‘Ahi’ Skipper Shares Details of Dramatic Duxship Race Rescue

On Saturday, May 9, the Santana 35 Ahi was competing in the YRA Duxbury Lightship race — start in San Francisco, go around the Duxbury Reef buoy off Stinson Beach, then the Lightship, and finish in San Francisco.

Wind was less than 10 knots at the start, but the forecast was for sporty conditions offshore with more wind farther out. Ahi rounded the Dux buoy, and since conditions were building, we put a reef in the main. We were beam-reaching on starboard on the leg between Dux and the Lightship, wind 20–22 and around six-foot-high seas. Boat speed 7–9 knots.

At around 12:45, Ahi was hit by a large wave from starboard and rolled to leeward, followed by a second larger wave that broke over the boat. Three crew were thrown overboard, and two of the three were able to maintain contact with the boat. The skipper (me) was not. As soon as we rolled, one of the crew hit the DSC distress button on the VHF and the MOB marker on the chartplotter. He also issued a mayday on VHF 16.

My PFD inflated and I popped up to the surface. My crotch straps were not tight enough and I struggled to find the adjustment straps to pull it down without success. With the flotation too high and no ability to adjust it, I tried to hug the flotation to try to get farther out of the water, but other than this I could do nothing else.

Meanwhile on Ahi, the boom was broken, and two people were outside the lifelines trying to hang on. One got in with the help of the crew, but it took a long time to get the second aboard due to some entanglement and the fact the boat was still moving. Crew dropped the sails to stop the boat. With everyone aboard and some control, the crew checked for lines in the water and started the engine to go recover the skipper. After a short time, the prop became fouled, apparently on the head of the jib, which had washed overboard.

Fellow competitor Zaff approached me in the water with sails down, made contact with their Lifesling, and were able to pull me to their open transom and aboard the boat. Zaff returned to Alameda.

Back on Ahi, they received word I was OK and tried to figure out their situation. A US Coast Guard (USCG) helicopter was on scene, but the crew declined removal. Competitor Shaman was able to make contact with Ahi and tow her for a time, until a USCG 47-ft motor lifeboat showed up and took over the tow, bringing Ahi to Raccoon Strait where BoatUS took over the tow and brought Ahi to RYC. At RYC, the incredible community jumped in to help the crew get things sorted. By the time I got there, damaged sails were stripped and folded, and they had begun initial cleanup. A 17-year-old junior even jumped into the water and cleared the jib off the prop. Wow!

My eternal thanks to Tim, Rebecca and Rowan on Zaff for saving my butt, and Bart and his crew on Shaman for helping my crew and saving my boat. And of course to my crew for managing a bad situation and making sure we all got home.

The crew spent Sunday documenting what we remembered, trying to figure out what actually had happened.

Stay tuned for more of the story in an upcoming issue of Latitude 38.