As many of you may be aware we suffered a major trauma last Saturday, which has been reported to various degrees of accuracy and inaccuracy. So as we are close to finishing putting her back together I have now got time to write my report.
We started at 08.30 on Saturday with a reef and No.3 on our way to Dartmouth, then Plymouth, in a WSW 20 mph breeze with Isaac and Tom (my sons) and Mick Church with one his sailing Friends, Bill Smith. I didn't particularly want to add distance to Dartmouth by going round East Shambles and the inshore passage would have meant alot of close tacking, so I chose to keep close to the West of West Shambles and pass to the East of the Race.
The seas were certainly pretty large and steep but nothing horrific and after 15 minutes I went down to check everything was OK below decks. The boys were still asleep and I noticed that a roof light was leaking and did it up tighter. I went back up and we could see the end of the rough water although I still wanted to go further south to clear the Race properly. Then we encountered a very steep wave with a huge trough behind it where despite the 45 foot of boat all three of us in the cockpit got very wet. After a further 10 minutes I went below again to check on the boys and noticed water was beginning to flood from the forward cabin floorboards and a quick investigation showed there was alot of water forwards.
I woke the boys up and told them to get warm things and lifejackets on and told Mick and Bill we needed to turn the boat back as there was plenty of water on board. After doing this, a brief consideration told me that this was no place to be shy about calling in a Mayday, the boat was well down by the bow and if we were swept west the Race was there waiting. So I found myself making the call no-one wants to make.
We were told that the SAR flight would be with us in 5 minutes and the lifeboat had been launched. Also the charter fishing boat Offshore Rebel arrived at the same time as the helicopter. The winchman joined via the highwire and took a quick decision that Tom, Isaac and Bill should be winched off. They were pretty quick about it and I was surprised that Tom and Isaac were winched off together but with no winchman accompanying them. I was pretty amazing seeing them go; sat one second on the stern pushpit, the next 30 yards away suspended above the waves - but only just above, we watched as a wave rolled past only a couple of feet from Toms own feet! Bill then joined them.
The situation inside was getting severe now with 5 inches of water over the boards which was rolling around inside, bouncing of the saloon settees. And it was showing no sign of abating.
The lifeboat arrived as the helicopter departed and set about trying to land 2 crew members. Dan Stuttle made 2 attempts which had to be aborted as the two boats were sawing about in the large following seas. On the third attempt two crew (Carl and Nick) made an amazingly brave jump to get on board. When they got on board they briefly stuck their heads into the companion way and immediately called for the salvage pump. Getting the petrol-powered pump on board was another difficult exercise.
With the pump started I felt better but in honesty it seemed to lose ground in the first half an hour and at this point I really felt that the boat sinking was a possibility. As we got to Grove point the sea levelled out and the pump got the upper hand and emptied the boat out.
The lifeboat crew and myself were trying to find where the water was coming from while Mick was on the wheel. While, on one hand I felt good that I could say that all the seacocks had been professionally inspected and replaced as necessary and yes the seal round the prop shaft was replaced professionally etc., on the other hand it wasn't yielding any anwers about where the huge volume of water had leaked in and done it in a very short space of time.
Due to Portland Marina being closed down a lift was arranged at the outerberth at Weymouth just in front of the Valiant using a mobile crane to do a check on hull integrity.
An inspection of the boat assured us that the hull was fine but the problem was traced to the anchor locker. There was a huge crack from the top of the bulkhead to the bottom. Although it seemed unlikely that this was the cause, when we cut the glassfibre away it revealed a 1/4" gap between the hull and the inner moulding of the sail locker behind it. This would have transmitted water into the boat ending up under the forward berths and back through the compartments in the bilge. However because of the design of the boat it was possible to take a vast amount of water at the front of the boat before it reached the main bilge.
Well they say what you experience and doesn't kill you makes you stronger (personally I'm never to sure about this because its fallen from the lips of two of the most appauling managers I have experienced) but what positives can we take from this? Well:
a) I never felt anyones life was in danger. Also we had options left, we could abandon to a liferaft and we had all the flares, etc necessary. It was the right thing to do to call early;
b) It was great having immediate air assistance. If the SAR arrived from Lee-On-Solent it would have arrived 15 minutes later;
c) Oddly we were nearly sunk because of a Channel Pilot. The channel pilot dropped into the water and turned to a billion flakes of mushy paper. This clogged the pump and did impede things. So even if it seems a bit of a non-priority in the early stages of a Mayday, retreive such items and lob it overboard if necessary. (Mick and I are discussing whether this gives us any right to claim that we were nearly sunk by Tom Cunliffe);
and most importantly
d) If you have a deep anchor locker never forget that the bulkhead is the only thing keeping you afloat. If it isn't watertight then the anchor locker will fill up and if you are slightly nose down there are two drain holes that will happily let water into the locker and then into the boat, very very fast.
Thankfully we survived it and our thanks have got to go to the crew of the SAR flight, the Weymouth Lifeboat (especially Carl and Nick) and to Offshore Rebel. Also to Steve of Bussels and Dave of Kingfisher Marine who organsied the lift out and Dave who carried out the hull integrity check. Thanks also to Mick who has worked tirelessly on the boat to empty it, clean it and glass the bulkhead back in and we now have large and meanful holes to help transmit water properly in the bilges (as advised by Pete Evans).
Andy Young
Submitted on 17th July 2012