Mary: the extent of my overboard drills on a catamaran also involve the family's golden retreivers Gabby is a bit spastic, and she likes to eat jellyfish so when she sees one go by the boat, she jumps in after it.

On mono's, where I was "raised" I've done quite a bit of man overboard drills. On a cat, its difficult to drop the main as quickly as a non-hook-and-ring, more traditional setup.

I also sail singlehanded most of the time, which means that if I go overboard, I have bigger problems than my crew pulling me over the transom.

Instead of the main sheet to raise a person, you might be able to use a adjustable trap to lift someone high enough to pull them on board. At least they would be attached to the boat.

The tethers may be needed at night, but I have visions of Peter Panning at good speed and having that tether pull up tight before I hit the water. We stuffed it one time and when I came up I was at the end of my trap wire above the mast. We flew about 50 feet thru the air. I'm not sure I want that tether stopping me at 25 feet. My harness has a spring clip on the hook that keeps the dog bone attached to me....At least so far.

The crew should at least be able to stop the boat by themselves.

Hey, Kevin,
I had a dream last night that someone designed a spinnaker snuffer that could double as a people retriever -- lower the pole-and-snuffer and pull the guy up the chute onto the tramp. Probably a few bugs to be worked out.....

Mary,

[color:"green"] > a spinnaker snuffer that could double as a people retriever [/color]

The best systems are those that are the most versatile

I had Rick (forum administrator) change the name on this thread, since the scope has been getting broader than the original heading, "Women should be banned from the Worrell."

Hi Mary -
Popped his up on the old forum too ,-but thought it might be a timely addition to the discussion from a real life perspective-

Not sure about night legs this year in 03 ,-will double check also and find out, --would hate to wake up early and shove off the beach by myself ,---{joking }

: : Talked to Davis M last evening in St Croi. where its 85 and sunny ,-If your in a Northern climate this may help get you through to spring and the return of sailing season.

most people when they ask questions about the Worrell 1000 ask about the night legs -

Night Sailing -Isle of Palms Leg
Team "Sail for Sight"--Written during the 2001 Worrell 1000
First, many thanks to our excellent ground crew -Bill Wallace and his son -Dave Wallace -from St. Simmons Island GA, THE Surf Sailors, and to David Lennard sailing a great Worrell 1000 race this year .We sailed in some fairly tough conditions during last evenings very fast night leg with gusts into the 20 s and very short steep irregular seas .
- We flew the chute off the beach, leaving Tybee Island GA. around 6 p m, to the sound of bagpipes, and arrived on the beach in Isle of Palms around 12-30, to the sounds of the local night spots blasting music over the waves, this leg was a fast run reaching speeds of up to 22 to 28 on the GPS.
- Through the daylight left we raced along with several good teams including Kirk and Glen, - Team Key Sailing, happy to be in good company going into the darkness and potential dangers of several hours racing ahead.
-Night sailing is unusual in that your sense of sight is largely eliminated, and use of your other senses have to take over, It was overcast, with storms and numerous lightening flashes hitting the water surface illuminating your surrounding area for brief seconds then leaving one temporarily unable to see until the pupils dilate back to the limited light of shore lights miles distant and overcast night. We had one boat close for about an hour during part of the leg to leeward who's silhouette would appear with each flash, --then disappear-We latter learned it was Brian and Jamie who flipped shortly after, but still managed their usual first place leg finish .
-We finished 4th after starting in 10th -we saw several other teams sail very well for the time we stayed close but generally sailing a higher course at higher speeds with a lesser vmg. -Several teams had damage - some loosing their spin halyards, some striking fish turtles or other objects and loosing their rudders, Team Outer Banks with John at the helm and Charles as excellent crew was one--but again not being able to see sea turtles or other objects to take avoiding action as also happened with other teams, -- luck is part of the Worrell race.

-On a humorous note, David caught a fish last evening, it flew up, bounced off Dave and landed on the trampoline nice foot and a half long fish flopping around for a minute before he could catch him and through him back in, seconds later another fish flew up, bounced off Dave’s life jacket and back in off the port side, though I don’t think it was the same fish trying to get back aboard. -Kind of startling when you’re flying along with the chute up at 20 plus at night.
The psychology of night sailing may be the most interesting aspect, the potential for collision plays on your mind, -an unlit channel marker, another boat, or competitor may appear in front of you with only seconds to react, it can be very intense for several hours at 20 plus, steep seas, spray flying, bows stuffing into waves, all while your trying to keep the boat moving at top speed and stay upright, which many teams including Jamie and Brian on Alexander's did not do last night. . -Team Castrol also sailed a great night leg following the lead boats moves finishing 2nd, 3rd was Brendon and Jim,team Lexus Nexus who in a gutsy navigational strategy went out some 12 miles offshore and one gibed to the finish, just as they did the previous year to an excellent leg finish. -Team Tommy Bahama -Alex and Nigel ,also sailed fast to a 5th place night leg finish .We headed for the room and warm dry clothes then back out to the balcony overlooking the beach on Isle of Palms with Brendon Jim and crewc sharing a pizza, and to watch the rest of the fleet finish shortly after , except for 3 with damage and a collision.
- All teams out here are very good and fast, as any that can sail 1000 miles in the open Atlantic have proven themselves to be.
The best advice to any contemplating the race to prepare would be to simply practice sailing at night,
-Set a destination, inform others and contact them by phone when back in safe. Night legs and night sailing are not all like last evening, some night legs are very beautiful with stars, the moon shinning, warm water and smooth seas.
-The night legs are potentially very dangerous , though strangely an element of the Worrell 1000 race I enjoy, high winds seas lightning storms and all.
As Dave can tell you while sailing the night legs keep an eye out for the flying fish and many other potential dangers of this very challenging aspect of distance racing in this crazy extreme race called the Worrell 1000!
-Wish us luck in tonight’s night leg through some big surf around the cape and up to Myrtle Beach, and a safe journey to all.
-All the best -
Carl Roberts

Hi carl..

I just finished reading your post and started to relive the nights. Boy does that get your blood pressure up.I decided to go back through our GPS tracks and found. In 2001 we jibed on layline at 40 miles offshore and 2002 it was 23 miles. The only reason we went that far offshore this year was the leg winds and direction were the same as 2001. In 2001 if you remember we had amazing phosphorescence in the water. they were so bright you could see the bottom of the leward board and read the logos on the boat. See you in Miami in may.
Have a great Christmas and new year...Jim Korkosz

jIM !!!
great to hear from you ,--Happy Holidays !!!

The spirit of the race and racers is the most fasinating aspect ,-overcomming the numerous challenges and dangers involved the experiences shared are something that is unique in this day and age.
We have fly overs in fighter jets by past Worrell partisipants ,-bagpipes playing ,-anthumes sung as we leave the beach ,thousands and thousands following the race worldwide ,--so much fun to be a part of.--Happy to see you in Miami again .

Recall your accounts of that night leg in a near miss with a large cruising yacht 20 miles out . You latter found and contacted the yacht and traded sailing stories ,-Team Lexus Nexus -amazing .Congrates on setting a new leg record last year also . Great racing.

Safety concerns ,--you wear a helmet , and take numerous other safety precausions, think we will see more and more wearing helmets as these boats continue to get more technical and achieve higher speeds and record times .

The new boat -the-Jav ,-is really well made ,-but shorter comparative length, taller mast ,-less buoyant hulls make for a much more physically demanding type of racing in higher wind and sea conditions. -Think we will see many more teams drop out ,-a weather determined factor ,--and much more spread between boats . Those that have been racing them the last year ,-have tuning -back up boats as always have a huge advantage.

With 36 teams and counting it will be a very interesting year for the race .

Hope the Tybee race is a great success also -
-this type of racing is grueling ,and dangerous at times ,
but what a fantastic sailing adventure.

A celebration of the human spirit with kindred souls..

Carl...
It must have been about 9:30 pm. We were ripping along in the 20's about 20 miles offshore. I saw a light in the distance. Brendan and I argued about wheather it was a bouy or boat. As you know the night thing plays with your mind a bit. As we got close enough we saw it was an old cruiser. We I then lit the main up with the flashlight so they knew we were there. We then crossed their stern within 3 feet and heard cheers. Two days later I got an e-mail from the editor of sail mag. He said he knew the race was going by and didn't think he was going to see any boats that far offshore. He thanked us for the fly by and letting them cheer like nascar fans 20 mile offshore.
As far as safety and the helmet... I have to thank sailsafety.com for the gear. they gave us the helmets in 2001 but we did some testing with the old ones and were not very happy with them.. This year they came out with a new style that is very comfortable. I wore it for at least 10 of the legs. There were 2 times this year when I found myself hitting the boat very hard and was glad to have it on.I find that as well as the safety factor it added a great deal of warmth during the night legs. Out of all the people who raced last year. I was surprised when Davis said to me he wished he had one. The racing was so close last year it made the nights even that much more dangerous. I would only hope safety is of greater concern......
I think this year won't be as close with the new boat and all the newbees to the race trying to figure out how to sail it. There are alot of big boat sailors going for it this year and without a great deal of time on a cat I think there will be alot of boat in need of serious repairs. I'm not saying they are not good sailors They have all proven their sailing skills in the big boat world. My advise to them is unless they know how to make a cat go full speed ALL THE TIME. They need to do ALOT of sailing between now and race day. I think there will only be about 18-20 boats come race day.... On another note we are having our "Worrell" baby boy in three weeks...Who ever said you get tired during that race.....

cheers JIM

Congratulations !! --a new little crew .
One of the best times of life , bringing another into this one.

Hope Christeen is doing well at 8 months plus , she will be a wonderfull mom.
So we will expect to see a father -son / daughter team in the 2020 Worrell race .


Really happy New Year .
Carl

Carl (and others),

Do any of you have a sense for how often cat sailors are separated from their boats for reasons that don't involve a capsize? (Equipment failure, accidentally unhooking from trap, etc.) Anyone with personal experiences and the story of what happened next?

I've seen it happen a handful of times in our Fleet racing. Biggest cause (besides capsize) would seem to be trap gear failure or accidental unhooking. Another time it was a well-intentioned effort gone wrong by one boat to drop off the crew to help another boat that had capsized. The last one was a missunderstanding of how fast our boats can move even when capsized, leaving the crew that was intended to help in need of picking up.

In all of the cases except the last one mentioned, the boats were handled effectively enough to retrieve the MOB (including a case where a very young son single-handed a N5.8NA in decent wind to retrieve his Dad who had fallen off). In the botched assistance case I picked up the stranded crew.

Once my crew rolled off the lee foredeck in light conditions - he was able to grab hold of the boat before he got separated. Another time one of my crew lost the hook just as he was heading out on the trap - MOB drill, picked him up, continued the race...

Hi Kevin -Keith --

more good posts -thanks

-trap lines and hooks are big safety problems -
next are safety lines that keep catsailors attached at high speeds or in big seas .
Last year we were caught in the 50 mph plus winds and good sizes seas on the last Worrell leg to Virginia Bch .
Cold nasty leg last year ,- many hit shore fortunately ,-
We had snapped a rudder earlier and put into shore to replace it ,then pushed off again about 15 minutes before it hit.
Stupidly I thought it would not last long at those high wind speeds and attempted to sail through it seeing lighter sky further North ,--wrong again ,--We sailed in it for a while and were still going forward ,-but also sideways rapidly .
First time I experienced the boat being picked up at the top of the wave and going airborn to the one behind and sideways to it -go up -jump back type sailing .

Dave did get seperated from the boat after we did flip off a wave ,-maybe the second or third time , --remember the boat righting itself after one flip ,-If you were not holding on or attached that could have difficult consequences .
Anyway remember the boat traveling on its side about 4 times faster than Dave could swim ,-he yelled turtle it -turtle it ,-tryed to just submerge the bow to get it to point ,-but that did not slow it much in those conditions ,-
Turtled it and just rode the storm with pelting rain that hurt when it hit ,-felt like hale . -
We finished a few hours latter ,-Christeen gave us a shot of something when we hit the beach ,-and I saw a hotub and ripped off the drysuit and headed for it to thaw out ,-what a cold nasty day -finish . Several teams dropped out with broken gear .
The lightweight boats are much more prone to taking off and drifting at higher speeds away from crew that may get seperated . Turtle them if your the one left is all you can sometimes do .
Have fun -
Carl

Jim's helmet type is a great idea .

Safety lines and types --
we should write more on these ideas and systems set ups

Carl,

I hear ya about the side skipping, athough I've never done it in 50 knots. Wow, that must have been a very humbling ride!

[color:"green"]> Safety lines and types --
we should write more on these ideas and systems set up[/color]

I've seen the pics of Team Lexus Nexus' tethers on Jim's web pages. (BTW, I found his pages on boat preparation for the Worrell 1000 to be very illustrative through the liberal use of good quality photos.) The bungee inside of webbing seems like it would work well, both for taking up some of the slack, and, perhaps more importantly, for absorbing the shock of a departing sailor.

Kevin,
I experienced separation anxiety this summer during OCRA's "Round the Bay distance race on Maumee Bay near Toledo. I was sailing my new (to me) Taipan 4.9 as a Unirig in winds averaging close to 30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph based on data from a buoy. (Didn't know it at the time.) Part way through the race, both of my rudders kicked up simultaneously. I am not sure what I may have hit, but neither rudder showed any damage. Not having the gorilla arms needed to sail with the rudders up, I pointed the boat into the wind, let the main loose and started to work on getting the rudders down. While distracted by this, I manage to capsize the boat. No problem...I right the boat on the first try and while trying to get back on, it goes over again and I lose my grip on it. Time stands still....the boat does not. I contemplate my options as my boat drifts away. I have a cell phone in a waterproof bag but opt to use the required rescue whistle. An alert Hobie 16 crew (Matt & Laurie Bounds) notices that there is no one in the vicinity of the T4.9(now about 100 yards away) and they hear my whistle at about the same time. Just as I set my butt down on their tramp, I look up in time to see a Coast Guard rescue boat blasting across the waves. All hopes for a discrete exit from this situation are flushed as they head directly for my boat. It turns out a freighter heading out of the shipping channel had seen my swimming lesson and called the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was extremely helpful and patient as I dropped the sail and untangled lines. They towed me in, gave me a ride back to get my trailer and helped me get the boat back on the trailer. I was very thankful for all their assistance, although having my boat on display on the Coast Guard station lawn was not exactly what I had planned that day.

Matt & Laurie Bounds won the race after assisting me and rumor has it that they got some environmental award for pulling trash out of Maumee Bay. You can read about it at www.sailocra.com I am very thankful for the assistance by all parties involved.

P.S. I will never sail a distance race without that whistle (& a marine radio).

Bill Moran
T4.9 #224

Bill,

Thanks for sharing the story. I've had occasions where my crew have let go of the boat and left me drifting away and forced to right it solo. Must be a helpless feeling to watch the boat drift away with no one aboard.

[color:"green"]> I will never sail a distance race without that whistle (& a marine radio).[/color]

I've often wondered how far a 5-watt VHF can reach from a height of six inches above the water. Given that the transmitters are line of sight, you can count on only a few miles of range from 3-feet above the water. That range is likely to be diminished considerably when calling from a swimming position, particularly if the waves are up. Someday I might test it out.

I was crewing around texel in 1998, out on the wire eating a mars bar when the hook sheared away from the plate on my harness. Luckily I managed to keep hold of the jib sheets and so was not completely seperated from the boat, we soon got back up and running again after swapping harnesses.

With most mishaps you get some sort of warning (even a pitchpoll happens relatively slowly) but with this one I went from happily sailing along to being in the water in a split second.

I've never considered tethering isn't this just one more thing to get caught around the rigging if the boat turns turtle?

grob,

Prior to my experience, I had asked quite a few people about using a tether and the general sentiment was similar to your response. The tether had potential to cause more harm than good.

Bill Moran
T4.9 #224

Hi Grob



Agree on the tether though if you check the Lexus Nexus Worrell team web site you will see there preference for one along with others . It is also in Worrell 1000 rules that safety lines must be aboard . --I don,t use them for reasons described ,-but always --always stay hooked up to the trap line , --particularly night legs .
Many good teams use a safety line which holds them in place in high winds and seas . Last year during the Hatteras leg in high winds steep seas boats flipping everywhere we stayed right with the lead boat because of having a similar safety line for and aft system to hold you in place on the wire.
Boats were snapping masts ,stuffing bows , really nasty leg with chutes up much of the time , but just surviving huge gusts as they hit . -On the wire from Hatteras almost to Orgegon inlet -50 miles .Rough tiring racing day .
Some add 2 small cleats on their harness with a for and aft line from the sterns to front crossbeam with slack and bungie cord inside the beam to retract extra line. The safety line may be attached to at needed locations being adjustable on the cleats attached to the harness.
The danger is if capsized and not released you will be suspended off the upper hull ,-or if turtled attached to the side . All sailors that use this system keep a good knife in a pocket sewn into their life jacket or similar easily reached location . All should carry one anyway .
Brian and Jamie ,--winners of the last two Worrell 1000s use this type of system and are some of the very best heavy weather sailors . --Recall them flipping in a night leg and Jamie being caught up on the high hull .---They still won the leg of the race . These guys are good!!

Working on removing the hook from the harness and just using a carabingers to hook into the trap and safety lines ,-one at each end .trap and replacement for trap dogbone.
Will test it in other distance racing first .

Hope this helps -
Happy to see a U K team back again in the 03 Worrell
Happy Holidays
Carl
Brighton MI -US

grob....

The tether we use do not pose to much problems..With a big snap shackle and pull on it it is very easy to get out of. As for falling off a cat at full speed it's not so bad. The boat stops in under 2 seconds.

I had someone fall a laser at night in a marina once and it was very scary trying to find them in 2 knots of wind in the dark in flat water.

We also saw two boats in last years worrell team fully involved, and athletes in action seperate for the boat. Team FI flipped just to weather of us there mast almost hitting our leward hull. Mark was away from the boat for some time with lots of shrimp boats around which poses a different set of problems. Chris had his trap handle break and fell in with the main wraped around his hand. This caused enough injury to force him to retire from the race.

I find more comfort using them when there is no other boats around or when you get far enough offshore that you would not be able to swim in...Swiming in a drysuit with all the worrell gear on is a serious pain. It is easier to survive on a floating boat then along.

JIM