admin July 10, 2024 Sailing Previous Blog The sprint Race Comments (0)
This was our first outing in the Whaly as a Camera boat. It was Wednesday Evening out on the river for a three lap race involving A-Raters and a collection of all types of other boats in a handicap race. Not everything went to plan as we also became a rescue boat. Now you might have expected lots of video of the rescue, but I had my hands full holding onto the capsized boat to stop it capsizing again.
It was a good evening for sailing, the wind was not too strong and the weather was fine, nearly warm.
Before we set off, Race Control handed us a radio, just in case. We were a few hundred meters upstream from the club when we saw a boat capsize. The powerboat was at the other end of the course, so we headed toward the capsized craft. Then Race Control came over the radio to say, "Go and have a look."
I quickly cleared the decks, stowing the cameras out of the way in case we needed to haul the sailor aboard. We had a huge lead on the safety boat, so we arrived well before them. We asked if the sailor needed assistance, and he said yes.
Although he had righted the boat, it had capsized again, and the mast had dug into the riverbed. We pushed the boat, releasing the mast, and helped the sailor right the boat. I held onto the bow to prevent the boat from capsizing again.
I let down the front of the Whaly to allow easy recovery of the sail should he wish. The sailor couldn't haul himself into the phantom as the transom was too high, and he was too tired.
Since the boat had nearly drifted to the club, we towed the boat backwards to the jetty with the sailor hanging on to the transom. We reached the jetty in less than a minute and got the very wet sailor out of the water.
After the rescue we picked up a couple of passenger who wanted to go sailing but the wind was a bit strong, so they came out with Mark, Paul and I as we took a few more pictures of some of the boats finishing the races.
The national 12 was heeling all over the place with the crew leaning a long way out to balance the boat, and the A-Raters were cutting through the water leaving most of the other boat standing. Tara was out for the first time since she broke her forestay. Spindrift was also out on the water.
The A-Raters decided on doing some training. Paul has done some racing in Raters when he was at University so is still hoping to join one of the teams or buy one of the A-Raters when he can.
