by Erik on Jun.17, 2008, under sailing
After completing my BK and BC certifications with OCSC, I came across an amazing deal on a used 28 foot cruising sloop. I was sailing “Sizzle” on Saturday with 5 non-sailing friends. It was a great day despite the patchy fog and the cooler weather. We sailed out of the Berkeley Marina where I keep her tied up on L-dock and head out close hauled to Ayala Cove. We had a great picnic lunch and barbecue ashore. I put a reef in before we left the dock and we spent the rest of the late afternoon sailing around the west side of Angel Island and past the east side of Alcatraz before making a run back to Berkeley. I decided to drop the headsail early because the winds were picking up and we were bobbing along in 3′ swells.
The winds were probably 20-25 knots out of the west with an ebb tide. We were going to do the standard entry into the marina through the center entrance, run down to the Horn Blowers and then turn back into the wind to drop the main. I put my friend on the helm and explained the procedure while I headed to the mast to prepare to drop the main. As the boat turned into the wind and the sail began to luff, I uncleated the main halyard and began pulling down the main. Unfortunately the boat kept turning to port. I figured my friend was confused, so I grabbed onto the mast and held on as the boat did a 360. I explained my instructions again and as the boat headed back up into the wind, I was going to start taking the main down all the way.
But again, my friend appeared to be steering the boat to port and we headed off the wind again. At this point the main is maybe 30-40% of the way down. I look back to see what the problem is and could see him turning the wheel hard about in the opposite direction to starboard, yet our turn continued hard over to port! I ran through a quick mental checklist: did we have enough speed to make the rudder effective? yes. What else could it be? Gasp! We’ve lost steerage!
“Sizzle” continued to turn in 360′s with the main about half way down and no control over the rudder. Because of the high profile of the main and the boat’s natural windage, we continued to drift east closer and closer to the Horn Blower yachts. Time to act. I distinctly remembered a similar scenario discussed in one of my classes at OCSC. And I immediately knew what I should do. I ran to the forward anchor locker, casting aside the main halyard I had in my hand (who cares about the main at this point?). Fortunately I kept my anchor and rode neatly organized and tied off to the anchor cleat ready to go at all times. I hauled out the Danforth and freed the first bundal of rode. I tossed the anchor as carefully as I could to avoid hitting the boat and payed out some rode. I yelled back for my crew to cut the engine so that we would stop turning and avoid getting the rode hung up in the prop (no sense making a bad situation worse by causing more damage!)
I tried to reach the bow cleat which was thoroughly buried beneath the headsail which was rolled up OCSC style on the deck. 
So I lost a little ground as the boat drifted backwards until I managed to get the rode wound around the anchor cleat. Boat stopped 25 feet from the Empress Hornblower I was a bit wound up still and wanted to assess the situation. I needed to get the boat to a dock somehow and also monitor the anchor to be sure we weren’t dragging. I ordered my crew below deck and asked them to don their life vests. I secured the main sail at this point and then got on the radio to call the Coast Guard.
In hindsight I probably would have gone straight to Vessel Assist in this situation, but I would rather have called the CG and not needed them than the other way around! Eventually I called Boat US and thus Vessel Assist on my cell phone. Then I notified the CG that I wouldn’t need their assistance. We were about 100 feet from the nearest dock and at 5:45pm on a Saturday with gusty winds, the marina was not very busy! There were 3 people on the dock who were willing to help if I could just get a line to them. I grabbed my horn from down below and signaled a motor boat coming into the marina. They eventually saw me and were able to get the line to the dock (it just barely reached!) Next I got some of my crew on deck and we hauled ourselves off the anchor (not easy at all with no motor, high winds and a 6,900 lb boat).
Thanks to the assistance ashore, the help of the passing motor boat and my crew, we were safely tied off to M-dock. A woman who had helped bring our boat to the dock said to me, “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t figure out what was going on with your boat but then I saw you toss your anchor overboard. That was really smart! Where did you learn to do that?” My face twisted somewhere between a smile and the edge of crying and said, “I learned that at OCSC.”
—- Epilogue
Vessel Assist did eventually show up some 45 minutes later and towed us back to our slip. My crew went home before that and my partner and I put our boat to bed. The Empress Hornblower left a few minutes after we managed to make our way to M-dock and motored the Wedding party out to the choppy Bay for their Wedding reception. “Sizzle” suffered no damage in the incident except for the original steering problem which hasn’t yet been diagnosed. Everyone on-board who had never been sailing before has expressed a willingness and excitement to sail with us again. In fact, there were several who said, “That was so much fun!! I can’t wait to go with you guys again!” My partner vowed after Saturday to sign up for his first sailing class at OCSC in the next few weeks so that he can hopefully gain some of the confidence and knowledge that I learned through OCSC.
