by Guest » Sat Jul 28, 2001 3:03 pm
I recently capsized my DS1 in Lake Macatawa which is connected to Lake Michigan. My six year old son and I were sailing over the 4th weekend and it was fairly gusty when we had just tacked and were in the process of getting up to speed when a gust hit us. With one hand one the jib sheet and one on the tiller I was a little slow in getting to the mainsheet. Too late. We were taking on a lot of water very fast, and the boat did not recover. We slowly went over with much assurance from me to my son that we were all right due to the fact we had on life jackets. We entered the water, took stock of things then went to the centerboard to attempt uprighting. No way. I weigh 155 lbs wet and it was not enough to get back over. I therefore started swimming my son 200 yds to shore. A vigilent homeowner saw our struggle and promptly called the coast guard who arrived shortly after we reached shore. After a few attempts at it, I let a heavier person from the Macatawa Yacht Club have a go. Along with the Guards power boat pulling with a line tied to the chainplate and standing on the centerboard, it came over, filled to the gunnels. The Guard pumped it out with a gas powered bilge pump in about 3 minutes. My son rejoined me and we sailed back to our mooring. We lost a few things but other than that it turned out okay. Fortunately the boat did not turtle due to the fact that we were in 16 feet of water. I also had some holes in the starboard bench tank that were not plugged so that during the 45 minutes it was over, it was filling with water, making sailing away impossible until the tank was emtied and bailed. Up until then it was a great day using my hiking straps made from 1 inch webbing run from the mast back to a strap mounted on inside of the stern, covered (partway) with pool noodles with a hole through the middle. They work great and are very cheap.
Rex Sheler
Michigan
Rex Sheler (signroute-at-aol.com)