MacGregorSailors.com

Hi all.



Just got back from a fun weekend of boating. Met up with a couple friends from Toronto and we loaded up Pegasus for a fun filled weekend on the water. Destination? Unknown. Just out there somewhere. Lots of places to pick from. We left the marina at 11am or so, wind was NW 15-20 kts, so we set up a broad reach and headed out. Wind picked up to 25-35 kts so we ended up with reefed main and 30% Genny. Seemed to hold around 20-30 deg and 6 - 8.5 mph. Waves were 3-6 feet and close together with white caps. Very exciting for us onboard. Wind picked up some more, waves followed suit and became 10 feet, very tight, and smashing over the bow and occasionally over the cockpit, much to my disliking as the water was 62f. I started to loose steering control. Went down to just the reefed main….kept loosing steering control and getting very wet and very cold. VHF started screaming out small craft warning….sure….now they tell me…. I was in the middle of the lake, the shoreline was dimly visible on all horizon views. My crew had enough, as did I to be honest. I decided to dowse the main and get the heck out of there. I tried many different approaches, rudders up motor over 7 mph, too wet and wild, rudders and keel down, keel up, keel back down, fast slow, trying desperately to find a happy medium for spray, ride, comfort – like that was possible, etc. Ended up going with ballast full, all fins down, and cut upwind at around 45 deg to breaking waves. Motor kept coming out of the water, still lost steering off and on, the boat would be picked right up out of the water and turned 135 deg to go directly downwind. When that happened, water would come right through the OB motor well, swamp the cockpit floor, which is normally well above waterline, almost wash over the companionway opening and flood the cabin. Batten down the hatches ring a bell? It never occurred to me at the time, but water was coming into the aft berth via the control cable hole and the control arm for the OB steering. I battled my way across the Lake to Lagoon city. The opening is surrounded by rocks on either side and the rough sees had caused the sand bottom to fill in around the entrance. Pegasus was being tossed about violently as I was trying desperately to get through that entrance, my GPS depth alarm started screaming, I grabbed the keel rope, hauled her halfway up, had a split second when the bow lined up with the narrow entrance, hit the throttle, I think I might have closed my eyes at this point…not sure though. I was quite honestly…..scared of crashing the boat into the rocks. Not a feeling I want to repeat. We made it into the lagoon, got turned around into wind, and tied up along the south wall as that was the side with the washrooms, restaurant and more importantly….THE BAR! We all needed a drink.


We finished off the evening with a nice BBQ and reflection on why we were still alive while passers by commented on how good our food smelled as they were downwind from our BBQ. Funny thing happened, we were tied up along a very long wall full of mooring points. This 45 something 3 storey tall behemoth pulls up right on my bow and ties up. I found myself wondering why would he pull up that close with all that room and nobody else around. Is it just me, or was that strange?


Next morning we woke, very slowly for some reason…and decided to give the young lad, my friends son, a try at waterskiing. This would be the first shot at it for Pegasus so I was anxious to see if she could do it as I really want to try it again. I have not water-skied for 20+ years and was hoping the M with my motor would do the job. We had some brunch, coffee etc and headed out. Well, did we turn some heads? Lots of weekend traffic was coming and going from the popular spot as we were attempting our hair brained scheme. My friend’s 20year old son, never having skied, only once downhill when he was 10 years old, was unable to get up, or stay up. We gave up after 6 tries as he was cold and tired. The wind was picking up so we put all the gear away, hoisted the main and head across the lake for home. Wind was N at 15-25 kts, waves 3 feet or so, not bad, reefed main and 30% genny once again. Worked good for us as we held 5-7 mph for hours. We encountered one 26x on our way across. He was out with no main, 50% genny. We passed him like he was standing still. The young buck aboard asked if he was anchored. No, he just looks that way. We made it across the lake without a fuss. Once in the big deep bay I live on, the wind shifted to WNW and annoying guts to 30++. It was like someone was playing with the wind switch…on…off…full blast….light puff…N…WNW…etc. I was starting to get PO as my hands were turning blue with the wind chill at 0c and sailing for hours. I said that’s enough of that and put the sails away, configured for HS motoring and took off for a nice sheltered anchorage. Once there, the sun came out, temp rose, had some good food, things heated up nicely. I got a head strong idea that although the wind was still up just beyond our little hiding spot and the water was 61f, I was going to try waterskiing myself. I put on my full wetsuit, LJ, grabbed the skis and jumped into the water. With my trusted friend at the helm and his son spotting for him, I gave the thumbs up and he hit the throttle. I was up, felt like the engine died suddenly, and took a nose dive, skis came off, and I sat there wondering what the heck happened. Turns out my friend thought his son yelled stop, when actually he yelled HE’s UP!! Anyway, attempt #2 was a success and up I went. I gave the helmsman one instruction….keep me 100 feet off the north shore so I can stay out of the high winds and rougher sees. He turned right instead of left and took me right out into the middle of the bay. I held on for 5 min waving at the spotter to take me in closer to shore and take a picture of me back there. Neither signal was received or understood. Alas I let go and sank back into the water. At least I know the boat can pull a 200+ pound man up on skis and go fast enough to have some fun. Just what I was hoping for.

All in all a great trip with lots of memories and lessons learned for all.

VIDEO

SLIDE SHOW
G

[mod]ModEdit: Moving to E&V ~fc[/mod]

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eric3a said:

Seems there's a universal law of anchoring in quiet places. Whenever you find a great spot and anchor/moor all alone, a huge boat soon shows up and crowds you, however much space there is.

Another different, but yet similar comparison…….Walk into an almost empty restaurant. Maybe 50 empty tables to choose from. Sit down at a nice quiet table away from everything and everyone. A few minutes later another couple comes in and sits down right next to you. They had almost 50 tables to sit at but they sit right next to you. This seems to happen frequently. Very annoying.

Hi Eric

Looked like your sail wasn't far from self destructing

I lost 2 of my 4 battens, the lower 2. One before I figured I should have reefed the main a while back, and the other 1 hour later.

Waves never look as big on photo/video as they do in real life

The pics and video were taken a couple hours before it got crazy. Funny how when you are afraid for your life, and in that water temp we would not have lasted long, life jackets or not, the last thing we were thinking about was getting a picture of what we ended up in.

I put in a third reef on my sail just for those rare cases when you do get caught out.

I was happy to keep sailing in that stuff, right up until I kept loosing steering with the much higher waves. These babies were not swells, the were 6-10 footers about 20 feet apart. This boat is what I call a bobber, she sits right on top of the water, not much below waterline. What a roller-coaster ride. Remember we were at a beam reach. The waves were coming at us at 90 deg. The whole boat would shoot up into the air, and slide back down the other side causing the next wave to crash over our port side. No wonder I was the only one left in the cockpit.

So you didn't think about hoisting your heavy spinnaker?

I have found with this boat being so light and tender, I only use the spin in light winds. She gets overpowered easily it seems.

Sometimes when the harbor entrance becomes too dangerous, the best is to stay out and take your beating,

You are 100% correct. We should have tried to get behind that entrance and anchor, wait it out, then head for the entrance when it was much calmer. That was one of the lessons I learned. Albeit, too late.

the 50HP pulls me on my skurf and on a kneeboard. Something to do when the wind isn't good. And it does surprise the hull out of everyone else on the water.

For sure, and that it exactly what I was hoping the boat would do, something for every kind of weather, wind or no.

Seems there's a universal law of anchoring in quiet places

So it would seem.

Cheers

G

Beene,

Were the high winds you speak of in the Toronto area this past Saturday? I was in Toronto this past weekend and the wind on Saturday, on shore inland, were very heavy. I was wondering what it might be like to go out sailing in them.

johnnyonspot

I was on Lake Simcoe, just north of Toronto, and yes this past Sat/Sun.

I was VERY VERY GLAD I was NOT on Lake Ontario as the waves would have been much worse.

Our wind was NW and N so the farther we got out onto Simcoe, the worse the waves got.

I would not have CHOSEN to go out on that KNOWING it was going to be THAT BAD


It's one thing to swamp a CL16, and another to roll our Mac in the middle of a big lake where land is mostly not visible and the water is Freekin freezing

Cheers

G

Beene

I could have lent you my floating survival suite Na maybe not I'd have to chase you down to get it back but their nice & warm & help keep you dry. the last time I was out in L. Simcoe in a strom heading to Orrilla the waves were 6ft -8ft did'nt bother me much but they were only 6ft - 10ft apart very rough & wet ride winds from the north wearing only shorts & t-shirt got into orrilla close to midnight shaking so bad from freezing my but off an as blue as the sea had a h_ll of a time lowering the mast to get under that hiway bridge 22FT clearance
Now Georgian Bay 12ft - 15ft swells 35ft-45ft apart now thats really exciting stuff & for the most part you can keep dry gets alittle scary sometimes when you bury the bow up to the second window black stripe what a roller coaster ride . wish I had been with you on that last trip nice movie could not down load the pic's Think you should think about the bigger Idasailor rudders can't wait to try mine out
See Ya When I get back from the west coast

Cheers John

Beene

Was I able to download the pic's at home very nice work

Sail repair tape folded over the end of the main sail batten openings will keep ya from losing them battens guess W/M is in for a visit 2 battens please

Will try & post Pic's of my boat slip 3yrs in the waiting & with hydro before I leave ok

Cheers John

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Great log entry Beene! Glad all ended well. Thanks for taking us along!

~Bob

Eric


Hope you don't have to wait 6 wks like I did but got them on know

John

Beene, i think you were wery smart to went back home with no damnages to your boat and crew.

As you said the mac is like a ".....bobber, she sits right on top of the water".... and in those conditions its wery easy to loose the steering with wawes from behind.With that keel profile it doesnt a matter if the rudders are a little bigger or not.( i read something about the IDARUDDERS but would like to know if those rudders really improve the steering on the mac).
On our boat, sometime its difficult to take the control of the boat against wawes done by other boats when those come from the backstay.

As i remember to myself, in Europe the Mac is CE certificate for coast sailing with mo more than 30 knots of wind and waves no highter than 2 mt.

thanks to sharing your experience.
But, in those conditions, sailing a Mac could be a nightmare.
Better stay away , watching waves and wind between a longue window.

Every sailing boat has its safety range of conditions for sailing. 18 knots by engine is a good think to come back home asap.


The only questions that i ask to you are:
- why leaving the coast with 20 knots and followin goin forward when it went to 25-30 kn ? i think u took a great chanse.
You said the wind came by your shoulders, so going forward means that it increased.
- reading your story , you said that, after you tried a lots of different approachs, you ended up goin with ballast full etc....
well , my question is, did u empty your ballast in the middle of the lake , between waves and wind, then you filled it up again, or what???

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The weather man seemed to err all weekend. The Admiral and I decided to head for Toronto from Oakville (20 NMs). We checked two sources for weather. Light and variable was the forecast so I was wondering whether there would be enough wind. It was evident leaving the harbor that the weather man was wrong. Winds were perfect 10NMs from the NW. After a few hours of lovely sailing, the wind very suddenly changed to the North and increased in velocity very dramatically. We were suddenly heeled over 30 degrees and the Admiral was shouting to smarten up. That means that I should get it back to under 20 degrees. Sure!

It was too late for reefing in quiet conditions. We were very suddenly in 5 footers and the wind was howling. It was getting worse fast. Lucky for me the wind clocked around to the NE which allowed me to point right at the CN Tower (the world's largest man-made reference point). I pinched my way to Toronto, slowly but steadily, occasionally getting slammed by some tall ones (7-8 footers) which slowed my progress and occasionally sprayed me. Prescott Coast Guard radio announed a small craft wind advisory, 2 hours after the ordeal began.

The maximum winds were 35 mph I learned later. It really was manageable but I should have reefed. It would have allowed faster passage.

Why didn't I reef you ask? Because I didn't want to go forward. The way I have it set up, I would have had to go up to remove the sail slug stopper. I chickened out. Looking back on it, I regret not reefing. I carry a small storm sail and this day presented an ideal opportunity to try it out. I blew it.

Anyway, we made it in safely and didn't break anything. The Admiral was below all the while, dry and reading a book. At one point when the wind was howling its loudest, she stuck her head up looked around 360 degrees and commented that there were no other boats out. I explained that I couldn't go in because of the conditions. She went back to her book.

We docked just at dusk and spoke to another transient on a Balboa 42. He commented that he had arrived before 5 PM and motored most of the way across the Lake from Alcott, NY. He must have been experiencing the light and variable conditions in the earlier weather reports.

That is one tricky lake. I saw a TV show one time that said that Lake Ontario has the greatest number of shipwrecks of the Great Lakes.

Reef early is a wise warning; but what should we do when it is obviously too late because things changed very fast?

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