[Alberg30] Alberg 30 #57: What a Ride!

[Melissa Currier]

The Dancing Bear had to retire from Screwpile before the race Tuesday AM
because of a broken gooseneck (probably from the broach the day before).
And CB couldn't come down until Wednesday, so Ed and Mary (novice and
beginner from the Dancing Bear crew) agreed to help me sail the Alberg
back a day early.

A squall came through with little to no warning just after we passed
Sharpes Island Light.  We saw 15-20 minutes of sustained winds 40-50 KNOTS
(we found this out later from other besieged boats with wind instruments).
 We had NO warning and we still had the main and the chute up.  I just
looked back and saw these huge rollers getting sheered to spray... The
chute got hopelessly wrapped around the headstay in a whoop-di-do shift
before the blast.  The chute had just enough windage to keep us from
getting stearn or head to wind, which we definitely needed to do.  And we
were taking huge rollers generally from the windward side so timing any
kind of maneuver with the rudder in the water intermitantly was tricky. 
We were reaching across the Bay with the rail and cabin ports in green
water and holding on for dear life.  Trimming just enough keep the boom
out of the water when possible.

Our main halyard was on the leeward side of the mast, not on the cabin-top
so I couldn't risk sending Ed forward to try to dump it.  And there was
just no way to reef -- it was wa-ay too late for that.

I had a Plan B in my head... if we couldn't correct course and gain
control by the time we got to the far side of the channel, we would get to
the foredeck and rig up our biggest anchor, drop it with full road (110
ft.) and hope it would catch at 30 or fewer feet and round us up to get
the main down. That would have been a rough ride, and luckily it didn't
get to that.

Thank God we were pretty far to the East got sent to the West when this
all happened so we weren't in danger of running into anything (like a
shore).  I had site of a red channel marker off the bow, so were not
quite to Pan B territory.

When the wind came down to under 30, we were finally able to trim through
a jibe and get back to within 20 degrees of our heading to Thomas Point
and
flatten the boat out a bit.  And, once that happened the exposed part of
the spinaker was enough behind the mainsail and depowered enough to
unwrap itself, which of course knocked us down again, but then put us in a
position to get the spinaker down on the very wet leeward side behind the
main.

I had lashed the spin sheet and guy to the cleats foredeck earlier (when
it was hopelessy wrapped, hoping to reduce windage as much as possible),
so Ed
had to go forward to release the leeward one, while Mary had to hold
herself on the very wet leeward side to help gather in the foot of the
sail.  Ed was able to get to the low side of the mast and release the
halyard and then get back to the fordeck to bring the chute into the
forward hatch and finally uncleat the windward sheet.

With the spinaker down and out of the mix, we were able to reclaim the
jib halyard (which the spinaker was occupying; the spin halyard block at the
top of the mast blew out on Friday on the race down).  So Ed was able to
get the storm blade rerigged and ready to go in case we did have to drop the
main altogether.

The wind came down steadily after that, so we were just rolling home on
6-8 foot rollers on the stearn in breeze ranging from 10-20.  Even with
the detour "to the left", we made it home in less than 9 hours, which
is a pretty fast trip in an Alberg from Solomons.

A thunderstorm was filling behind us as we passed the South River
(spectacular horizontal lightning) and I could see black sky and hear
thunder from the general direction of Fort Meade.  NOT AGAIN!!! We
rounded Thomas Point and 1AH just in time to sail into the harbor between
the two storms, which were obviously heading East (whew).  Our instruments
blipped on a couple of the close strikes and we had some rain and some
nasty southerly puffs, but Ed was awesome trimming the main and keeping
the boat fairly flat and helm the reasonable.  We came up into the wind and
landed on the outside wall of SSA.  CB, Peter Hamm & Jack, Steve Voorhis,
and Dave Sliom were there to catch us on the light landing.

The Dancing Bear had been motor sailing about an hour ahead of us with an
old #1 up.  It was completely shredded when the squall came through.  One
J105 was dismasted.  And several of the other J105s made ribbons of the
asyms they were flying.

WHEW!!!  It was a harrowing ride.  I have new-found and renewed respect
for the Alberg as a superior heavy weather boat.  AND the fact that the
Main and the spinaker survived with only a couple of pulls and pin holes
affords Haarstick some SERIOUS kudos.

I STILL have that post roller coaster YAHOO thing going on. Beer and Bed
have NEVER looked so good!

Melissa Currier
Alberg 30 #57, Infinity


 +---------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                This Old Boat by Don Casey                     |
 | http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071579931/alberg30-20 |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------+

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