A report on the M Scow Nationals held at LEHYC, Beach Haven, NJ
September 15 and 16, 2007
by John Deitz, MRYC

Dave Kuykendall and I sailed in the Nationals on his boat, Gold Rush. Saturday was blowing hard, but race officials wanted to try to get off at least one race. Bad decision. The fleet was wiped out before they
reached the course. Fortunately, Dave K and I never got away from the dock. There were maybe 5 boats (out of around 25) still at the dock. We were in the first spot at the end of a finger dock. As we shoved off, the wind picked up the slack loop in our main sheet (where it runs parallel to the boom) and wrapped it around the last dock pole, whipping us around the end of the dock to the other side so we were facing downwind, caught by the main sheet and with a full sail. The remaining sailors helped us recover, but we broke something and had to go back to the lift.

As we got our boat out of the water, the first of the boats which had already headed out to the course came back in under tow by a patrol boat. That's when we noticed that there were no sails visible in the distance. The boat under tow had the mast snapped in two. Over the next 45 minutes or so, the rest of the fleet was towed in one by one, with I think 6 boats dismasted, 3 of which were snapped in half, and 3 with broken stays. All together, something like 15 of 20 boats were damaged. John Applegate's rudder was ripped off when he was towed off the flats. Several tillers were broken. We ripped the boom track off our mast, as did others.

What had happened was, as the fleet head out to the course in 20 mph winds (gusting to 25), a brief squall came through with 40-50 mph gusts. Even turned head to wind, the chop was so big it was filling the boats faster than they could bail. Everyone who turned to head back under sail lost the mast. The others dropped the sail and all were towed. Several beached their boats on nearby islands until they could be towed in.

Amazingly, all but one boat was repaired (or parts were borrowed, or a boat was borrowed) by Sunday morning and the races went off without a hitch (10-15 mph winds). The morning was chilly, but by midday it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for sailing. We finished 18th. For the full results go here:

http://www.m16scow.org/resultsarchive/07nationals/results.jpg

I was an unofficial photographer, and a patrol person, Elaine Stevens of LEHYC, used the camera while we were sailing, so there's lots of good pix here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/deitz5566/MScowNationals

Many thanks to LEHYC for putting on a great event and going out of their way to see that everyone was safe and sound. The food and drink were excellent, and the overnight accommodations in members' homes for several of us Saturday night were super!