The Saga of the Wayward Laser

David OHara

It was s'posed to be a quiet fun day at the yacht club where my 9
year old Katie could fish from the dock and my 15 year old son could
rig and sail the club's 14' Laser sailboat. The Laser had not been
rigged or sailed for years and I had bought many new parts so Nick and
his friend Austin were excited about this. After awhile we got her
rigged and they took off. With the wind blowing from the NE, I thought
they would take forever to tack windward down the E-W running canal so
I began fishing with Katie. After about 20 minutes, I looked up and
the Laser was nowhere in sight down the canal so I went upstairs on the
back deck of the club and saw them most of the way down the canal
toward where it turns to go out to open water.
I ran all the way down the docks so I could yell to them to not go far
from shore and try not to go into open water and then went back to
fishing with Katie. About a half hour later, I suddenly realized I was
expecting too much from my son who is always tempted to do adventurous
things but exhibits little judgment. I suddenly decided that I should
get aboard my 28' sailboat "Ragtime" and go tow them back as I
thought they would have trouble even if they had just gone down one of
the other canals, after all, the wind was clocking around to the east.
Motoring past the other canal entrances we saw no sign of their sail
but as we turned into the small bay formed by Walker Creek we saw their
sail at least ¼ mile off the beach and far into the shallows. The
sail was billowing uselessly and they were clearly drifting to the SW.
Our channel hugs the beach going to the west and after ¼ mile it
turns 90 degrees and goes straight south for a half mile before it is
deep enough to sail. It was obvious that eventually they would drift
over the channel so I went to intercept them.
Eventually, they did drift across the channel and I made several
failed attempts to toss a rope. It was blowing about 18 knots so I had
to steer and throw at the same time. Finally, they were about to drift
all the way across and into shallows that are miles wide where I could
not rescue them with Ragtime so I decided to cut them off from the
shallow water. They were still in the channel so this was perfectly
reasonable. It would be reasonable most other places except that
around here channel markers do not indicate deep water; they indicate
that somebody at some time had gone there and not gone aground,
probably years ago before many hurricanes. As Austin finally caught
the rope, I went aground. Going aground is a normal thing for me and
usually I simply put the engine in reverse and power off but I had wait
for them to tie the rope to the mast so by this time I was hard
aground. No amount of forward or reverse power or heeling the boat
would get us off. I even got into the water which was waist deep to
try to push her off but with the wind it was no-go. I got the boys
aboard Ragtime and began to wait.
I called my wife with the cell phone and with the terrible signal at
Shell Point I finally got her to look up the time of high tide, about
1:00 am in the morning and it was only 5:00 pm. Looking at an oyster
on a piling through the binocs I could see that the tide was still
falling just a little so it would be at least 3 hours before we could
float off. Also with the bincos I could see a power boat in the
distance coming in from the open gulf so I had Nick rig a rope to the
bow cleat to be ready to throw.
The two guys on the powerboat were willing to try to pull us off but
insisted on using two of my jib sheets tied together for length; I have
no idea why they needed such length. I was never able to really get
the idea to them to pull perpendicular to my boats axis toward deep
water so Ragtime would pivot on her keel and instead they tried to pull
her straight ahead which failed. By this time, Randy Armstrong, a
former sailor had arrived with his powerboat and agreed to try and he
did know to pull the right way and soon we were free.
I called my wife to tell here we were on our way in. We continued to
tow the LASER with sail up flopping uselessly and harmlessly in the
breeze because we would have to take down the mast to take the sail off
(the mast goes through a sleeve). As we were going around the point
into Walker Creek where it is very shallow, I hear a CRASH...SPLASH
from behind and momentarily didn't want to look behind. When I did,
I saw that the mainsheet of the LASER had jammed and a sudden gust had
caught her sideways and sent her over. Of course, the wind was rapidly
pushing us towards shallow water so I had to continue pulling the Laser
till I was beyond the shallows. Unfortunately, this caused the Laser
daggerboard to separate and begin floating toward shallow water so I
turned to head it off before it could reach the shallows.
Unfortunately, the tide by now was very low and I felt Ragtime hit
bottom again so I instinctively put her in reverse........BIG MISTAKE.
I forgot the Laser was still drifting down on us with her sail and
rigging in the water. A loud CLUNK reminded me and I quickly put
Ragtime in neutral but looking over the transom I could see the Laser
mast and sail beneath my rudder.
MY GOD, What to do? I had Nick drop the anchor so we couldn't drift
any further into the shallows and stood on the boarding ladder to
think. Eventually, I stepped off into waist deep water onto a hard
sand bottom so at least I had good footing. Slowly I took apart the
Laser rigging, boom and mast which all went onto Ragtime's deck
revealing that the Laser sail was wrapped round my prop. It was
actually easy to get it off but there is a hole in the sail. I tied
the Laser mainsheet to the bow eye of the Laser and the other end to my
stern cleat (I couldn't do this earlier cuz I didn't want the boys
going onto the Laser bow in the chop). I managed to push Ragtime into
deep water and Nick hauled the anchor. We motored in more and suddenly
hit bottom again. For those of you not familiar with the Shell Point
"channels", this is normal at low tide. I had to power over this
shoal spot but the Laser tiller decided to snag a piling but I'd had
enough so gave Ragtime power and pulled free even though it looked like
the tiller snapped off.
A little further along, another SPLASH and I turned, shocked to see
the Laser upside down. I have no idea how this happened but decided to
tow her in the rest of the way like this and she towed far better
upside down than right-side up. Several people on their boats looked
puzzled as we motored down our canal but I wouldn't say anything.
As we came into our slip, the boys decided to redeem themselves by
being helpful with the two boat hooks. Normally, I just step over onto
the dock and stop Ragtime from ramming the dock with residual inertia
but the boys had both decided to be helpful by pushing off from the
dock just as I stepped over. It was only superhuman strength from
anger and frustration that enabled me to pull her toward the dock with
the toes on one foot so I didn't fall in.
I had the boys pull the Laser up onto the dock while I tied up
Ragtime. Amazingly, I found the tiller intact. They were to carry the
Laser about 100' down the dock to an empty spot on the dinghy dock.
Suddenly I hear Nick curse and a crash. Nick carrying the bow had
managed to trip over a cleat with the Laser falling onto his leg. By
this time, I couldn't find any sympathy even if he had broken a leg
(he was ok) but I did tell them to put the Laser into the first spot
they came to which was not correct. I was afraid to do any more for
fear of more disasters which is why it is now in the wrong place.
We got in the car and I had the boys search the point for the
daggerboard which they found.

Final Toll:

1 old jib sheet cut when the first powerboater couldn't untie it.
1 20 year old Laser sail with a hole in it
Dings on my prop from hitting the Laser mast
Contents of my wallet soaking wet ( I always forget to remove I first)
After 20 yrs of sailing, I had to ask to be towed off a shoal.

My thanks to Randy Armstrong and his friend and the other powerboat.

David OHara
"Ragtime"

Sounds like the keystone cops learn to sail... Not to be mean...but
this made my day... hysterical.

On 2006-04-09 23:33:31 -0400, "
said:

The Saga of the Wayward Laser

David OHara

It was s'posed to be a quiet fun day at the yacht club where my 9
year old Katie could fish from the dock and my 15 year old son could
rig and sail the club's 14' Laser sailboat. The Laser had not been
rigged or sailed for years and I had bought many new parts so Nick and
his friend Austin were excited about this. After awhile we got her
rigged and they took off. With the wind blowing from the NE, I thought
they would take forever to tack windward down the E-W running canal so
I began fishing with Katie. After about 20 minutes, I looked up and
the Laser was nowhere in sight down the canal so I went upstairs on the
back deck of the club and saw them most of the way down the canal
toward where it turns to go out to open water.
I ran all the way down the docks so I could yell to them to not go far
from shore and try not to go into open water and then went back to
fishing with Katie. About a half hour later, I suddenly realized I was
expecting too much from my son who is always tempted to do adventurous
things but exhibits little judgment. I suddenly decided that I should
get aboard my 28' sailboat "Ragtime" and go tow them back as I
thought they would have trouble even if they had just gone down one of
the other canals, after all, the wind was clocking around to the east.
Motoring past the other canal entrances we saw no sign of their sail
but as we turned into the small bay formed by Walker Creek we saw their
sail at least ¼ mile off the beach and far into the shallows. The
sail was billowing uselessly and they were clearly drifting to the SW.
Our channel hugs the beach going to the west and after ¼ mile it
turns 90 degrees and goes straight south for a half mile before it is
deep enough to sail. It was obvious that eventually they would drift
over the channel so I went to intercept them.
Eventually, they did drift across the channel and I made several
failed attempts to toss a rope. It was blowing about 18 knots so I had
to steer and throw at the same time. Finally, they were about to drift
all the way across and into shallows that are miles wide where I could
not rescue them with Ragtime so I decided to cut them off from the
shallow water. They were still in the channel so this was perfectly
reasonable. It would be reasonable most other places except that
around here channel markers do not indicate deep water; they indicate
that somebody at some time had gone there and not gone aground,
probably years ago before many hurricanes. As Austin finally caught
the rope, I went aground. Going aground is a normal thing for me and
usually I simply put the engine in reverse and power off but I had wait
for them to tie the rope to the mast so by this time I was hard
aground. No amount of forward or reverse power or heeling the boat
would get us off. I even got into the water which was waist deep to
try to push her off but with the wind it was no-go. I got the boys
aboard Ragtime and began to wait.
I called my wife with the cell phone and with the terrible signal at
Shell Point I finally got her to look up the time of high tide, about
1:00 am in the morning and it was only 5:00 pm. Looking at an oyster
on a piling through the binocs I could see that the tide was still
falling just a little so it would be at least 3 hours before we could
float off. Also with the bincos I could see a power boat in the
distance coming in from the open gulf so I had Nick rig a rope to the
bow cleat to be ready to throw.
The two guys on the powerboat were willing to try to pull us off but
insisted on using two of my jib sheets tied together for length; I have
no idea why they needed such length. I was never able to really get
the idea to them to pull perpendicular to my boats axis toward deep
water so Ragtime would pivot on her keel and instead they tried to pull
her straight ahead which failed. By this time, Randy Armstrong, a
former sailor had arrived with his powerboat and agreed to try and he
did know to pull the right way and soon we were free.
I called my wife to tell here we were on our way in. We continued to
tow the LASER with sail up flopping uselessly and harmlessly in the
breeze because we would have to take down the mast to take the sail off
(the mast goes through a sleeve). As we were going around the point
into Walker Creek where it is very shallow, I hear a CRASH...SPLASH
from behind and momentarily didn't want to look behind. When I did,
I saw that the mainsheet of the LASER had jammed and a sudden gust had
caught her sideways and sent her over. Of course, the wind was rapidly
pushing us towards shallow water so I had to continue pulling the Laser
till I was beyond the shallows. Unfortunately, this caused the Laser
daggerboard to separate and begin floating toward shallow water so I
turned to head it off before it could reach the shallows.
Unfortunately, the tide by now was very low and I felt Ragtime hit
bottom again so I instinctively put her in reverse........BIG MISTAKE.
I forgot the Laser was still drifting down on us with her sail and
rigging in the water. A loud CLUNK reminded me and I quickly put
Ragtime in neutral but looking over the transom I could see the Laser
mast and sail beneath my rudder.
MY GOD, What to do? I had Nick drop the anchor so we couldn't drift
any further into the shallows and stood on the boarding ladder to
think. Eventually, I stepped off into waist deep water onto a hard
sand bottom so at least I had good footing. Slowly I took apart the
Laser rigging, boom and mast which all went onto Ragtime's deck
revealing that the Laser sail was wrapped round my prop. It was
actually easy to get it off but there is a hole in the sail. I tied
the Laser mainsheet to the bow eye of the Laser and the other end to my
stern cleat (I couldn't do this earlier cuz I didn't want the boys
going onto the Laser bow in the chop). I managed to push Ragtime into
deep water and Nick hauled the anchor. We motored in more and suddenly
hit bottom again. For those of you not familiar with the Shell Point
"channels", this is normal at low tide. I had to power over this
shoal spot but the Laser tiller decided to snag a piling but I'd had
enough so gave Ragtime power and pulled free even though it looked like
the tiller snapped off.
A little further along, another SPLASH and I turned, shocked to see
the Laser upside down. I have no idea how this happened but decided to
tow her in the rest of the way like this and she towed far better
upside down than right-side up. Several people on their boats looked
puzzled as we motored down our canal but I wouldn't say anything.
As we came into our slip, the boys decided to redeem themselves by
being helpful with the two boat hooks. Normally, I just step over onto
the dock and stop Ragtime from ramming the dock with residual inertia
but the boys had both decided to be helpful by pushing off from the
dock just as I stepped over. It was only superhuman strength from
anger and frustration that enabled me to pull her toward the dock with
the toes on one foot so I didn't fall in.
I had the boys pull the Laser up onto the dock while I tied up
Ragtime. Amazingly, I found the tiller intact. They were to carry the
Laser about 100' down the dock to an empty spot on the dinghy dock.
Suddenly I hear Nick curse and a crash. Nick carrying the bow had
managed to trip over a cleat with the Laser falling onto his leg. By
this time, I couldn't find any sympathy even if he had broken a leg
(he was ok) but I did tell them to put the Laser into the first spot
they came to which was not correct. I was afraid to do any more for
fear of more disasters which is why it is now in the wrong place.
We got in the car and I had the boys search the point for the
daggerboard which they found.

Final Toll:

1 old jib sheet cut when the first powerboater couldn't untie it.
1 20 year old Laser sail with a hole in it
Dings on my prop from hitting the Laser mast
Contents of my wallet soaking wet ( I always forget to remove I first)
After 20 yrs of sailing, I had to ask to be towed off a shoal.

My thanks to Randy Armstrong and his friend and the other powerboat.

David OHara
"Ragtime"

wrote:
The Saga of the Wayward Laser

David OHara

It was s'posed to be a quiet fun day at the yacht club where my 9
year old Katie could fish from the dock and my 15 year old son could
rig and sail the club's 14' Laser sailboat.

Hmm... problem, trying to keep an eye on 2 kids at once.

... The Laser had not been
rigged or sailed for years and I had bought many new parts so Nick and
his friend Austin were excited about this.

That shows you've been doing a good job with them. The Laser
will be a lot more exciting for them than the Minicup.
However 18 knots is a *lot* of wind for learning to sail
this boat. It's not surprising they had some trouble. I hope
this won't turn them off sailing.



Eventually, they did drift across the channel and I made several
failed attempts to toss a rope.

You should have come alongside to windward of them and
grabbed their mast. There are many things that can go wrong
trying to throw a tow rope, unless both parties are trained
it never works. For example, if he had caught the rop but
not been far enough forward on the Laser, the tension on the
tow rope would have either pulled him off the boat or pulled
the boat over (capsized).

In fact, it may have been easier to get the boats together
if he had simply capsized and waited for you. Capsizing is
no big deal in a Laser and it makes the boat hold still (for
a change).


..... As Austin finally caught
the rope, I went aground. Going aground is a normal thing for me and
usually I simply put the engine in reverse and power off but I had wait
for them to tie the rope to the mast so by this time I was hard
aground. No amount of forward or reverse power or heeling the boat
would get us off. I even got into the water which was waist deep to
try to push her off but with the wind it was no-go. I got the boys
aboard Ragtime and began to wait.

No possibility to kedge off?


I called my wife with the cell phone and with the terrible signal at
Shell Point I finally got her to look up the time of high tide, about
1:00 am in the morning

No tide table aboard the boat?


The two guys on the powerboat were willing to try to pull us off but
insisted on using two of my jib sheets tied together for length; I have
no idea why they needed such length.

Maybe they were worried about shallow water.

It's very very rare to encounter a random passing passing
motorboater who is skilled & capable of rendering
assistance. More likely they will damage your boat & shrug
before heading on their way again. And allowing them to
direct a towing attempt was not smart... the thing to do is
get them to come alongside where you can talk clearly and
explain in simple terms exactly what you want them to do.

The usual scenario is a lot of shouting back & forth in the
wind, with the result that neither party is sure what the
other is going to do... a mess.


.... By this time, Randy Armstrong, a
former sailor had arrived with his powerboat and agreed to try and he
did know to pull the right way and soon we were free.

Amazing how easy it is when you know how.


I called my wife to tell here we were on our way in. We continued to
tow the LASER with sail up flopping uselessly and harmlessly in the
breeze because we would have to take down the mast to take the sail off
(the mast goes through a sleeve).

And why didn't you do this? It would have been a PITA but
less so than what happened in the end. A small unballasted
dinghy with no person aboard for ballast will flip easily,
and a Laser is one of the least stable small racing-class boats.



I had the boys pull the Laser up onto the dock while I tied up
Ragtime. Amazingly, I found the tiller intact. They were to carry the
Laser about 100' down the dock to an empty spot on the dinghy dock.
Suddenly I hear Nick curse and a crash. Nick carrying the bow had
managed to trip over a cleat with the Laser falling onto his leg. By
this time, I couldn't find any sympathy even if he had broken a leg
(he was ok)

OUCH... I've done that. It hurts like hell and also makes
you feel really stupid.

Sounds like you were not familiar with some of the problems
of the seamanship of small tippy boats. Most sailing clubs
with junior programs & Lasers deal with this kind of thing
all the time, with no damage. It's just a question of
knowing what works.


.... I was afraid to do any more for
fear of more disasters which is why it is now in the wrong place.

It sounds like by that time, everything was turning into a
disaster. The worst kind of snowball effect. When events
start going wrong & cascading, you don't have time to think
thru each problems in succession.

I hope the boys aren't discouraged from sailing by this,
that would be the worst consequence. And that Laser probably
needed a new sail anyway.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

I tried not to blame them too much as I think they did have a good time
until they realized they had screwed up by going out in open water and
I do want them to sail more.
You are correct, we have never sailed a Laser or towed small boats.
In 20years of sailing and running aground nearly every day I go out
(normal for these parts), I have never needed to be towed off so I had
no idea of what the concerns of the towing boat might be. As far as
kedging off, I had my nesting dinghy on deck but had left the dock so
quickly I had left the oars behind so was unable to set anchor to pull
off. This was going to be what I was going to have the power boat do
if towing off didnt work.
I think the MiniCups may have given my son ( a known risk taker, unlike
his dad) too much confidence.
BTW, the Laser was half filled with water when finally hoisted onto the
dock. I think the mast step may be cracked. This Laser has not been
sailed in 10 yrs at least and I had to replace all of its hardware.
So, after looking over the torn sail, I will try to find a used one on
e-bay.
In retrospect, I get a good laugh out of the fiasco and tell my son
that it is the fiascoes we remember with fondness years later, nobody
remembers the perfect trips. Fortunately, the water felt nice, not
cold.

Thanks Doug.

wrote:
I tried not to blame them too much as I think they did have a good time
until they realized they had screwed up by going out in open water and
I do want them to sail more.

At least they realized they screwed up.

It also sounds like the boat may have been partly to blame,
if the hull had a lot of water sloshing around inside, that
would seriously reduce it's stability and would also make it
steer oddly.


You are correct, we have never sailed a Laser or towed small boats.

It's kind of a specialized sub-set of sailing, and
generalizing small boat skills to big boats works pretty
well, unfortunately it doesn't go the other way!

In 20years of sailing and running aground nearly every day I go out
(normal for these parts), I have never needed to be towed off so I had
no idea of what the concerns of the towing boat might be.

My concern isn't just towing but any sort of assistance...
MOB recovery, capsize, towing etc etc. A friend of mine was
killed by a speedboater who had no clue what he was doing,
and I've come closer than I like to think about a few times.

OTOH I should acknowledge that many years ago, a speedboat
with some skiiers happened by on a windy day when a friend
and I had (thru our own stubbornness) broken a key part of
our racing class dinghy and could not recover. This boat
stopped & asked if they could help, and I asked them if one
of them would be willing swim over to our boat and lend a
little muscle to get the rig set back up. Yes and yes and we
went on to participate in a race later that day. Thank you
folks, wherever you are.

But I have also had motorboats try to help with rescues,
including a wildlife officer one time, who were a big hazard
themselves. A few years back, on a sunny spring day, some
friends and I were sailing & by chance one of us had a
wetsuit on. A young couple with a daysailer capsized and
could not right the boat. The water was cold and several
motorboats were trying to help but not accomplishing
anything. I sailed up, asked them to get out of the way, had
a brief argument (hampered by the rising wind) with the
wildlife officer which was settled by him backing up to
prevent me from coming alongside (he thought I was trying to
ram him, and became quite agitated). We pulled the lady out
of the water, she was freezing. One of my crew jumped in to
help right the other boat (I offered to go myself), which it
turned out not only had water in it (inside the double hull,
like that Laser) but a broken centerboard pivot. With a
little more weight & properly applied muscle, the boat was
pulled rightside up again with a brif pause at 90 degrees to
get the mainsail down. They sailed in under jib, all ended well.



I think the MiniCups may have given my son ( a known risk taker, unlike
his dad) too much confidence.

The Laser has a lot more horsepower (and it's total blast)
but it also has some quirks like catching the mainsheet
under the transom corner.


BTW, the Laser was half filled with water when finally hoisted onto the
dock. I think the mast step may be cracked.

That happens... it's fixable though.

... This Laser has not been
sailed in 10 yrs at least and I had to replace all of its hardware.
So, after looking over the torn sail, I will try to find a used one on
e-bay.

It may be cheapest to just buy a 2nd hand one in sailable
condition.


In retrospect, I get a good laugh out of the fiasco and tell my son
that it is the fiascoes we remember with fondness years later, nobody
remembers the perfect trips.

Oh I remember the good ones, don't think I've ever had a
perfect one... but you're right, the fiascoes tend to stick
with us... scar tissue and all that... lessons learned!

... Fortunately, the water felt nice, not
cold.


And that's a good thing. Cold water is a bigger hazard than
many people realize.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

DSK wrote:
snip..

My concern isn't just towing but any sort of assistance... MOB recovery,
capsize, towing etc etc. A friend of mine was killed by a speedboater
who had no clue what he was doing, and I've come closer than I like to
think about a few times.

snip..

My youngest sister's boyfriend lost a brother-in-law that way.
The guy was water skiiing and fell down. the speedboat driver whipped
around and headed back to him.....ran him over and chewed him up in the
prop.

wrote in message
oups.com...
The Saga of the Wayward Laser

David OHara

It was s'posed to be a quiet fun day at the yacht club where my 9
year old Katie could fish from the dock and my 15 year old son could
rig and sail the club's 14' Laser sailboat. The Laser had not been
rigged or sailed for years and I had bought many new parts so Nick and
his friend Austin were excited about this. After awhile we got her
rigged and they took off. With the wind blowing from the NE, I thought
they would take forever to tack windward down the E-W running canal so
I began fishing with Katie. After about 20 minutes, I looked up and
the Laser was nowhere in sight down the canal so I went upstairs on the
back deck of the club and saw them most of the way down the canal
toward where it turns to go out to open water.
I ran all the way down the docks so I could yell to them to not go far
from shore and try not to go into open water and then went back to
fishing with Katie. About a half hour later, I suddenly realized I was
expecting too much from my son who is always tempted to do adventurous
things but exhibits little judgment. I suddenly decided that I should
get aboard my 28' sailboat "Ragtime" and go tow them back as I
thought they would have trouble even if they had just gone down one of
the other canals, after all, the wind was clocking around to the east.
Motoring past the other canal entrances we saw no sign of their sail
but as we turned into the small bay formed by Walker Creek we saw their
sail at least ¼ mile off the beach and far into the shallows. The
sail was billowing uselessly and they were clearly drifting to the SW.
Our channel hugs the beach going to the west and after ¼ mile it
turns 90 degrees and goes straight south for a half mile before it is
deep enough to sail. It was obvious that eventually they would drift
over the channel so I went to intercept them.
Eventually, they did drift across the channel and I made several
failed attempts to toss a rope. It was blowing about 18 knots so I had
to steer and throw at the same time. Finally, they were about to drift
all the way across and into shallows that are miles wide where I could
not rescue them with Ragtime so I decided to cut them off from the
shallow water. They were still in the channel so this was perfectly
reasonable. It would be reasonable most other places except that
around here channel markers do not indicate deep water; they indicate
that somebody at some time had gone there and not gone aground,
probably years ago before many hurricanes. As Austin finally caught
the rope, I went aground. Going aground is a normal thing for me and
usually I simply put the engine in reverse and power off but I had wait
for them to tie the rope to the mast so by this time I was hard
aground. No amount of forward or reverse power or heeling the boat
would get us off. I even got into the water which was waist deep to
try to push her off but with the wind it was no-go. I got the boys
aboard Ragtime and began to wait.
I called my wife with the cell phone and with the terrible signal at
Shell Point I finally got her to look up the time of high tide, about
1:00 am in the morning and it was only 5:00 pm. Looking at an oyster
on a piling through the binocs I could see that the tide was still
falling just a little so it would be at least 3 hours before we could
float off. Also with the bincos I could see a power boat in the
distance coming in from the open gulf so I had Nick rig a rope to the
bow cleat to be ready to throw.
The two guys on the powerboat were willing to try to pull us off but
insisted on using two of my jib sheets tied together for length; I have
no idea why they needed such length. I was never able to really get
the idea to them to pull perpendicular to my boats axis toward deep
water so Ragtime would pivot on her keel and instead they tried to pull
her straight ahead which failed. By this time, Randy Armstrong, a
former sailor had arrived with his powerboat and agreed to try and he
did know to pull the right way and soon we were free.
I called my wife to tell here we were on our way in. We continued to
tow the LASER with sail up flopping uselessly and harmlessly in the
breeze because we would have to take down the mast to take the sail off
(the mast goes through a sleeve). As we were going around the point
into Walker Creek where it is very shallow, I hear a CRASH...SPLASH
from behind and momentarily didn't want to look behind. When I did,
I saw that the mainsheet of the LASER had jammed and a sudden gust had
caught her sideways and sent her over. Of course, the wind was rapidly
pushing us towards shallow water so I had to continue pulling the Laser
till I was beyond the shallows. Unfortunately, this caused the Laser
daggerboard to separate and begin floating toward shallow water so I
turned to head it off before it could reach the shallows.
Unfortunately, the tide by now was very low and I felt Ragtime hit
bottom again so I instinctively put her in reverse........BIG MISTAKE.
I forgot the Laser was still drifting down on us with her sail and
rigging in the water. A loud CLUNK reminded me and I quickly put
Ragtime in neutral but looking over the transom I could see the Laser
mast and sail beneath my rudder.
MY GOD, What to do? I had Nick drop the anchor so we couldn't drift
any further into the shallows and stood on the boarding ladder to
think. Eventually, I stepped off into waist deep water onto a hard
sand bottom so at least I had good footing. Slowly I took apart the
Laser rigging, boom and mast which all went onto Ragtime's deck
revealing that the Laser sail was wrapped round my prop. It was
actually easy to get it off but there is a hole in the sail. I tied
the Laser mainsheet to the bow eye of the Laser and the other end to my
stern cleat (I couldn't do this earlier cuz I didn't want the boys
going onto the Laser bow in the chop). I managed to push Ragtime into
deep water and Nick hauled the anchor. We motored in more and suddenly
hit bottom again. For those of you not familiar with the Shell Point
"channels", this is normal at low tide. I had to power over this
shoal spot but the Laser tiller decided to snag a piling but I'd had
enough so gave Ragtime power and pulled free even though it looked like
the tiller snapped off.
A little further along, another SPLASH and I turned, shocked to see
the Laser upside down. I have no idea how this happened but decided to
tow her in the rest of the way like this and she towed far better
upside down than right-side up. Several people on their boats looked
puzzled as we motored down our canal but I wouldn't say anything.
As we came into our slip, the boys decided to redeem themselves by
being helpful with the two boat hooks. Normally, I just step over onto
the dock and stop Ragtime from ramming the dock with residual inertia
but the boys had both decided to be helpful by pushing off from the
dock just as I stepped over. It was only superhuman strength from
anger and frustration that enabled me to pull her toward the dock with
the toes on one foot so I didn't fall in.
I had the boys pull the Laser up onto the dock while I tied up
Ragtime. Amazingly, I found the tiller intact. They were to carry the
Laser about 100' down the dock to an empty spot on the dinghy dock.
Suddenly I hear Nick curse and a crash. Nick carrying the bow had
managed to trip over a cleat with the Laser falling onto his leg. By
this time, I couldn't find any sympathy even if he had broken a leg
(he was ok) but I did tell them to put the Laser into the first spot
they came to which was not correct. I was afraid to do any more for
fear of more disasters which is why it is now in the wrong place.
We got in the car and I had the boys search the point for the
daggerboard which they found.

Final Toll:

1 old jib sheet cut when the first powerboater couldn't untie it.
1 20 year old Laser sail with a hole in it
Dings on my prop from hitting the Laser mast
Contents of my wallet soaking wet ( I always forget to remove I first)
After 20 yrs of sailing, I had to ask to be towed off a shoal.

My thanks to Randy Armstrong and his friend and the other powerboat.

David OHara
"Ragtime"

===========================================

Sorry to read about the ordeal David. That was certainly not a nice way to
spend a day on the water/at the boat with your family.

However, look at the bright side................with this experience (in
which no one was killed or injured) came some positive lessons learned for
you, your son and daughter (and your son's friend). Almost priceless.

As you well know material things can be replaced............;-)