Faith on the Rocks

Yesterday we entered the big boat in the fall series Saturday race. I had two first-time sailors, and one Christian Rinke as crew, and my daughter as stewardess.

The winds were gusting up to about 23 knots apparent on a windward beat and wind direction was—well, kind of from the west but changing every few yards.   It was definitely a race for us – with the crew racing from one side of FAITH to the other in an attempt to sheet in the genoa.

Even with the cool wind, the crew was getting a hard workout and working up a sweat.   Our boat was doing really good in the race:  The other boats were still less than a full lap ahead of us.

We were having trouble changing tacks, and had to use the “iron genny” a couple of times to bring us around when trouble hit.  We were closing in on the up wind mark for our second pass around it, and the other boats were about a half mile up stream of us when our transmission stopped working!  We quickly lost all turning ability, and the wind drifted us into the rocks near the highway before we could lower our sails!

I hate the sound of fiberglass grinding on rocks, but we didn’t seem to take serious damage.

I called for help on channel 16, but no one answered. Then my handheld radio quit.

When Pnuema passed us, they must of thought we were having a party, with all the jumping up and down and frantic waving they saw.  They finally came over to help, but were unable to pull us away from the rocks because the wind had us pinned securely near the highway.

Then Captain Loren Murphy came to help.  He was commanding his current tugboat, which is a San Juan 21 with a 4 hp outboard.  With the skills of an artist, Loren rafted up near our stern, and pulled all 46,000 lbs of us to deeper water.

About that time we had two deputies, a fire department rescue boat, and probably close to twenty bystanders intently observing how to rescue a big sailboat.  We thanked the officials, and let them go their way, and Loren, professionally rafted up to our stern with his “tug”, took us the 1 mile upstream to the marina, and parked us in our own slip at the end of the dock.

I called the mechanic, and he assured me that my transmission problems were no big deal.  My question is; how many boat bucks is “no big deal”?

At this time I don’t expect FAITH to strike fear into the hearts of the competition in the next race, as she won’t be racing again for awhile.

Tom Weza

S/V FAITH