It was a great sail until the main mast went over.

[What Exit?]

The environmental group I am in has Tuesday sails on a 26’ sprit rigged ketch, Tuckerton Bay Sailing Garvey.

We had a full boat last night including 3 kids on board. It was a great sail right up to the point where the mast went over. The wind was strong which is what caused the problem. The footing¹ broke and the mast was suddenly raked backwards to the port(left) side. No one got hurt thankfully.

I had the fun job of getting forward and sending our passengers back and then untying our knots and ensuring the sail got pulled in. We then tried to reseat the mast without the sail on it but the wreck of the footing was now in the way. So we got it as upright as possible and I used the halyard² to tie of the mast to the forward main cleat (or bit). The remaining footing was such as to keep it from falling starboard (right) so I was up on the front deck on the port side acting as an A-frame support for the mast.

We assessed the sail was not damaged and this is huge. We started to slowly row back in but we got a tow some good Samaritans from nearby.

As it is only wood working we can fix everything but not in the water and so we will have to pull the boat out. I believe we can still make the festival with ease and I have hopes we can make repairs and get back in for a fall sail season after the festival. The boat committee will need to pull the boat and get it back to probably my yard. We will need to remove at least half the front deck and see what it will take to replace the footing and make it stronger.

I also had the privilege of report this to the rest of the boat committee and the board of the directors for the group. This has been a terrible year for us so far. Our normal (donated) dock was destroyed in the winter. We had just finally got in the water 2 weeks ago and this was only our second sail. Another marina owner had been kind enough to donate us a shallow slip.

Small bit of irony, we tried a slightly new sail rig this year after 24 seasons the old way. A Tuckerton Bay Sailing Garvey has a centerboard³. The centerboard has a lift structure that we added to tabs to last year to help with rigging the boat. I realized these tabs could also be used to hold the block for the main sheet⁴. I used a fairly light but strong piece of line and comments were made about how tonight’s wind would test the line. So with strong winds we would have expected this new line to snap, we never expect the footing would break but then again this is our 25th season now and I guess it got old.

I was planning to make a small thread about the boat and the maintenance of it, I guess this will have to do instead. If you have any questions about the boat, sailing, terms I used or the group I will answer them. Overall this was a pretty said event and on top of it I got into a (verbal) fight with my wife when I got home and she had me looking at her dead radio in her minivan.

¹ The footing is the blocking at the base of the boat to keep the mast upright
² The halyard is the line (rope) use to raise the sail to the top of the mast.
³ A centerboard is a movable keel. It is basically a board in the center of the boat that can be raised and lowered. It allows us to draw only 8”-10” of water when it is up but keeps us from side slipping by putting it down in deeper water.
⁴ A block is a pulley and the sheet is the line or rope that controls the boom. The long horizontal stick the sail has as a bottom edge.

[Elendil's Heir]

Oh, jeez, sorry, What Exit! I'm glad no one was hurt. Hope you'll be able to make complete repairs and get her back out soon. Where's Scotty when you need him?

[hatesfreedom]

I'm a from a naval/merchant marine family and we all firmly believe that the ocean hates us and wants to kill us all. Good tale though, hope you guys get the repairs done in time.

[Sarahfeena]

Yikes! Glad no one was hurt.

[Oliveloaf]

I thought the subject line was from some lyrics.

[terrifel]

The legend lives on
from the Manhattanites on down,
of the waters of central New Jersey;

The bay, it is said,
never gives up her dead,
their feet shoed in concrete securely.

With a full pass'ger load
including three kids on board,
on the Tuckerton Bay Sailing Garvey;
that sprit-rigged ketch
was a stick to be fetched
when the winds of mid-August came early.

The ship was the pride
of the Shrewsbury side,
taking tours past the islets and levees;
as the old ketches go, she was greener than most,
with a crew of environmentalist hippies;

Hoping to to be best of all
at the Clearwater Festival
when they left fully loaded that evening;
and later that night, while the mast was still upright,
could it be a cracked foot they heard creaking?

The wind, it was strong; which is what caused the problem,
as the mast raked backward to portside,
and everyone knew, as What Exit? did too,
that the footing had seen its last season.

What Exit? had the job of untying the knots,
and they tried to reseat the mast sailless;
then the halyard was lashed to the forward main cleat,
And What Exit? stood by to support it.

When suppertime came, the three kids came on deck
saying, "Fellas, your boat ride sucks donkeys,"
Then later that night when their iPod batteries died,
they said, "don't you at least have a Game Boy?"

What Exit? told the kids that they'd best start rowing in,
but some good Samaritans showed up from nearby;
so they all got towed in, which concluded the wreck
of the Tuckerton Bay Sailing Garvey.

And the legend lives on,
from Manhattanites on down,
of the waters of central New Jersey;

The bay, as they speak of it,
can be darned inconvenient
when the winds of mid-August come early.

[What Exit?]

Dude! That is worthy of the Circle of Song at the Clearwater Festival. Did you have a tune in mind? I just put it to generic chantey in my head.

Very awesome work. Thank you

[terrifel]

Did you have a tune in mind?

[What Exit?]

No YouTube available to me at the moment, what song is that?

[terrifel]

Opps! Sorry, it's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. The cadence of your thread title brought it to mind, but I see that I ultimately forgot to include the title as a lyric in my spoof. Rats.

[Sarahfeena]

Oh, lol, Jim...do you not know The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald? It's kind of legendary around these parts.

[What Exit?]

Oh, lol, Jim...do you not know The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald? It's kind of legendary around these parts.

I know the song, but I did not pick it up from just the lyrics.

I actually have the song playing now to help. (I have the mp3 so have little excuse to not recognize it)

[Sarahfeena]

I know the song, but I did not pick it up from just the lyrics.

I actually have the song playing now to help. (I have the mp3 so have little excuse to not recognize it)

No offense, I hope...I was thinking that maybe it's just not as well known outside the Great Lakes area.

[What Exit?]

No offense, just feeling a little sheepish that I did not pick up on a song I own and like.

[What Exit?]

The boat repairs are off to a good start. We got the boat out Friday. I started working on it yesterday at 8am before it got hot and got the front deck off with some help. Then today we got it all cleaned up in 3 shifts. I think we will be back in within 2 weeks.

I should take a few pictures tomorrow.

[What Exit?]

Here is the link to the repair wikilog that one of our members started: http://www.navesinkmaritime.org/wiki...:recent_events