Sailing Lake Simcoe ... almost didn't make it.

[Catigale]

The Greats have made many a fool of an 'offshore sailor' who thinks he is lake sailing and many a good ship has laid her bones to rest there...

[ralphk]

Beene:

I too was on Simcoe that day. A day I won't be able to forget for a while.

We wound up beaching my neighbor's 40 foot Carver west of Crates Marina at Keswick.

We had anchored in 6 feet of water early in the afternoon, when the winds were 15 - 20. - So that I could go windsurfing!

How do two experienced boaters manage to beach their vessel?
A series of poor decisions, compounded by terrible luck and overlaid with mindnumbing waves pounding very cold water for a few hours.

We had a Danforth anchor off the stern that wound up being the achilles heel. Lesson Learned - Danforth's don't release when really driven into the sand by the momentum of large boats.

Briefly;
- Line wrapped around prop shaft - freed that
- Freed bow anchor - good CQR
- Tried to free stern Danforth - impossible.
- At critical moment as I was preparing to cut the rode we drifted into stranded little runabout boat
- Cleared little boat, engines idling now drifted passed the little swim zone string.
- Cut that line.
- Cut rode.
- At throttle, boat is aiming 45 degrees from shore in 3-1/2 feet
- Big diesels stir up lots of sand
- Sand bar ahead, beach in 2-1/2 feet
- Try self rescue with windlass and shifting passengers - fail


Two thumbs up for the fine Police marine unit that towed us late Saturday afternoon. They described winds peaking at 42 knots and 10 foot waves on the main part of the lake.
We were the 7th of at least 9 rescues.

The Carver did return to marina under it's own power, but felt as if the normal response was altered.
Damage to vessel TBD

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the Mac was in it's slip in Whitby on Lake Ontario all last weekend.

Ralph k
Hakuna Matata

[beene]

Hi marsanden

Beene, i think you were wery smart to went back home with no damnages to your boat and crew.

No.... just lucky. My best bud went fwd to take what was left of the main down, a big wave hit us while he was up there, washed over him, almost taking him away, but the boom caught him above the thigh and kept him with us.

would like to know if those rudders really improve the steering on the mac

No rudder no matter how big has any effect when water is not flowing past it. My rudders and motor kept coming out of the water. Then when the boat was turned by the waves and wind to go DDW, the water was going past the rudders, but the wrong way

in Europe the Mac is CE certificate for coast sailing with mo more than 30 knots of wind and waves no highter than 2 mt.

We have no such cert here.

why leaving the coast with 20 knots and followin goin forward when it went to 25-30 kn ?

Because that is the best sailing there is. I have been sailing for many years, 30+ kts does not scare me, just puts a great big smile on my face. The only thing that screwed up this great adventure was that the lake gets shallower as you go east. At one point you are in inches of water while being 100 or more feet from shore. The bay part of the lake that I am slipped in is by far the deepest part at around 125 feet and easily 50 feet deep 15 feet from shore in most places. The shallowness of the east side of the lake leads to extreme wave conditions, very violent. That is what made this trip a near disaster, not the wind. I have been out single handed several times in my new M in 30+ kts, great fun especially when the waves are less than 1 metre.

did u empty your ballast in the middle of the lake

No, I was just trying to make it clear to the readers what I found to be the best config for those conditions. The only thing I was changing was rudders up/down, keel up/down, speed up/down.

Cheers

G

[beene]

Tiny Tim
Thanks for the story, loved reading it.
I want to go down to Lake Ont this summer, I will send you a PM when I figure out when I can do it, just in case we can meet up.

When in rough seas, and you end up needing to reef the main, just drop the whole thing, all sails. I would even clip myself to the lifeline, wearing a life jacket of course, tie of the main for reefed config, go back to the cockpit, drop the motor, put her in irons as best you can in those conditions, hoist the wee main, and you are back in business. Better that I think than continue with full main when consistently overpowered. But that is JMHO, to each there own.

Very glad you did not encounter any life threatening seas, as many have said, you can out there.

Fair winds

Geoff

[beene]

Hi Ralph k
Great story, thanks for sharing.
What a ride eh? Sorry about your buds boat. Hope it's OK.

Two thumbs up for the fine Police marine unit that towed us late Saturday afternoon. They described winds peaking at 42 knots and 10 foot waves on the main part of the lake.
We were the 7th of at least 9 rescues.

Ya, glad we weren't number 10 on that list.

Funny thing was, after we made it into the lagoon, other boaters kept going past us on their way to the open water, even though the mouth of the lagoon clearly showed very rough seas just beyond its opening. We would just shake our heads, watch them have a look, and then turn around and come back into the lagoon again. Don't know what they were thinking.

Sorry we missed a chance to meet up.

Cheers

G

[Tiny Tim]

Beene:

It would be fun to sail with you. Let's do it!

There was an opportunity to reef the following day in less than 20 knots and I took it. Next time I'll reef for certain.

The boat handled superbly on Saturday (unlike me). Only one wave washed over completely, the rest was just spray and not that much of it.

It sounded from your recounting like you had bigger waves on Simcoe and a wetter ride.

I carry a drogue and a parachute sea anchor. I could have deployed one of those to keep her nose to the wind while I reefed. Oh well, next time. I am going to concentrate on having that gear ready to deploy instead of buried away in the bowels of the boat. I am also going to hook up a 2 line jiffy reefing system that I can operate from the cockpit. My obstacle is that sail-slug stopper in the track. Ideas would be welcome on that obstacle.

There certainly were a lot of Coast Guard distress calls Saturday including a Mayday (an overturned 26 foot sailboat off the Scarborough bluffs with 2 sailors clinging to the hull.) With all those distress signals, my pinching strategy seemed conservative; but in retrospect, deep reefing would have been more conservative and likely easier on the sails.

[beene]

Tiny Tim

It would be fun to sail with you. Let's do it!

Sounds like a great idea!
I will PM you with possible dates avail.

I too have the sail slugs and a track stop...






... but I do not have to take off the stopper to reef. There is no slug in the 3rd grommet on the main where the tack point is for reefing. I just take that grommet and pull it down over the reef tack claw, haul back on the lower clew point and re-cleat on the boom horn, tie up the excess sail with the reefing ties, done.

G

[NiceAft]

Geoff,

I noticed in the video that your "traveler" was all the way to Starboard. Since I do not have any experience in winds that high (no reefing system yet), I ask, was it that far over because of the wind velocity, or with everything else on your mind you did not notice. I saw what looked like the sail beginning to luff. This is all part of my learning process

By the way, great video


Ray

[beene]

Hi Ray

I try to keep my traveler off to the side we are reaching on, run the main sheet beneath the lifeline, works like a preventer, the sheets don't have to drag over the lifeline when adjusting, and the crew can come and go from the cabin without tripping on the traveler car. In practice, I normally center the car on the traveler unless holding the same reach for extended periods, like Sat and Sun. Wind at our Port all day Sat, and Starboard all day Sun. Whenever tacking and pointing upwind, I always have the car in the middle and the main sheet obviously on the inside of the lines.

I saw what looked like the sail beginning to luff

I could have hauled in the main a bit, leaving the car where it was, but the main had already lost 2 out of 4 battens and was flapping hard. I was worried it was going to tear.

Glad you enjoyed the video.

I would love to take you out for a sail in that stuff, very exhilarating experience indeed.

G

[magnetic]

I am no sailor, but have 25 years experience in powered boats, mostly in the English Channel and the Bristol Channel. I have been to the North American lakes - including Toronto, but never sailed there.

A typical day over here looks a bit like this -

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/oc ... 62103.html

in particular, check out the water temp and the wave height. The other thing we have to contend with is the tide, and with the wind against it the English Channel can get very "steep" and fairly confused

On the subject of tides, until last year I had my 27 footer moored in Portishead, near Bristol; the tidal reach here is 14 metres - yes, you read that right - 47 feet! Apparently only the Bay of Fundy has a stronger tidal scour, and we get rips of up to 8kts on a twice-daily basis

The weather in the UK is truly awful right now, and we have major flooding in some towns and cities; June was the wettest since records began and July is looking no better.

Beene, I love your videos, and as soon as I can get out on the water, I'll post some of my own

Best Regards

Andrew

[beene]

Hi Magnetic

I went to your link, those are some serious winds. The station measured is Channel Lightship, where is that? I just checked these stations and this is what they are at the moment......

LHR SA 042150 042150Z 25015KT 9999 SCT012 16/13 Q1008 TEMPO SHRA_

MAN SA 042150 042150Z 29011KT 9999 FEW035 14/12 Q1006 NOSIG_

GLA SA 042150 042150Z 26005KT 9999 SCT016 SCT022 14/12 Q1005_

SNN SA 042130 042130Z 27014KT 9999 FEW011 BKN048 14/12 Q1013 NOSIG_

Beene, I love your videos, and as soon as I can get out on the water, I'll post some of my own

Glad you enjoyed them, there are quite a few on my photobucket account.

I can't wait to see some of yours.

Cheers

G

[beene]

Based on the Lat / Long of the info, it seems to be near Equeurdreville-Hainneville France and the Island of Guernsey.

Nasty winds over there for sure.

G

[magnetic]

It's an automatic station in the middle of the English Channel, half-way between the UK and France. We use it as the primary offshore reference for my preferred launchsite, which is at Portland on the South Coast of England.

The English Channel is about 60 miles wide at that point and, as one of the busiest commercial lanes on the planet, has a traffic separation zone which is littered with deep water wrecks and provides some excellent drift fishing. In a force 3 - 4 we can get out there in under an hour and - as the trawlers and other commercial fishing vessels can't operate there - the fishing can still be really good.

The problem is on the way back - if the wind picks up you can encounter a vicious little sea and can't get up on the plane - hence my current fascination with achieving a decent speed in my ! The problem is not the wave height - we get white caps most days once we get out of coastal waters - but the wave period; these suckers hit you every 6 or so seconds, and, in a powerboat, if you stuff the bow into the back of one by running too fast downwind, you'll broach and roll faster than a very fast thing!

My daughter (11) and I are off on a RYA yachting course this weekend out of Gosport (near Portsmouth); neither of us has ever sailed before, and when I asked www.adrenalinesailing.co.uk what the weather forecast looked like, I was told that we'd be going out in anything up to a Force 8. I thought she was joking, and checked her answer - no, that's it - even for total novices, Force 7 is what you get. Wish us luck!

[magnetic]

The English Channel is the closest open water to my home - about 50 - 90 miles away, depending upon where I want to launch. Take a look at

http://catalogue.ukho.gov.uk/browse_Lei ... &offset=10#

for a thumbnail of the separation scheme.

One of the best wrecks out there is the Illinois -

http://www.divernet.com/cgi-bin/article ... =1023&ac=d

but you have to be on your toes - the area gets very very busy, which is why I have an AIS receiver linked to my chartplotter - take a look at this coverage of an area just a little further along the coast -

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/mikeandtina/

Closer to home, but a bit one-dimensional and restricted to 5mph - we have the River Thames near Abingdon-

http://www.thames-path.org.uk/thames_ab ... xford.html

can't really sail here (I can't sail anyhow!) and, as I said, restricted to 5 mph ( AS IF!)

[eric3a]

..