The Sinking of ‘Boat Bum Gal,’ and a Comment From the Captain
During the recent Baja Ha-Ha Cruiser’s Rally to Mexico, a boat sank after hitting rocks on its way into Turtle Bay. In the December issue of Latitude 38, we shared the story as told by Schelleen Rathkopf, producer and owner of Race Week Anacortes. We also published a comment that the boat’s captain, Ray McCormack, had shared on social media soon after the incident. The story begins:
“If we hit an iceberg,” joked Sandra Barnes when referring to her Nicholson 38 sailboat Boat Bum Gal, “it’s the iceberg that is going down!” Seemingly indestructible, the Nic 38 is a heavy masthead sloop designed by John Alden with a two-inch-thick fiberglass hull that boasts an excellent righting capability if capsized. But when the fateful day came to put her iceberg theory to the test, it was Boat Bum Gal that lost, and Barnes had no choice but to watch her slip under the surface of the sea.
It was November 3, and Barnes and her crew of three were nearing the end of Leg 1 of the Baja Ha-Ha cruiser’s rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Boat Bum Gal was Sandra’s home. She was using the popular cruising rally as a gateway to her move to La Paz, Mexico, where she planned to live after the Ha-Ha, which takes around two weeks to complete. It was around 1 a.m., and Ray McCormack, a USCG-certified 200-ton captain from Vancouver, Washington, was at the helm.
Despite warnings, McCormack approached Turtle Bay near the rocky coastline, and it came as no surprise to many that Boat Bum Gal ended up on the rocks. According to Barnes, she hit the rocks four times before coming to a dead stop. The sound of her impact was excruciatingly loud from inside the cabin, where Barnes was just coming out of the head. Chaos ensued on board as McCormack reportedly shouted profanities and yelled orders at the third crew member, Bryan Hall.
Just minutes following the fourth impact, the cupboards in the galley imploded, and the water started pouring in. Barnes, who was barefoot at the time, remembers frantically looking for her shoes while she watched in horror as gear, food, and galley supplies began floating all around her as the cabin took on water. Due to back and neck injuries that required surgery a few years back, Barnes suffers with severe joint issues, and knew that if she was going to be doing any walking on the rocks, or anywhere, for that matter, she needed to be wearing shoes.
Things got real as Barnes overheard Hall make a mayday call on the radio. She remembered thinking how surprising it was that her crew wasn’t giving her any instructions at all. Despite having a six-person survival raft on board, McCormack asked Hall to lower the dinghy, which required a 4-hp motor stored in the aft cabin.
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Ya know, i was really gonna just put this in the past , but the glaring inaccuracies made me need to address this. My name is Tom Barnes , the guy who spent five years of his life building S/V Muriel, the boat my ex wife renamed Boat Bum Gal .First off, the statements by her hired hand make claims about the electrical that simply are not accurate. The steaming light was connected to a bus bar activated by a solenoid that was turned on by the ignition key. This also turned on the engine gauges and alarms. The A/C battery charger was plugged into a protected circuit with a switch next to it to make it easy to turn off , which should have been done any time shore power was disconnected. This might be a source of their charging problems . as having it on while the inverter was on could cause multiple problems. Sandra should have known this , but electronic knowledge wasn’t her strong point. All systems on board were installed according to manufacturers recommendations. With regards to navigation equipment on board ,there was two independent systems at the helm , a Garmin unit and a Raymarine Radar/ chart plotter , both which were connected to the Autopilot. I have no idea why these weren’t used , as opposed to what they claimed was available. Her MC Captain claims he went closer to shore because he felt the wind was too extreme. I personally sailed Muriel in 25 knots on a beam reach heeling only 10 to 15 degrees. As a staysail ketch , she was a dream to pilot. I truly believe she was sunk due to arrogance – the arrogance of Sandra thinking she was capable of Captaining a boat she was obviously incapable of sailing , and the arrogance of a “delivery captain” who agreed to pilot a boat he was completely unfamiliar with.