Close call (not mc related)
Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:00 am
Had a bit of a close call this past weekend. For those that might be unfamiliar with what I do, I work in the "boating" business, and that kind of led into the classic yacht racing scene I've been doing a little more of over the last couple years.
This past weekend I was racing in Newport, RI for a yearly event on one of my customers' boats, a 1926 Herreshoff. Not an inexpensive item; there are only a couple of them left. Conditions were, while not extreme, taxing on both vessel and crew.
The owner, who does not show up for practice dates, will come with his entourage and steer the boat through the course on race days. He has a hard time focusing and can't seem to steer a straight line. This has been a problem in the past. I think you know where this is headed.
To make a long story short, I fell over the side and fortunately had the presence of mind to grab onto a line that I saw on the way over. After about thirty seconds of being dragged along at over 8 knots they managed to pull me back aboard like a fish. Thirty seconds is a long time when you're mostly submerged and having your pants pulled off and the guy driving the boat doesn't know what to do so he just freezes. I hit the rail on the way over and have a gigantic hematoma on my right hip. But I'm lucky, its no big deal. Compared to what happened about an hour later.
We basically bounced our boat, which weighs about 20 tons or so, off another boat. We lost one guy overboard (we got him back), another got tangled up in the rigging and we had to cut him out, we broke our bowsprit and dismasted the other boat, carrying away her mizzen as we came off. The owner, who had been driving, basically froze when he realized what he'd done and while normally that would be bad in this situation it worked in our favor because had he turned the boat up into the wind we surely would have lost our mast. It undoubtedly would have landed on people and killed/maimed some.
It was fucked up. I think the repair bill to our vessel alone will top 50K.
You can do the what-ifs all day and still it was a needless accident based on inexperience. But yet, if you can go home at the end of the weekend with all your body parts and a good story it really isn't that bad.
I obviously didn't have time during either incident to get photos (for my ride, I was too busy hanging on for dear life and for the second I was too busy shitting my pants). But I did get a couple pics of befo' and aftuh:
Befo'
Aftuh:
This past weekend I was racing in Newport, RI for a yearly event on one of my customers' boats, a 1926 Herreshoff. Not an inexpensive item; there are only a couple of them left. Conditions were, while not extreme, taxing on both vessel and crew.
The owner, who does not show up for practice dates, will come with his entourage and steer the boat through the course on race days. He has a hard time focusing and can't seem to steer a straight line. This has been a problem in the past. I think you know where this is headed.
To make a long story short, I fell over the side and fortunately had the presence of mind to grab onto a line that I saw on the way over. After about thirty seconds of being dragged along at over 8 knots they managed to pull me back aboard like a fish. Thirty seconds is a long time when you're mostly submerged and having your pants pulled off and the guy driving the boat doesn't know what to do so he just freezes. I hit the rail on the way over and have a gigantic hematoma on my right hip. But I'm lucky, its no big deal. Compared to what happened about an hour later.
We basically bounced our boat, which weighs about 20 tons or so, off another boat. We lost one guy overboard (we got him back), another got tangled up in the rigging and we had to cut him out, we broke our bowsprit and dismasted the other boat, carrying away her mizzen as we came off. The owner, who had been driving, basically froze when he realized what he'd done and while normally that would be bad in this situation it worked in our favor because had he turned the boat up into the wind we surely would have lost our mast. It undoubtedly would have landed on people and killed/maimed some.
It was fucked up. I think the repair bill to our vessel alone will top 50K.
You can do the what-ifs all day and still it was a needless accident based on inexperience. But yet, if you can go home at the end of the weekend with all your body parts and a good story it really isn't that bad.
I obviously didn't have time during either incident to get photos (for my ride, I was too busy hanging on for dear life and for the second I was too busy shitting my pants). But I did get a couple pics of befo' and aftuh:
Befo'
Aftuh:
