tackle to the crew. They should sign a statement to the Race committee that the crew is familiar with the boat and equipment.

9. Maybe Coastguard can put on some courses for us to learn the best procedures needed to rescue people in the water.For example I do not know if it would have been easier to get the men aboard from the windward side. Perhaps the waves would wash them aboard. On the other hand the freeboard was reduced to a foot on the leeward side.None of these comments are to attach blame or are of a personal nature. These are things I have learned from last weekend. We must be better prepared. The next storm may be on the way home tomorrow

Regards,Tony BroganRadiant Heat

Mike Whatley skipper of VOLARE (Beneatua 323):

"Sitting in plumper cove retired from southern straits when the wind topped 40 knots and we had a new speed record12.3 knots ooooh was a blast. "

Ty Abrams crew on OCCAM's RAZOR:

"Pretty unreal boys,Occam's limped into Nanaimo going 10 knots with no main and a blown out #4. Blew the main up too. Surfing at 15 knots - a bunch of huge wipeouts, once we got pinned down for about 10 minutes until we could get her back up. We lost a guy through the lifelines on the biggest wipeout, managed to get him back pretty quick."

ARASHI posted on SailingX:

"On Friday morning we left the bay aboard Kiva with two reefs in the main and a number three. However, coming out of the bay, we decided to take the reefs out, since up ahead we noticed a few boats flying their spinnaker. Though, after seeing two kites blow out, we we quickly thought it'd be a good idea to put the reefs back in. Coming out of the bay our ground speed was averaging 17 knots as we surfed the waves. We were all having a great time until a gust of wind hit us, rounded us up, and were hit by a four meter wave which rolled the boat over and resulted in two men overboard. Fortunately, the entire crew was tethered in and recovering them was relatively easy.At this point, we decided to drop all sails and head into Nanaimo as fast as possible. Despite having no sails up, the 110 km gusts of wind still had us cruising at 7 knots over ground.As we headed toward shelter, we came across one de-masted boat, we asked if they needed help, but unfortunately their was little we could do. Thankfully the crew was managing the circumstances with control.We continued to face four meter waves until we got to Entrance Island, at which point the seas seemed calm and manageable. In Nanaimo harbour, the wind was gusting 50 knots. We tied up with other boats and all shared our survival stories over a few well deserved glasses of rum. This weekend has made me realize how much I appreciate my crew and just how quickly things can go completely sideways. I am definitely grateful that everyone made it back to shore safe and sound. I look forward to racing with them all again under less extreme circumstances."

Peter Lagergren:
"This year's jacket motto is "I Survived Southern Straits 2010". This traditional Northwest Easter regatta goes across and up and down and across the Straits of Georgia starting from Vancouver and finishing in Vancouver. The race is always a roll of the dice - some years it doesn't blow and the most Vmg you'll make is from the tidal currents that trek up and down the Straits to years where gales rip through and everyone gets to find out which boat bits they should have maintained before the fun started. Then there are the years where you get a little of both - drift some, have a gale for a while, drift for awhile and so on. Cold too - there is always snow on the mountain tops around Vancouver this time of year so it ain't the Caribbean. The weather briefing at the skippers meeting on Thursday night had the Environment Canada guy explaining how their forecasting model was pretty good but not perfect and he expected the actual event to be worse than forecast and maybe you guys should go skiing instead.

This race always draws the big sleds from Seattle so the press gets to have a field day photographing and yakking about the big-boat royalty showing up and it is all in all A Big Production. Which isn't meant to marginalize the seriousness of this years event - this year the Canadian Coast Guard was called out for 5 rescues, 1 boat sank, two sailors were in hospital with severe hypothermia and in critical condition, 2 masts were lost, 2 booms broke, 50+ sails were blown up, at least 12 people ended up in the water and there was gear carnage throughout the fleet. The forecast low pressure was 985 millibars and sustained 35 to 45 knot winds with 6-12 foot breaking seas in what is essentially a large salt water lake. The actual numbers really were worse - the barometer sank to 980 millibars, the highest gusts recorded at the weather buoys were 64 knots, the seas got really, really lumpy with cross seas reflecting off the shoreline of Vancouver Island and just making a mess of it all. Sustained winds on the course were 45+ knots pretty much over the whole area for the entire day with the 50 knot gust being the norm and some really good ones blowing through on top of that.

Not that that this year was spectacularly wild - there have been others, like Straits 2005 that got really, unexpectedly bad 18 hours into the race - but it was enough of a wake-up call to get everyone re-focused on the basics. Like don't go out in more wind than you are comfortable dealing with. Which ended up being half the boats registered - all of whom are now being smug about no damage and no injuries and no second-guessing. Too bad, because everyone who went out now has a set of heroic sea stories that will be appropriately burnished by time into "No kidding, there we were and...." (complete as appropriate). Everybody listening who wasn't there will do the "ooh ,ahhh" thing and remark on the superior skills and Iliad-ic bravery of the storyteller. You can cadge drinks for 2-3 years in yacht club bars over these stories so they really are worth something.

Three separate starts, the first for the big boats doing the 120 mile long course that is a Victoria-Maui qualifier, the second start for the go-fast guys on the 90 mile medium course and then the third start for the slower boats on the short 60 mile course. All the courses go back and forth across the Straits and the longer ones have a sausage along the east coast of Vancouver Island to get the length up. The start area is just off downtown Vancouver in English Bay and with the wind blowing from the southeast at 25 knots it is a siren song meant to suck you into going out in the Straits. Yes it is blowing but the seas are flat and it doesn't seem to be such a big deal. The big boats go off and pop their kites and start heading west the 6 miles to Georgia Strait. Everybody is thinking, "cool, we get to make a fast passage" - dream on Grasshopper, the real race starts 6 miles west where there appears to be little blue box cars running to the northwest out in the Strait.

Our 1D35, Radical Departure, was in the second start and our nemesis the 1D35 The Shadow was right in our cross hairs at the start. We both get across the line at the gun at the weather end, avoiding one moron on the wrong side of the line on port trying to get back to the start line while the whole fleet is descending on them at 10 knots on starboard. Some fairly colorful sailing ensued but once we got clear of the mayhem we got the kite up about 30 seconds after The Shadow did. Which meant they had a 200 yard lead - we did 10 knots while they did 16+ so the accordion took a deep breath. Behind us, we could hear a lot of crashing and banging and one really loud riiiiipp as someone's kite blew out. We settled in for a Nantucket sleigh ride and the pre-scheduled broaches which came and went at a nominal rate. As we got into the really strong winds out in the Strait we managed to pass The Shadow and life was good. A couple of 20 knot bursts during the big gusts and we had settled into becoming legends in our own minds and we were all sitting there readying our trophy acceptance speeches. The final kite crash was one of those operatic things with the fat lady just wailing while we laid over on our side and bits and pieces started jiggling their way loose from the hull - enough of the kite stuff, let's try the jib.

Back up and off at 14's and 16's and.....wahoo! 19's. Lumpy, lumpy, breaking seas throwing the boat all over the place but enough vertical to make for some real fun. At one point this big set of waves converged into something pretty spectacular and we rode them until they crashed with the bow out over the front of the wave and the stern on the crest while the boat speed spun down to "0" because the paddle wheel was out there reading airspeed. You should have seen the crash when the wave and us both fell into the trough; it was classically elegaic. With punctuations of knockdowns 1D's rapidly pulled out into a horizon job on the medium course fleet and caught up to the long-course boats. We sort of knew things weren't going well up front because we started passing big boats that were under bare poles or hove to and pulling down torn sails. But what are you going to do except keep the pedal to the metal? A few hours of this and we were 5 miles east of Vancouver Island and pulling away from The Shadow which caused them to park their sense of disbelief and they put up a kite again. Boy were they ever moving - they got to the scene of the accident in record speed. About 200 yards above us and doing something well over 16 knots they did a barrel roll, a half Cuban eight and a snap roll followed by an extended period of laying down in the water shrimping with the kite. We all said, boy aren't we glad we're not on that boat.

Right after which we did a hammerhead stall, a spin and a ground loop. We got the boat back upright and took off again with the resurrected Shadow about 200 yards behind. We looked up and the leech of our main was starting to tear. Uh oh, this doesn't look good, but hey it's a race and keep going until it tears. Meanwhile The Shadow has done their imitation of our last really good dippsy doodle and we end up a quarter mile ahead. Smug is a pretty accurate description of how we felt - right up until the next crash at 18 knots when the main said "bye now" and then we spent a few minutes trying to get upright and the main down, which we did. Meanwhile The Shadow is gaining on us between crashes so the race is still on. We know we are going to withdraw but we'll fight like hell until we get to the turning mark and have to go to weather, which just ain't gonna happen with just a jib.

We're still dong 14's with the jib so we aren't getting sucked in all that fast but it is inevitable and as The Shadow draws abeam we do another aerobatic maneuver and the jib parts company with all of the rest of the boat and a lot of itself. Now we get to practice basic heavy weather seamanship and get the wreckage back on board an tied down and the diesel started. While all of this is going on The Shadow catches up to us and blasts past thinking to themselves how lucky they were to not be on Radical Departure. About 200 yards later they do a barrel roll and their main and their jib blow up. I call this the 1D35 Time Release Capsule. Just add a little salt water, a good size gust and they disintegrate. It's like the two of us sailed into the no-go zone and the wind gods said "ok, you guys are through" and that was the end of that. We motored into Nanaimo surfing off these big lumps of water and tied up at the Government Dock and then it was time to watch most of the rest of the fleet stagger in after the Race Committee called it all off at 1600 hours.

A couple of the long course guys, David Surcliffe's Beneteau First 47.7 Kinetic IV and Gunnar Jonsson's C&C 44 Turicum, made it all the way to the Ballenas Island turning mark and a few of the short course boats made it to their turning mark at Nanaimo but basically most of the fleet had retired for damage by then. The current rumor is that only 4 boats were left standing when it was called off. We got a phone call that the Commodore of the host club, David Chard, lost the mast on his Dufour 38 Radiance and Julie Kadar and Dorothy Cunningham's Benetau First 38 It's Magic saw the stick go into the drink and stood by while one of the only BC Ferries still running hove to and provided a lee while Radiance got their ship in order and underway. Ian Lloyd's Schock 35 Fancy Free also had the rig go over the side and at one point were seen going like hell forward with the white sails up while the kite was in perfect trim behind and going backwards and half under water which pretty much wins them the Unique Trim Trophy.

We were sitting in the harbor bar and watching the carnage on the new arrivals and toasting the event when we saw an ambulance pull onto the Government Dock to pick up some of the crew of Clint Curries Incisor, which had sunk. Tony Brogan's J-30 Radiant Heat had retired and was motoring to Nanaimo and saw what looked like a rig standing up in the water with no boat attached. They went to investigate and found Clint and his 5 crewmates hanging onto the overturned hull. All were hypothermic by then and Clint was unresponsive when they got him aboard and one other guy aboard. The other four were pulled from the water by the Caost Guard after they arrived on location. Life is sometimes just a thread and if Radiant Heat hadn't been damaged when and where it was and been lucky enough to have seen an anomaly and smart enough to go to investigate this could very easily have been a different story. The water is stinking cold, the seas were rough and breaking and the crew of Incisor didn't have a radio or flares available. Fortunately, all recovered in hospital and went home.

There is going to be all kinds of second guessing about this race(see the SA thread here) and everyone who opines will be convinced they're right. The real bottom line is that this is a sport - a hobby where you can be terrified at 10 miles an hour but is still just a hobby and if you want to do your hobby where Mother Nature gets to call the shots you can just count on things going awry. Interestingly, boats didn't break during this - all the carnage was to gear, some of which was undersized for the conditions, some of which wasn't maintained and some of which was just used incompetently by the operators. I guess the take-away is that if you are going to play with the big dogs you better come prepared for a real fight.

By Saturday morning it was all over, the weather was great, the sun was shining and a good 20 knot breeze blew everyone back to Vancouver from the Island. How quick it turns."

Lena Sin, Vancouver Province: Saturday, April 3, 2010:

VANCOUVER — Six sailors narrowly escaped serious injury and death Friday when fierce winds tossed them overboard and sank their yacht in frigid, volatile waters off Nanaimo, B.C., during a wicked windstorm.

The Incisor, a 30-foot custom yacht racing in the 42nd annual Southern Straits Regatta, flailed helplessly as winds gusted up to 100 kilometres per hour and whitecapped swells reached as high as four metres.

The waters were so turbulent that the Incisor, skippered by North Vancouver's Clint Currie, didn't even have a chance to make a mayday call, said Capt. Greg Clarke of the Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

Instead, the coast guard received word of the crisis from fellow racing yacht, the Radiant Heat, at about 2:45 p.m. The Radiant Heat managed to rescue two people, but four others were still at sea at the time.

Though a coast guard hovercraft was nearby, its crew and the officers aboard an RCMP boat still struggled to make it to the boaters, located about seven to 10 kilometres off Nanaimo, Clarke said.

"It was terrible conditions out there," he said. "The Coastal Renaissance from BC Ferries helped us block some wind, but it was terrible conditions out there."

Clarke says he believes all six sailors suffered from hypothermia. They were rushed to Nanaimo General Hospital where they fully recovered.

The six were said to be doing well Saturday, said Stephen May, spokesman for the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

Clarke criticized organizers for holding the race in the face of the wind warning issued by Environment Canada.

"We were wondering what these guys were doing out . . . especially for a mainland-to-Island crossing, I just don't know what was going on in the thoughts of those continuing to do the race despite the clear forecast of winds gusting to 50 knots at the airport," he said.
Sixty boats participated in the race, organized by the West Vancouver Yacht Club.
The regatta started off at 10:30 a.m. in West Vancouver but 15 boats returned within the first hour.

By the time the race was called off at 4 p.m., there were seven yachts still at sea, said Martin Wale, general manager of the West Vancouver Yacht Club.

"We were quite relieved that everybody was safe and nobody was hurt," he said.
Wale said organizers decided to go ahead with the race because winds were forecast to die down by 3 p.m.

The Incisor, worth an estimated $50,000 to $70,000, was last year's defending champion on the short course and was also skippered by Currie, a North Vancouver yacht builder.
"These people are qualified, seasoned, experienced sailors and none of them would go out and put themselves in these conditions . . . The people out there knew what they were doing and have sailed in this before," said Wale.

The Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre received upwards of 40 calls within 12 hours, one of the busiest days Clarke can recall in years.

Most of the calls were for unmanned boats that broke free from their moorings.

Fancy Free, one of the two boats that lost their rigs.

A sad sight.

Quote from Anarchy in response to my 'Melges 32 in 40 knots' thread. This from the owner of Icon:

"We had a number of the best M32 sailors in North America onboard during this race and we were talking about this while on the water in the actual conditions you would have experienced - the general consensus was that you might (and I repeat) might have made it to Halibut Bank right side up on the short course, but that after that you would be 100% dead.The winds and sea state in the northern part of the course (50+ knots, 15-20ft breaking seas) were such that you needed to stay under control and dramatically reduce sail area to keep from crashing. Furthermore in these conditions you would be on the edge of the operational limits of CG MLB and you would likely be on your own in frigid water if you had an accident. Plus there were no large commercial vessels on the water either - you could clearly see on AIS that they had all wisely bailed for shelter as well.This was not a windy day in protected relatively flat warm waters as some might think - in many ways this was more difficult than full on ocean sailing in storm force conditions as the waves were very steep with a short period (wind against the current) and you had limited room to run off. Even the Stevson Lifeboat bailed for Pender Harbor.As an FYI, the conditions where Incisor went down were relatively mild compared to northern part of the course and look how difficult the rescue was in that situation.You did a wise thing by staying on the dock... "

Ed, Skipper of SALUS (Ericson 27):

"...yeah, all safe & sound. Quite the ride. Was about 5 miles to the Halibut Bank mark when the boom snapped. Managed to fold the boom back on itself and continue on for a while, but when the jib blew apart we resorted to the motor which worked well when it stayed running, which it seemed to develop a tendency not to do (probably didn't like being submerged when the cockpit filled with water and drained over it). Eventually made it to Nanaimo. Probably something wrong with me, but rather enjoyed the experience. The two girls on board for the ride, not so much..."

SALUS missing her boom.

What was left.

2010 SOUTHERN STRAIT VIDEOS:

I have posted numerous sailing videos shot by the crews of the boats that participated.