Lessons Learned Offshore

Although he's had generous offers to charter offshore-race-ready boats from caring sailing friends, after watching his Beneteau 40.7 Making Waves sink 15 miles off the Hamptons, NY last weekend, Jim Praley's going to take a pass on this year's Newport to Bermuda Race and give himself time to process the formidable event.

The crew was delivering the boat to Newport, RI for the start of the biennial Newport to Bermuda Race in 5-7 foot waves and 20-25 knots of breeze under sail. They heard a bang and lost steerage. The rudder tube had broken just above the hull joint, and they were taking in water. Unable to control the flooding, the crew called the U.S. Coast Guard, who acknowledged receipt of the VHF distress call and the EPIRB signal and arrived in a timely, efficient fashion.

Time was on the side of the crew, and they thankfully had plenty of it--a couple of hours from the call to the actual sinking--to gather cell phones and wallets in plastic bags before boarding the USCG vessel (in seven- to nine-foot waves, weather too hairy for a helicopter!) and watching Making Waves go under in 165 feet of water.

Because of the extensive preparations needed to complete the Bermuda Race, Making Waves was fully loaded with a sat phone, EPIRB, harnesses and tethers, offshore flares, a ditch bag, a chart of safety equipment locations, and a life raft. Praley and his crew of five, all experienced Bay sailors, were well prepared and escaped the incident calmly and without injury.

What would the skipper do differently if there were a next time?

1. He would lead each crew member personally to each piece of equipment from flares to bilge pump handles before ever leaving the docks so that their knowledge of emergency gear was tactile, not theoretical.

2. He's going to think about ways to block that rudder pipe if that were to happen again.

Stay tuned to summer issues of SpinSheet for Praley and crew's full story. In the meantime, we'd like to thank the skipper for sharing his story and say, once again, how relieved we are about the well-being of the crew... and how sad we are they had to go through such a scary day. ~Molly Winans