Sail - July 2018

EXPERIENCE UNDER SAIL

PHOTO BY

JEFFREY MCCARTHY

could have actually furled the

headsail with the halyard still

tight in place...”

h at’s for sure.

“Nonetheless,” Derek recalls,

“we got the spinnaker halyard

hitched and tight very quickly.

Rieko and your dad know-

ing where all these halyards,

stoppers and corresponding

winches were was instrumen-

tal in this going smoothly and

ei ciently. Now we had to

clean up the mess. I wanted

to get the engine going so we

could have some steerage, but

we had to make sure nothing

was over the side, as a fouled

prop would just compound

the problem, so this became

the time to start identify-

ing the issues and working

through the solution.”

With the headsail of the

foil, I pulled the genoa halyard

forward to double the support

from masthead to bow. h at

done, I realized we also need-

ed to detach the forestay from

the stem i tting and shit it out

of the way so I could attach

the halyard to it. Trouble was the furling gear attachment was under

strain from the twisted forestay and wouldn’t budge. I knelt over it

with vice-grips and asked for a small hammer. My dad returned with

a hacksaw and a gleam in his eye like some eager Civil War surgeon.

Rieko was already standing by with an extra blade. “Easy folks,” I

said. “Let’s take this apart if we can, then hope someone else can put

it all back together.” I tapped aimlessly with the vice-grips on tightly

bound stainless steel, thinking I’d never been to Bermuda, but I’d

cruised enough to know that ordering parts from foreign ports was

no ticket to health or prosperity.

Prompted perhaps by my indecision with the tools, Derek took over

the logistics of disassembly—and a good thing too. h e topping lit even-

tually served to raise the busted stay amidships, at er which an extra line

held it in place while we separated the furling gear from the bow.

Derek recalls the details in fuller focus: “We got the sail bundled

up and sheets inboard and then shit ed the broken foil out over the

pulpit. h e foil had folded at a point maybe two-i t hs of the way up,

so there was a decent length of foil overhanging the bow. With every-

thing clear we started the engine and started driving forward. As we

did this, though, your dad pointed out [read, screamed and yelled!]

that the section of the foil overhanging the pulpit was catching in

the waves ahead of the boat and l exing badly, threatening to maybe

fold under us, so we backed of the throttle to idle to reassess the

situation. It was clear that we would have to get the folded foil farther

into the boat. Problem was that the foil was l exed badly against the

Repairs were

e ected swiftly

once in Bermuda