The story of a 360 degree roll (61' FG racing sloop Sorcery)

[rbgarr]

http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/archive/sorcery/sorcery2.htm

[TimH]

They spelled Whidbey wrong....


Hours after dawn we strung out a 20-foot dipole antenna along the deck. At 7:30AM the world answered in the form of a Homer, Alaska, ham operator, then a man in Ketchikan picked us up, then on on Widbey Island in Puget Sound, as soon a grid was established all around the pond. I never knew how many people listened to the world going by before, but that morning we learned to love them all.

[Jay Greer]

Tim,
This incident has always stood out in my mind as to the seamanship that was exhibited. Although, I know, some serious injuries were sustained, you guys were able to jury rig that antenna and make the connective call for assistance. Jim Dickson has been a friend for many years. I still see him from time to time.
Jay

[paladin]

It's been nearly 30 years since I sailed that route, and was never rolled completely through....I have been knocked down with the spreaders in the water for what seemed forever, but she came back up, and I never saw it coming. I have flown over that area numerous times on ferry flights when we were delivering aircraft to Vietnam.....and sometimes we flew at lower altitudes because the aircraft were not equipped with cabin heaters or navigation radar, and periodically we would see what would appear to be a narrow tall wave appear out of nowhere, travel for a couple of miles, then disappear into the ocean. It sounds like you had a well seasoned crew.

[rbgarr]

I don't think Tim was aboard Sorcery ... he just 'quoted' part of the website to show where they spelled Whidbey wrong.

[TimH]

I don't think Tim was aboard Sorcery ... he just 'quoted' part of the website to show where they spelled Whidbey wrong.


Correct. I should have used " "

sorry for the confusion. Maybe you should delete this thread and start over. Ill refrain from posting to the next one.

[rbgarr]

No problem.

[paladin]

yup, no problem....but still a crew that could think under extreme adversity....

[Hwyl]

Here's part 1 http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/archive/sorcery/sorcery1.htm

It was a feature of IOR boats that they could fall over easily, even though she's an early one, and a tall staysail in 60 knots is a lot of sail.

[rbgarr]

I think they only had a storm trysail set at the time of the rollover. Have to interpolate from the typos imo.

[bamamick]

I have a friend who was on a boat that had this happen. I was on another boat in the same race, out in the Gulf of Mexico in the winter time. Big norther. Anyway, it was a bloody miracle that nothing happened worse than everyone being shaken up pretty badly and wanting to get the heck out of there. Amazing, really. I am still not sure how they survived it.

Mickey Lake

[ron ll]

Where did this article come from? Is this from around 1975? If so, I think Sorcery was a C&C 61 and I remember seeing it at Cadranell's dock on Lake Union after the incident. The mast stump looked like it was torn in half just like you would tear a beer can in half. I also think I remember that the helm was bent almost in half and the story was that it was because the helmsman had his harness tethered to the wheel. My memory may be wrong, may have been a different boat.

[paladin]

I too thought Sorcery was the 61 footer but had not heard of this incident before....