Page 8 - CYAA 2022 Winter Series Race 7 story 31st July
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we saw two of them off the Werribee last readings was 34 knots. had little working electronic navigation
River. Martini was starting to carry a bit of water and were navigating by eye only. We
The waves then became really steep. below. The bilge pumps (plural) appeared were heading straight for them.
Martini was doing it hard as the sheets to be holding, but water coming in from At this time an inflatable lilo in the shape
to the No 3 headsail didn’t have every orifice. Strangely, the cabin smelt of a giant thong in the colour of the Aussie
the right angle and the sail was not strongly of beer and I saw that the half Flag was being blown fast across the
driving properly. a dozen light beers had been so shaken water at great speed just in front of us.
Forward I went again for my next around that they had erupted. (Luckily Had we been 15 seconds faster it would
the heavy beer was fine) These light
swim. Then south of Werribee a set beers created more serious damage but have embedded itself on our mainsail.
of 3 metre waves appeared, an amazing more on that later. (Note to self, ‘Never All I could think of at the time was that
sight! 1. I believe that we were hit ever buy light beer again!’) Then (with it would have made a good life raft! We
after 4PM it was about then the wind hindsight) I think we hit something in then had to tack out from the Point Richards
speed went really high. I actually the water as the water level inside the channel marker which seemed to take
missed seeing the first large wave cabin started to rise. But we kept going an eternity. The waves here were very
as I was checking below and had and for the next three hours we just held confused and the ride was really bumpy.
just noted the strong smell of light on, hoping for the wind to abate. We We rounded this mark at 1730. It was
beer and found stubbies popping saw a lovely patch of blue sky and thought time to go below and concentrate on getting
but on Michael’s shout to ‘hold on, the wind would drop below it ... but it the excess water out of the boat. Around
there is an enormous wave’ After didn’t. this time the cabin filled with smoke and
the bounce I quickly came up with I thought I saw a small fire start. I shouted
a glance at the wind instrument. With The water had now affected more ‘Fire!’ to warn Michael that we maybe in
the wind still at 34 knots we took electronics including my mobile phone. big trouble.
on two further huge waves and survived. The spray coming across the bow had My first thought was everything, and I
I am a bit vague on exact details, now turned into great sheets of water mean EVERYTHING was saturated with
a lot was happening. and this was becoming painful on the water so how the hell could anything burn.
I didn’t think that this could happen face. But we kept going. It’s a male A bilge pump had failed and the wire
in Port Phillip. Water was now flowing thing. I will remember this 8-hour insulation had melted, the fire being the
everywhere across Martini and our shower for a long time! Then a clip glow of molten wire before the fuse blew.
wind speed instrument started to holding the bottom of the No 3 head I shut down power to everything and performed
fail. The previous week I had rebuilt sail to the forward stay tore out. As some quick checks and a temporary repair
the forward hatch, made it really we were close to the lee shore we while Martini bounced along like a cork.
water tight and added an extra clip were worried about the sail failing and I got one pump going but now the water
to hold it down .Thank heavens I so had to do a patch. was getting higher and so for the next
did this! If it came off we would have By now we were heading down to hour tested the hand bilge pump. At 1930
taken on lots of water and sunk. Portarlington near the mussel beds. We hours we raced down towards Point Henry
One of the wind speed instruments and realised that we had to cross the
finish line before sundown (2040 hours)
