Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on October 22, 2005 at 08:51:31 from 80.3.128.6 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Re: Finish on Scarab and Trafalgar-apologia pro vita mea posted by Peter H on October 21, 2005 at 15:11:31:
(I wonder what would have happened if Swallow had 'turned turtle'?)
I happen to know. As a teenager I had a heavy old 15 footer not dissimilar to Swallow which everybody thought was uncapsizeable. She wasn't.
A couple of miles from the shore we were hit by what looked like quite a modest squall. It wasn't. She went over with frightening speed and rolled completely upside down. The two of us - not wearing lifejackets - nobody did in those days - climbed onto the upturned boat and waited quite comfortably until somebody came and picked us up.
It was a good thing that she did roll right over as once pulled onto her side she sank - no buoyancy either - but fortunately there was a rope tied onto her by then so she was got to the shore.
Since then I have always made sure that any boat I sailed in had either a ballast keel or enough buoyancy to keep afloat - in fact I went onto racing dinghies soon after where a capsize didn't usually even involve getting wet or - more importantly - losing a place in the race.