getting wet

[Ed Ekers]

In the past some have asked about the cockpit draining after being swamped. Well short story. This past weekend wife and I went for a sail. Wind 20-25 knts (true) with 10 ft. seas and 4-6 ft. waves. We were out about 3 miles of the coast and spotted a small skiff (10-12 ft.) that had been fishing before the wind came up. As we sailed by I asked if he was ok and with a bit of fear in his voice the fellow said he thought so. I suggested that he might want to start to head in since it was only going to get rougher. I also told him that we would stay near by and try to offer a little cover while he motored home.

Our story goes along ok but needless to say we had trouble going slow enough to stay along side. This ended up with us having to do a number of tacks and we would sail back and forth on his weather side. On one of our tacks (s-p) I missed judged the swell and we ended up taking a 10 footer right on the beam. Lots of splash and a very heavy roll but we were ok. Came back again on starboard got behind the boat and needed to do another s-p tack. We tried to judge the waves and swell and time it best we could but as the saying goes S—T happens. This time we tacked on a swell came out of the tack in the trough and was greeted with a 10-12 ft. roller that was breaking. I fell off hard put the stern to the sea and plow. Felt like the whole ocean just fell on us. After grabbing my sunglasses floating in the cockpit took a quick look at the little guy and his skiff saw that we had blocked the break for him and he was ok we checked to see if we had taken any water below. Besides a little splash all was well below. All this took about 20-30 seconds and now we just needed to deal with a full cockpit full of water.

I pulled the aft hatch board and dumped most of the water out the motor well so now we are about ankle deep and it took about 45-60 seconds to drain the rest.

So there is a story of getting pooped and how fast the cockpit can and will drain if no other wave washes over. Needless to say we all made it to calmer waters and the fisherman didn’t even offer us a ling for dinner. But he was very happy to be on hard ground………ed

[mbd]

Well, if was nice of you to look out for a guy with bad judgment. Hopefully your karma points will pay off when you need 'em most. :)

[Tony G]

That is a good read. The first hand experience information is very useful. It seems that the outboard version wins in draining a flooded cockpit faster. And Mike is right, the karma facter will come into play somewhere along the line and inyour favor.

Can I throw a couple of what ifs at you, Ed?

1) How do you think lee clothes around the cockpit would have played in all of this? Some folks say make the bottom attachment a 'tear away' to let the seas do what they may with minimum damage. Some have said that they can prevent some water form coming in the cockpit while others say they trap an extra sea in there! What says you based on what you've experienced.

And 'B', have you ever noticed water (and how much) getting in through the cockpit lockers?

[Ed Ekers]

1) How do you think lee clothes around the cockpit would have played in all of this? Some folks say make the bottom attachment a 'tear away' to let the seas do what they may with minimum damage. Some have said that they can prevent some water form coming in the cockpit while others say they trap an extra sea in there! What says you based on what you've experienced.

I would not want to speculate on more or less water coming in the cockpit. I suppose it would depend on what direction the water was coming from. I would be concerned about what is supporting the cloth. A breaking wave arrives with a great deal of force.

And 'B', have you ever noticed water (and how much) getting in through the cockpit lockers?

I have not. During this event I was pleased to find so little water anywhere other than the cockpit. The main hatch was closed and one hatch board was in place leaving only 10 inches or so open at the time

[Rico]

Wow Ed! Good of you to relate this to us...

Were you out in Monterey Bay? Were breaking waves in the 10' range the exception in the 4-6 range that you mention?

I think that it is prudent to put the hatchboards in on all these boats with large openings (at least TWO for us with the large opening on our Commander's companionways in such seas.

The A/C openings have parallel companionway sides which make it convenient and effective to put boards in. (As opposed to other boat's companionways which have openings in the shape of a 'V'...)

[Ed Ekers]

Hey Rico,
I guess by the chart we were outside the lines of the bay, and more in the open ocean. At the time when we found the little boat we were up the coast a bit just north of Natural Bridge Park.

The sea condition was a swell that ranged to ten feet with the top being blown and wind waves that were smaller but much more disturbed. I think the key to the breaking swells was related to where the skiff was fishing. He was sitting on a popular local reef known for holding fish. I would guess that was the cause of the breaking ground swells. As soon as we got into deeper water it became a friendlier sea for the Ariel but still a hell of a ride for the skiff........ed