Rick:

I understand what you are saying.....an accidental gybe can happen any time and injure/kill someone as well as damage gear.

Our experience was similar to what Martin DeYoung described.

In our case, when it happened, I ended up on my stomach on the coach roof holding on, in water up to my waist, the boat lying on its starboard side, boom held off to port, cockpit filled with water and no one knew what to do or for that matter, had any chance to do anything. I was able to slither over just enough to reach the preventer on the boom and cut it. Somehow, she righted herself.

We had the preventer running from the boom to a block on the toerail, then back to the cockpit, port side. However, when the gybe happened, the crew got thrown to starboard and were floating in the cockpit not able to reach the preventer to release it and/or the spin sheet as the chute went out the 'backdoor'.

Rob Abbott
AZURA
C&C 32 - 84
Halifax, N.S.





On 2016-04-12 7:38 PM, Rick Taillieu via CnC-List wrote:

Rob,

You should be very glad that you had the preventer on.

I was at the C&C Owner’s Regatta at NYC in 2001, on the Sunday a cold front went through with gusts to 50kts (this was the same front that capsized the trimaran during the Mac race).

The winds had died down some by race time so we decided to go out.

Another squall line went through the offshore course while we were racing and a C&C 35 Mk3 broached, the boom hit one of the crew on the head as it swung across, killing him.

The boom flying across during a crash jybe can do a lot of damage to the crew or the boat.

Rick Taillieu

Nemesis

'75 C&C 25  #371

Shearwater Yacht Club

Halifax, NS.

*From:*CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] *On Behalf Of *robert via CnC-List
*Sent:* April-12-16 17:40
*To:* cnc-list@cnc-list.com
*Cc:* robert
*Subject:* Stus-List Preventer

Joel:

I am no expert on this but if your block on a genoa track can handle a tightly loaded jib sheet it should handle the load of the main sail from an accidental gybe......if the preventer is fastened without any slack, there should be no jolt in the preventer......just the pressure on it as the main is held in place and the boat lays on its side and hopefully runs up.

Been there done that....Marblehead Race....C&C 33 MKII....spin run, following sea....preventer.....accidental gybe in a 5 ft. following sea.....really ugly but the boat, rigging, sails and crew all survived. Really wished that day we had not had a 'preventer'.

Rob Abbott
AZURA
C&C 32 - 84
Halifax, N.S.


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