[C38] Whale of a story

[Larry Malmberg]

Steve, we had heard that a 38 was demasted and concerned that it was you.
Ultimately we did hear that you were OK and it was a relief to say the
least.  We were doing one of the Trans Pac qualifier races just for fun last
weekend but had to drop out due to a family emergency.  Good to hear Shan is
part of your crew for Trans Pac, I told you she was a great sailor and team
mate.  Guess now she's not first in line to fill a vacancy on Hassle.
 





Best regards,

Larry Malmberg
Team Hassle



  _____  

From: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org
[mailto:listserve-bounces at catalina38.org] On Behalf Of Steve Smolinske
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 10:56 PM
To: Catalina 38 Listserve
Subject: [C38] Whale of a story


Don't know how many of you heard the news this last weekend from the Oregon
Offshore.  L'Orca a Beneteau 35 got demasted by a breaching whale!  It
breached about a foot from the bow on starboard went up the mast to the
first spreader and took out the rig, lifelines, toerail and lots of cracks
on the deck.  Miraculously no one was injured!  They were next to us at the
start and having problems controlling their spinnaker in the 20 knots of
breeze.  So we changed course to give them room as they had already rounded
up a number of times.  As we settled in I heard a call from another
competitor to the race committee and looked over my shoulder to where they
were and saw their head sail down and thought what a bunch of wimps
withdrawing already, then looked behind me to see they were headed to about
four other boats and what looked liked a power boat.   Then it dawned on me
that was a sailboat without a mast,   As I had my hands full with the boat I
had the crew check it out and they confirmed the power boat was indeed a
sailboat.   We hailed the boat that had taken the lead in coordinating the
rescue and the coast guard and offered helped, they had it under control and
told us to stay in the race.  We heard the next day that it was a whale
attack.  Now Gerry is a friend and competitor so I can say although this is
a whale of a story, it surely was no fluke and we are all thankfull that no
one was injured or krilled and how ironic that a boat named L'Orca would get
demasted by a whale and it all happened off of Cape Disappointment.
 
BTW Larry a big Thank you!!  Shannon is AWESOME!! Glad to have her on board
for Transpac!
 
Steve
#312 Peregrine
Seattle
 
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