NOAA was right

Well NOAA was predicting 25K for today and it blew every bit of that for our first RTB of the season. We set the course, a windward-leeward configuration. All together six boats got out on the bay.

Fox with Web skippering
H17 Trevor and his lovely fiance.
H16 with Mark B and John H for crew
H16 Mike H with Dan W for crew
SC20 Kevin K with Mark B for crew
M20 Chris L with Chapin for crew

The 5 minute starting sequence began with all the boats to start except the M20 which would start 5 minutes later and play catch up. At 2 minutes to go, the SC20 tacked over to head for the start and a gust of wind blew it over. That monster, on its side, blew down the bay toward the seawall at a startling pace. The two 16s got off to a clean start and a few seconds later Mike and Dan got hit by a wave knocking the skipper off the back of the 16 and the wind almost blew it over backwards. Some quick scrambling by Dan W and the boat did no go over. Off they went into the 25K wind chasing Mark and John towards the windward mark.

While Chapin and I were setting up for our start, we continued to watch the SC20 on her side blowing down the bay. At one minute to our start, we bailed out to head off and see why the SC20 was not up yet. Possibly someone got injured in the tip over. We came close to them and no one hurt so all we could do was stand by. It was far too windy to allow my crew to get off and assist. With some work they got her to come up only to cartwheel over onto her other side. At this point Chapin and I decided to head for the club and get the committee boat and some helpers to go out assist. Kevin had deployed his anchor so the boat did not blow up onto any of the docks or seawalls. . He had removed the sail by then and now with a few more hands was able to right her.

Margaret and I headed off down wind to collect the debris field of stuff including a daggerboard that had floated away. When we got back they had the SC all ready to be towed back to shore. Fortunately no one got hurt, except for the chaffed feet since they were not wearing booties and spent a lot of time walking on the rocks in the shoals.

So for the first RTB, only two boats finished one race before calling it quits. Mark and John took first, and Mike and Dan took second.
Kevin, Trevor, Web and I all took a DNS, Did Not Start. So this was another one of those carnage regattas like the McFaul we entered in over in Waikiki last year. But back on the beach, the beverages were flowing and all had a good time and lots of laughs.

I will post the photos to our home-page. So the moral to the story is: Booties don't do any good when they float away after you flip over. Just like the first time Kevin and I flipped the SC, it looked like a plane crash with all the stuff floating down the bay.

We are off to an event filled season with Oahu's best kept secret: The Kokokahi Sailing Club.