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This year at the Utah Summer games we all had a wild ride. This is our story, and if you where there, or have another war stories feel free to comment, and I will post them. As for us, this is our story.

It started out around 12:00 noon. It actually started out as a slow day, and we where thinking that it was going to be another slow race day. We started out barely making out boat go, and just about everyone was going about the same speed we where. Finally we got out to the course, and the wind started to pick up, it actually looked like it was going to be a nice day to race. The wind was good, and it could push us around the lake pretty well. After the fist race, we started into the second, and the wind started to blow even harder. Half way thought the second race we noticed that there where some black clouds building out to the south of us. This was a little concerning, but didn’t think much of it at the time.

After rounding the first mark, we made our down wind run, and the wind really started to pick up, and we where diving through waves, and going like crazy! The wind would just blow even harder, and you could just feel the boat lurch forward even more. What a cool experance! We Where moving pretty good, and made up some time on the leader.

After rounding the second mark, we tacked to make it back to the start/finish line. About 10 seconds after making the tack, we had to let out our sails all the way, the wind was just blowing to hard, and the sail started curving in two different directions, almost immediately after that we capsized. I went through the boom, and the tramp, wile my Dad was holding on to the top hull. The boat ended up turtling. Then we managed to get the boat back on it’s side, and we just climbed in between the hulls, and stayed there. The wind was really strong, and it now started to rain. The next thing we know, the wind picked up under the sails, and righted the boat.

Getting dumped in the lake again, the boat continued to sail away without us for about 20 feet, before capsizing again. We both swam for it, and just as we reached the boat, the wind cought the jib, and started pushing it down the lake at what we think was around 4 knots. Wile Terry was holding on to the main sheet to try and keep the main sail down, Tyler was holding on to the tiller bar. Dragging us down the lake for a ways, one of the boats that was helping out at the summer games came by and told us to turtle the baot, wich is what we did. It didn’t take much. We climbed on, and held on to the windward hull for around 20 – 25 minutes. The entire time we watched 4 – 6 foot ways come and beat against the hulls.

Finally the harbor patrol boat came around and told us to get in. Tyler stepped on the top of the hull, and got on fairly quickly. Terry was just about to get in the boat, when he stepped off the tramp and into the water. It took about three people to get him into the boat. We then picked up another guy who was on a lazer, and had hypothermia pretty bad. We then came back into the harbor, where ambulances where waiting to take the colder people in and get them warm. Fortunately we had our family drive around, and where there to meet us. After getting in the car, turning the heat up all the way and shivering for about 35 minutes, we got warm.

Later on we found out that we where in 65+ mph wind, and the water tempeture was around 58 degrees. A few hours later the lake was perfectly calm, and we cought a ride out to our boat. We wondered what kind of shape it would be in, and on our way out we say our sail pop up. The coast guard righted our boat, and when we got there, we just sat down, and got towed back in. About half way in the wind started to blow just a little bit, and finding out we could still sail her, we started beating the tow boat, so she came in under her own power!

The damage wasn’t to bad, we ended up having a broken shackle for the jib sail, and our rudders had a chunk taken out of the back from Tyler hanging on to them. Otherwise it looked pretty good! We felt very fortunate as other boats where not as lucky. Bret Bingham’s boat had his mast broken, and twist off the top. Another boat was pushed up against the rocks, and had two pretty large holes in it. We realize it could have been a lot worse for us, and feel very luck to have survived. At least now we have a new set of skills to know what to do when the weather turns bad, and can handle a situation like this next time with more skill.

Here are a few pictures of the aftermath.

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