Bay Area Sailor Sustains Traumatic Brain Injury While Wing Foiling During Vacation
Bay Area sailor, windsurfer and wing foiler Dave Berntsen suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken pelvis in early March, after being hit by a powerboat while wing foiling during a charter in the Grenadines. Fellow sailor and wing foiler Alan Prussia called to let us know. Dave was responsible for bringing the Weta sailboats to the West Coast, then racing them on the Bay.
We’ve paraphrased a report written by his daughter Milla on a GoFundMe page:
Directly following the crash, Dave was rescued from the water and spoke briefly before losing consciousness while being brought directly to shore. He was resuscitated with CPR on the beach and was flown from Union Island to St. Vincent, the closest island with hospital facilities, where he spent three days intubated and in a medically induced coma.
A medical evacuation flight was arranged to transport Dave and his wife Tracey to New Orleans, where he was admitted to the Trauma ICU at University Medical Center LCMC. He was placed on a ventilator and received CT scans to assess his brain bleeding and pelvic fracture.
Since then, he has received two brain surgeries to correct his hematoma and surgery to address his pelvic fracture, and his condition has been rapidly improving. He has been able to speak, crack jokes, smile, and throw shakas to the thrilled nursing staff and doctors.
Following discharge from UMC in NOLA, he has begun in-patient neuro rehab for traumatic brain injury at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago.
Such a traumatic accident raises the topics of helmets and sailing. Unfortunately, Dave, who often wears a helmet, was not wearing one at the time of the accident. The St. Francis Yacht Club now requires them for their summer evening foil board racing, and many junior programs are requiring helmets for general sailing. We noticed a helmet on a crew member during our recent Friday night race. Though most people wouldn’t think of skiing or biking without a helmet, their use remains very limited in sailing. Foiling has brought higher speeds to sailing, increasing the risk of more serious injury during crashes.
We’re wishing the best for Dave’s ongoing recovery.
You can help Dave and his family on their GoFundMe page here.
Good Jibes #238: Karen Prioleau on a Career of Teaching Sailing, With Host John Arndt
Welcome to Latitude 38’s Good Jibes! In this podcast, we’re bringing you the world of sailing through the eyes of the West Coast sailor. Each week, you’ll hear stories and tips from the West Coast sailing community on cruising, racing and just plain sailing. Hosted by the team at Latitude 38 — the sailing magazine for West Coast sailors since 1977!
In this week’s episode we chat with Karen Prioleau about making a career of teaching all types of sailing. Karen has spent over 25 years teaching sailing at Orange Coast College and US Sailing, and has a ton of personal offshore sailing experience.
Tune in as Karen shares with host John Arndt her stories about how to become a full-time sailing instructor or sailing educator, her memorable trips on the Alaska Eagle, the most useful sailing courses to study and teach, what’s getting young people inspired to sail, and unbelievable examples of her safety training coming in handy.
Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:
- Sailing to Tahiti pregnant
- Alaska Eagle’s happy ending
- Life aboard a 41-ft wooden boat with a newborn and night watch duty
- Four years of cruising: Mexico, the Sea of Cortez, and a leaky seam that changed the plan
- Karen’s origin story: Sea Scouts, sailing at 12, and a 16mm film that changed everything
Learn more about Karen at OrangeCoastCollege.edu and USSailing.org.
Check out the episode and show notes for much more detail.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots — follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re feeling the Good Jibes!
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Island Yacht Club’s Sadie Hawkins Race Interrupted by Rowers
March 22 started as a beautiful day for the Island Yacht Club Sadie Hawkins race but quickly became chaotic. When the mark-set team started dropping marks and the race committee team was arriving, we learned that there was a high school rowing competition on the Alameda-Oakland Estuary at the same time as our sailing race. Even though their rowing event was not officially permitted by the Coast Guard, we wanted a safe race for our racers and to allow both events to occur. After discussions with the rowing event leader, we agreed to delay our race for two hours until they started their last rowing race.
Everything seemed to be smooth. We started our first fleet on time and were preparing for the next start when a group of rowers rowed through the second start of our race. That was not the worst of it. Additionally, the adults guiding the rowers yelled at our racers, who were in a starting position, to move out of their way. These rowers were not racing. They were returning to the marina where they’d launched. Ninety-nine percent of all the other rowing competitors launched from the Jack London area, so we were not advised that anyone would be rowing back our way.
As race PRO, I repeatedly asked them to move quickly away from our racers several times. When they kept yelling at our racers, I advised them that I would report them to the Coast Guard. They stopped yelling and moved.
Our mark-set team met with the event leader after the chaos, and it was suggested that an apology be sent to IYC regarding the chaos caused by their rowing guides. In the end, we are happy to report that we are receiving that apology and a promise to obtain the proper Coast Guard credentials when they plan their events. Communication and mutual respect on and off the water always matter. In the end, several hundred Bay Area high school rowers and about 20 sailboats shared the Estuary that day.
A Quick Note to Subscribers — Your April Latitude 38 Is on Its Way!
We had a little gremlin in our system last week, the result of which is that the April issue was sent out to subscribers later than usual. We do apologize and thank you all for your patience. We can picture you standing at the window or the front door, waiting for the postal van to come trundling along your street to stop at your mailbox and drop in the latest Latitude 38.
The good news it that it’s worth waiting for. Not in the way of waiting for a soft, ripening cheese or a slowly maturing wine. More like a good story that once you begin, you won’t want to stop reading. The anticipation of such an event is one of the secret pleasures of life, and we’re happy to be able to contribute to your forthcoming joy.
By the way, if you want to share a photo of you (or your horse) reading the latest issue, send to [email protected].
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Coyote Point Yacht Club Wraps Up Winter Series
The final race of the Winter Sail Series arrived quietly. Just three boats (Svea, Sweet Grapes, and Sirius) slipped out for the last chapter. The rest had their reasons. The Bay did not ask for them.
The course was long on paper (C, Z, 6, A, C, Z, and home), but the day edited it early, trimming mark 8 and asking for patience instead. Svea took up rabbit duties and led the fleet into a soft beginning, the wind light enough to make every decision feel personal.
At C, Svea rounded first. Sirius and Sweet Grapes approached from opposite directions, converging in that slow, careful way that only two knots of breeze can produce. Nothing hurried. Nothing given.
Then the race began to breathe.
Sweet Grapes found a lane to Z and took the lead, but Svea slipped south, anticipating the ebb, and turned that quiet choice into position, rounding first. Out in the deeper water toward 6, the fleet found more wind. The numbers climbed — four knots, then seven — and the boats began to move with intent.
Sweet Grapes came through again, overtaking Svea and settling into a lead she would not surrender on the water. The fleet tightened, stretched, and tightened again as the wind filled just enough to carry all three boats home.
Across the line, Sweet Grapes finished first, followed by Sirius. Svea came in soon after, steady as she had been all day.
On corrected time, the story shifted one last time. Svea took the win, Sweet Grapes second, Sirius third.
For the series overall, including one throwout race, the standings are:
- Surprise! & Svea
- Paradigm
- Sweet Grapes
- Sirius
- Chablis IV
- Ventus
- Will O’ The Wind
- Bucephalus
- Pelican
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