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