MOB in the Duxbury Lightship Race
Saturday, May 9, was the date for two YRA Offshore races, the Bluewater Bash and the Duxbury Lightship. S.F. YRA chair Joe Rockmore was our PRO for both races.
The Bluewater Bash is a race from the St. Francis YC out to longitude 124W and back; 150 miles with an overnight sail. Six boats started the race at 9:15 a.m. and all were using the race as their qualifying voyage, required by the Pacific Cup.
The Duxbury Lightship race is just what the name suggests. Start at St. Francis, around the Duxbury Reef buoy near Stinson Beach, then around the S.F. sea buoy (the “Lightship”) and back to St. Francis to finish, 31.8 miles. The Duxship is part of the S.F. YRA nine-race Offshore series, and has been run almost annually for decades. Sixteen monohulls between 27-ft and 50-ft and two big 44-ft trimarans started at around 10 a.m. Wind at the start was less than 10 knots, but the forecast models called for 20–25 with higher gusts offshore.
Ahi, a 1981 Santana 35 skippered by me, Andy Newell, has done this very race nearly every year since 2011. Aboard on that Saturday, from front to back, were Jason Kick, bow; Joe Dick, mast; Valerie Suzawa, cabin top; Liza Avdanina, Donald Dellis and Hemang Mehta on headsail trim; and Alexey Sobolev on mainsheet. All crew had the required high-buoyancy PFDs with crotch straps, and most of the crew had tethers on their person.
We continued on a beat with full main and #3 until we rounded the Duxbury buoy. By then the wind had built to about 20 knots, so shortly after rounding we reefed the main, as 19–20 is where we typically reef. Winds were now 20–22 with six-foot seas from the starboard side. As usual, some of the waves were larger than six feet, but nothing crazy. Jason, Donald and Joe were on the weather rail, legs in. Hemang was below and Valerie was sitting on the ladder in the main hatch. Liza and Alexey were sitting on the rail above the cockpit, legs in. I was sitting lower on the cockpit seat for better leverage on the tiller.
At around 12:45 p.m., Ahi was hit by a large wave, which broke over the boat. Before Ahi had righted herself, another larger wave broke over our starboard side, washing this writer completely overboard. The crew reports that Ahi rolled 90 degrees or more. Nearly everything at the top of the mast was lost or damaged.
I don’t remember seeing the wave before it hit, but once it did, I remember being among the water before I actually hit the water.
