Capsize!!!

Article By Shorty



What the heck does a baby doll and a toy boat have to do with capsizing? Well, when I first arrived at the messabout, my friend Jeff noticed that I brought 2 boats, my Vagabond, and a little toy tug. Can't remember exactly what he said, but it was amusing. The tug is my daughters boat that she calls "Dunkee Boat" - I filled it with foam and tow it behind my sailboat incase I fall over. Figure it will give me a chance to grab onto something. The baby doll is another piece of essential equipment, luckily Jeff didn't see it, was hidden in a cockpit locker. Notice how we are a safe family - even the doll wears a life jacket.


Chuck went out to give some people a ride in his Caprice, and left Sandra behind to take pictures. I dragged her aboard my boat along with XXX and we were on our way motoring out of the marina to take pictures of the Caprice. Jeff was out sailing the June Bug that doesn't have floataion tanks, and was hiking out on the rail. He slipped and fell down inside and landed on top of the sheet. Just at that moment a gust of wind came up and since he couldn't free the sail the boat went over on it's side quickly taking on water.


There it is, Dunkee Boat to the rescue!!! The wind was pretty high and I didn't want to get too close with my outboard so I tossed him my toy boat and line. I wonder if he would have grabbed the baby doll had I thrown it instead?

One thing to note is how high the June Bug is on it's side. I was wondering if he tried to re-right the boat here, how much water would end up being in the boat, and would he be able to recover by himself by bailing before reboarding.


I tried and tried but my little 3.0hp motor was unable to pull both my boat and the submerged June Bug to the beach. We drifted to the lee shore which had a bulkead shallow enough for Jeff to stand up. Here he is removing the sail preparing to de-swamp.

I think one of the reasons it was so tough is because the June Bug on it's side with the sail still up was acting like a sea anchor.


Jeff had just pulled the sail out and let it roll back upright - look at all that water in the boat!


U-boat commander Jeff.... "Dive Dive Dive!!!"


Up he jumped, the June Bug landed back on the water, and he paddled back to the beach.


Our second capsize of the day - I don't know his name, but about 10 feet off shore he capsized his kayak and had to make a wet exit. Must have been something in the air - luckily our last capsize of the day.


Back to main page