Ok,
Here's what happened in the GT300 this year with Todd Hart and myself. Day two; Todd was driving (I promised him he could steer that day and he was all happy)and we were beam reaching in about 20 to 25 knots and some good chop. We had overtaken Steve Piche and they were about 200 or so yards to our leward and behind. They stopped. This was about mid way into the leg. There are NO places for your ground crew to come get you at this point. We hailed them on the radio and got no response. Funny since Steve was so adament about us keeping our radios on during the race (another story). We came in off the wire and turned to go back to see if they needed assistance. We waited for them to get back underway and we did the same. Todd got back on the wire and I was still on the side of the boat when I heard a loud bang! The boat started to go over before I could release the main. I was trying to throw my weight over the side to get the hull down but it was too late. I lost my grip and pinballed off the boom then the leward daggerboard. I thought I broke my pelvis at first the way I landed on it. It was pretty painfull. I looked back to see Todd about 40 feet behind me and the boat and swimming like hell. I grabbed the mainsheet blocks and was trying to swim towards him to slow the boat. Wind was blowing too much. Waaaay too much. I ditched that plan and went to getting the boat ready to right. I figured at worst case, I would drift it to the beach through the surf and waite for Todd to swim to shore. I pointed the mast into the waves and water and hooked the righting line in my spreader hook and through myself backwards. Nothing. I waited for a good wave to get under the mast and forcefully through myself back many times and finally the mast started comming up. As it did, I climed hand over hand up the righting line pulling the boat down on me. The boat took off for a while with me being dragged underneath still hooked onto the righting line. I figured it would go into irons soon. It did. I quickly pulled myself on board and couldn't find Todd in the rough seas. Piche picked him up and we sailed next to each other and Todd jumped back on with me. What a fun day. If you find yourself too tired to get back onto your boat after righting it, GET TO THE F'N GYM! The life you save could be your own.