Website error put Dauphin Island Regatta racers into deadly storm

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 29 Apr 2015 A website error is being blamed for delaying the start of the 2015 Dauphin Island Race, a postponement that meant boats were still racing when a violent squall hit Mobile Bay, overturning many boats and drowning at least five sailors.

An official at Fairhope Yacht Club, which hosted the event, told local news source Alabama meia al.om on Tuesday that concerns about stormy weather had nothing to do with the delay in the start of Saturday's race, and that organizers had no idea that the day would bring a sudden blast of gale-force conditions.

Many sailors have reported that the start times for Saturday's race were delayed by about 90 minutes. Some have said they heard the race initially was canceled, then reinstated. According to a race official, the confusion stemmed from an erroneous cancellation announcement posted to Fairhope Yacht Club's website.

The later start meant that most of the race's participants were still on the water when a violent squall enveloped Mobile Bay at about 3 p.m.

Near hurricane-force wind and abnormally high eight-foot waves in the shallow bay contributed to at least 10 boats capsizing. Three of the boats known to have flipped were sailing in the regatta.

Numerous reports indicate that some of the boats were still racing toward the finish line north of the Dauphin Island Bridge when the storm overtook them, while others had crossed the line and were making their way toward their home marinas.

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According to al.com Fairhope Yacht Club Commodore Gary Garner confirmed the following on Tuesday.

'Shortly before eight o'clock the morning of the race, regatta officials contacted their Web producer via telephone and gave instructions to publish the race scratch sheets on their website. The scratch sheets provide the names of every boat registered in one of the three classes set to sail that day and their start time.

'Because of a bad or 'garbled' phone connection, however, the Web producer instead heard that the race itself was a 'scratch.' Scratch is another term for cancel.

'A message announcing the race cancellation popped up on the FYC site at approximately 8 a.m.

'Race officials were alerted to the message within about 15 minutes when sailors from all around Mobile Bay began calling to verify its accuracy.

'The message was removed from the website at about 8:30 a.m.'

An issue arose, however, since some sailors from western shore clubs had not yet begun the hour-long trip across the bay to meet their scheduled 9:30 a.m. start.

Wes Stanley, a Mobile Yacht Club member, said he started receiving calls from fellow MYC members at about 7:45 a.m. Saturday wondering whether the race had been cancelled as the Web site indicated.

He said he contacted the Dauphin Island Race Principal Race Officer Randy Fitz-Wainwright, who was unaware of any such web message. He said that Fitz-Wainwright checked the situation, described the message as an error and told him that the race was a go.

After consulting with other racers, Stanley said he asked Fitz-Wainwright whether a postponement might be possible to allow boats just leaving the western shore to make their starting time.

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Fairhope Yacht Club race officials agreed to the 60-minute postponement.

That grew to a 90 minutes, however, becauseof a general recall.

The first sailing boats were gunned away on the 18 nautical mile course at 11 a.m., an hour and a half after the originally scheduled starting time.

Please follow the link to read the original source story:

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

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