Potter 19 – Los Angeles Harbor

I just got back to checking email today. Am realizing that everyone in the world has already heard about our P19 capsizing on Friday thanks to the news helicopter. Thankfully everyone was safe, although the experience has been very humbling.

The short version of the story is that we set out from Cabrillo at about 3:30 on Friday. The wind seemed to be in the 15 knot range from the dock. Didn't realize it was actually blowing about 20 knots out in the harbor with gusts quite a bit higher. We were in the process of raising our sails when a gust hit us and the jib sheet was jammed in the cam cleat. Also, didn't realize, because of the wind, we were not going fast enough to give enough steering control so my wife could not head us back into the wind to release the pressure on the jib. Everything happened very fast after that as no one could get to the sheet to release it and the wind kept us pinned down so that we took on water pretty fast. The keel was locked down but once the boat was past 90 deg it didn't have much righting moment.

The county lifeguard boat was there within 5 min to get us out of the water. Then it took two fire department boats to right our boat. The boat was not stable in an upright position with so much water in it. So it took a while to get it in to the dock and pumped out. The rescue team did a great job.

Damage to the boat is minimal, the rigging and hull look ok except a couple of scrapes incurred in the deck from the righting operation. The mast must have stuck in the mud at some point as the anchor light is broken. We lost a good number of cushions, personal effects, the porta-potti, etc. However, most of the damage seems to be to the electrical system as most all of the terminals have already corroded. Damage to our ego however is very great.

(name withheld)