"Well-deserved Capsize" - summer 2006 .

The explanation of the incident below is from a week's WAYFARER-cruise  from Høvik to Engelsviken, Inner to Outer Oslofjord and back(about 2 x 100km) solo-sailing, one person in each of two W.s, namely W1348 with Ken, called 'nestor' by the latter, W10390, who calls himself HD and 'novice'.

The occurence is by me called  *Well-deserved Capsize*, which is no. 3 capsize in W1348( two of which I take full responsibility for) in 40years of WAYFARERing.  Simply I forgot - due my SMD-problem - Short Memory Deficiency -  to free the gybe-preventer-downhaul-line to the 2nd. spinnakerboom, which is used as boom for a very effective W-trysail that thus was prevented from swinging over in the gybe, and this and the waves assisted W1348 to 'turn-turtle' !  Further info of the W-trysail can evt. be found on 091012: the beauties of the Wayfarer trysail: Ken Jensen

My cell.phone and the engine got very wet in fairly salt water. The engine's Manual for this 'four-stroke' says don't try to restart ! Later on in a safe shelter I removed the plug and emptied the cyll. and carburettor as on the two-stroke, and gave it a try(I did not have the Manual along !) that didn't work. Coming home two days later I was able to bring it to the work-shop; cost me £ 200 - well, I am very fond of this engine.  But here is a marked difference to the more basic two-stroke, which twice were brought back to working order by the above mentioned treatment incl. a little freshwater-showering ! Meeting with HD later after the capsize my cell-phone was washed in his methylated spirit, and thus saved for working after installing a new battery later.

I was in great luck being able to anchor and save my dear old boat from the rocky lee shore of the skerry-isle only about 100meters off( I had to gybe to pass it !),  and, I suppose, also lucky sailing under W-trysail as I got no bouyancy in the top of my mainsail.  The slimy, slippery hull - W1348 has been in the water since APR - demanded balletdancer-balancing as the breaking seas did'nt help to stabilize my jump-around-performance(the wind - confirmed by radio was 12 - 14 m/sec. therefore W-trysail)!  After coming upright the genoa was quickly furled and the W-trysail taken down - the order should be like that, I'm sure!

My anchor-gear is 200' of line ahead of 10' of 1/4" chain to the *umbrella*-type anchor(poor holding in sand or mud !), and it had anchored itself, but there were two BUTs(and an unknown surprise !), the first *but* being the anchor-box secured with the end of the line had ripped loose and was floating next to me so I could grab it, because some of the line had snarled  with the sheet of the W-trysail.  Due our rocky waters the anchor chain is shackled to the bottom of the anchor, and the chain is lead along the stock and then secured with a lashing to the top of the stock, and this lashing is intended to break( when you wish it to do so !) - in case your anchor really gets stuck under a rock, chain or cable(and it happens !),  *but*  nr. 2 was my worry that this lashing might break and beach us, "Maitken" and me, in the breakers onto the rocky lee shore, so naturally I was wanting to get away from this exposed postion ! 

When the water was down to the floorboards I judged being able to clear the point of the skerry-isle by sailing between a 'fine to broad reach' under genoa alone as it sets in a "FLASH" when unfurled, because I did not dare set/hoist the W-trysail to flop + swing about, greatly increasing pull and drift,  if the anchor lost the grip!   So in with the anchor as quickly as I could manage, unfurl genoa, bear off, gain speed, CB full down, sit out(still plenty of water in the boat), sheet in, play the breaking waves, and we luckily cleared the point with a fair margin. The surprise was that only one of the four anchor-flukes was out to hold us anchored !

Having cleared into open water I could furl the genoa, lay a'hull, hoist the W-trysail, reset the genoa and start sail+self-draining out the rest of the water through the bailers. Delay about 35 min. At our rendevous-point, a nice wind-protected lagoon, about 1 hr.  later, I arrived approx. 10 min. late, and completely dry on the outside, so my companion, W10390, who had just arrived there, could not tell until I started to change into dry undergarments and wring the wet.  My SMART-box 25x30x50cm made of plastic with a clip on lid and containing en-route-nourishment fruit/food/termos/coffee+tea etc. was tied up and had floated right side up and was completely dry inside, so we had lunch in this lovely sun-warm rendevous-lagoon before doing another 12 nm of speedy down-wind sailing in lovely, windy-warm summer-weather, and I confirm the water was warm too!

The lashing (nylon-line 4mm, old and weather-worn) that held the anchor-box, and my roll of mainsail+boom(which was also cleated to a jam-cleat) broke, and thus being the reason for a surprising loss of the roll of boom+mainsail. The inclosed picture was taken the next day when my W-cruising companion felt safe to bring out his DIGI-camera as we entered the sound into shelter of our home-waters.  The picture shows W1348"Maitken" on a 'dead run' force 5 - 6B(called 'small gale' in Norwegian), 10 -12 m/sek in gusts, or about 20 - 25 knots using winged genoa(SB), W-trysail(LB) with the 2nd.spinnaker-pole,  whereunder the jib was rigged-hanging so the total area gave quite a good, satisfactory speed - calling for awake and attention-demanding control with no room for the SMD(Short Memory Deficiency) that the day before caused this old man to 'turn turtle' with his trusty 40-years old W 1348 ! 

Photo: HD-World W10390 Lützenkirchen.

KenW1348"Maitken"