Dauphin Island Regatta Tragedy

Sailing to the Bahamas, I couldn't make the race again this year but have friends who were there when the winds whipped up to over 60 mph as a severe thunderstorm roared through. One person dead, four still missing, multiple capsizes.

According to the Mobile Press Register, Randy Rutledge and his girlfriend lost their boat and waited two hours for rescue. Glad to hear they're ok. Prayers to the families.

Here's a link.

http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2015/04/dauphin_island_regatta_sailors.html

I watched that news link. My oh My.
:0
While I have experienced (sailed into and out of...) a "line squall" of maybe 20 minutes duration and winds to about 35-ish in the spring here, what hit those folks was a whole magnitude or four greater!

I hope Randy will check in & give us a first hand narrative, when he feels up to approaching the keyboard to do so.

Loren

Randy's profile lists a Mirage 236, apparently he was sailing that one.

Dauphin Island Race

Christian Williams said:

Randy's profile lists a Mirage 236, apparently he was sailing that one.

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I live close to Rome, Georgia where Randy Rutledge is from. I am glad that Randy survived this disaster. We had a member of our Yacht Club participate in this regatta and I have not heard how he is. He was sailing on a Catalina 25 with some friends and I just hope he is ok too. Dan Callen Ericson 32-3 Andiamo

Christian Williams said:

Randy's profile lists a Mirage 236, apparently he was sailing that one.

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Randy has sailed this race every year for several years, he typically trailers his E29.

He recently purchased another E29, I suspect he was sailing one of those.

Randy Rutledge was briefly interviewed on the CBS evening news news tonight. I thought I remembered that name from this site. My heart goes out to Randy, his crew and to all involved in this terrible tragedy. This is just awful.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sailors-missing-in-alabama-after-storm-hits-regatta/

Christian Williams said:

Randy's profile lists a Mirage 236, apparently he was sailing that one.

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Christian, you may be right about the boat I just read some of the news reports.

Two friends of mine showed me their sails which are shredded today.
The captain said they heard from another boat on VHF that there
was a severe storm by the MS/AL border on the way. He said they
had a sliver if Jib out and were just finishing putting in the second reef
when it hit. He said the boat was over on the toe rail with the windows
in the water. 10 foot seas were hitting them. I asked how long the blow
lasted to which he replied 40 minutes

We get violent squals through here often but none last that long! We usually drop sails and start the motor.

Randy and Morgan visited us last year, nice folks. Glad they're ok.

Good to be alive

I will give an account of the event soon.

WEAR YOUR VEST they are much better than the throwable cushion I clung to for over two hours. Morgan my girlfriend returned to the boat and retrieved that blue square seconds before Shakedown (Mirage 236) slipped beneath the waves and handed it to me sieving my life.

To be continued.

P.s.

Thanks for your thoughts and concern, Keep the families of thus ;lost or missing in your prayers.

We are blessed to be alive.

New York Times account:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/us/2-dead-after-storm-strikes-alabama-sailing-regatta.html?_r=0

I can vouch for the ten seconds and the wall of who knows what, well I know what, it was HELL. The wind was relentless and picked the bow up as she rolled to port, the transom on the port side went under and then she lay over on the port rail mast in the water and she was at that point never going to roll back up with 80+ knot wind blowing on a 9' 4" beam.

To be continued.

Wear a vest

Glad that you and the Admiral are back safe, Randy!!!

Thanks Keith,

We are still hoping to relocate the boat and retrieve her. Thursday morning the CG called with her location and when the recovery team made it to the site she was not there. Still hoping but we are alive and that is what matters. Not sure how sailing will be after this. We plan to race a 12 mile race at lake Weiss Saturday at the club on Rumkin. Back on an Ericson for racing.

Wow, what a terror - so glad you and your girlfriend are OK. Not sure this link has been posted yet - Randy and Morgan's video interview, on the USA Today website:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/28/alabama-regatta-storm-georgia-couple/26497663/

Not that this compares, but three years ago I was out with my wife, her friend, and our 8-year-old daughter on Long Island Sound. It was a beautiful day but a wall of clouds loomed on the horizon and I decided to get back to the mooring. About 45 seconds after we tied up, what turned out to be a small tornado hit the area and the boat heeled wildly and sent stuff flying through the cabin while we were on the mooring. Elsewhere on the sound people were thrown from their boats and at least one person died, though I think it was from a heart attack after being in the water. I don't know what would have happened had we still been underway; I don't like to think about it. My wife, never particularly fond of sailing to begin with, hasn't been on the boat since.

You just can't be too cautious out there, even in protected waters.

We are shaken and evaluating where we go from here. Morgan (AKA Rhonda) looked at me so sadly last night and said "we don't have a race boat" we will be doing 12 mile race at Lake Weiss Sat. to see how we feel. Rumkin will be quite a bit different to the Mirage 236 but I think her size will help us get our sea legs back. I will be wearing a coastal self inflating vest. I still feel that a vest in calm weather is overkill but that is how I got to swim with the little square throw able cushion during the storm, as my son says don't dress for the ride, dress for the crash.

Our warning was only a minute at best and bear poles would still have been enough to cause her to blow over and sink in the wind we had.

PDF thoughts

Randy Rutledge said:

We are shaken and evaluating where we go from here. Morgan (AKA Rhonda) looked at me so sadly last night and said "we don't have a race boat" we will be doing 12 mile race at Lake Weiss Sat. to see how we feel. Rumkin will be quite a bit different to the Mirage 236 but I think her size will help us get our sea legs back. I will be wearing a coastal self inflating vest. I still feel that a vest in calm weather is overkill but that is how I got to swim with the little square throw able cushion during the storm, as my son says don't dress for the ride, dress for the crash.

Our warning was only a minute at best and bear poles would still have been enough to cause her to blow over and sink in the wind we had.

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For whatever it's worth, nowadays most everyone here on our "little" river does wear their vest for day sailing and racing. Kathy and I have the newer type hydro release self-inflating vests with built-in harness. It's nice to have an easy-to-wear safety combo that we can also clip a whistle onto or a small night light.

http://www.mustangsurvival.com/recreational/md3184-02?division=recreation&country=25

Take care,
Loren

My wife and I stayed onboard last night anchored in Big Lagoon. When we awoke this morning there was a small craft advisory with ESE winds blowing 15-24 kts. As we came through the Pensacola Land Cut we encountered opposing wind and tide. We were motoring in irons and had 6-8 ft short period waves coming over the bow that would almost make the boat go backwards.

I thought of you Randy as we put on our PFDs. I hope we see you back down this way under better circumstances.

Stay safe!

Rick, a 32 foot boat is much better than my little blue cushion for those conditions and after Mobile 24 knot winds seems like light air sailing.

I have to wait and see how I feel with time, I don't know if GittinAir will see the coast or not. Morgan talks about the BEER cruise then backs off the idea.

SHAKEDOWN has risen

Tuesday May 12 at around 09:00 Morgan (my girlfriend) called and said she had awaken herself saying Angels go our and fine our boat and our stuff and repeated it as she was waking up, as we talked I walked into my bath room and where my black shaving kit was sitting I saw her brown fringed leather purse that had gone down on the boat. This is not the kind of thing that happens to me. Six hours later I got a call, about 15:00 telling me SHAKEDOWN had been located (for the second time Shakedown had been located, first time we hauled down to get her she wasn't there when Tow Boats US got out there) This time she was there.

Wednesday evening around 19:00 we were reunited with our boat. The mast broken just above the lowers, main hatch missing and the lens out of the forward hatch, leaving her wide open for the current to wash everything out of the boat. It didn't, almost everything that went down was still there, a couple of jackets and probably a few other little things weren't on her.

The main hatch, lens to forward hatch, half the mast and some rigging are gone, the rudder is split partway up the back and she had a truck load of mud in her.

The only piece of electronics to survive was a $12 wrist watch from wally world that was my backup watch for race starts (water proof items 2 GPS 2, VHF handheld and a fixed VHF all dead) the Casio phone had worked for 45 minutes past the other phones when friends were calling to check on us.

She was on the bottom for 18 days and will be leading the pack at club races by the end of the summer.