Sharing your capsize photos - part 4
by Steavenson, Mander, Pritchett, Wilkinson & Gruitt 4 May 03:47 PDT
Firefly landing at Priors Haven through surf in 1963 © Robin Steavenson
We start our fourth capsize celebration article with this wonderful vintage shot sent in by Howard Steavenson of a beach recovery at Tynemouth, UK, in 1963. What a way to come ashore!
One of my father's photos of a Firefly landing at Priors Haven through surf generated during a week of SE gales.
I am reliably informed that the crew (the one astride the port shroud) went on to enjoy a happy married life!
Next up is a potentially painful gymnastic manoeuvre in which Stuart Mander surprised even himself.
This was Sunday club racing in an International Moth (Magnum 6) at Greensforge Sailing Club.
I didn't know my legs did that!
Now we have a romantic story from Gray Pritchett concerning the World Masters in Sydney.
We were sailing in the Tasar class and a squall came through that looked pretty bad. When it hit I decided to run with it and head into Rose Bay for shelter, but unfortunately the rudder broke - you can just see it behind my wife.
So we're sitting on the upturned boat waiting for the squall to pass and she says, "Take a photo." (I had a waterproof Panasonic camera in my pocket.)
It was a great series. We sailed against Prince Frederick of Denmark and I managed to convince the bride to sail the last race in really miserable conditions after she had expressed unwillingness. I noticed the Prince had retired, so I explained all we have to do is finish and we will beat him overall. That's all it took; we did finish and ended up one place ahead of him overall. The closest I've ever got to royalty!
Daryl Wilkinson and Ben Brown have shared this brilliantly-timed photo from the 2006 Cherub Inlands at Queen Mary SC.
The boat was 2685 Loco Perro, the first Cherub to adopt the 2005 rules rigs which increased sail area and formalised twin wires.
From memory it was quite a gusty day and we got caught out close to the leeward mark. I [Ben] was helming and had come in from the wire ready for the drop and had missed the gust. Daryl is being particularly flamboyant in his exit over the back, whereas my instinct was to cling on and pretend that everything was fine!
Our video entry this week comes from sailing photographer Tom Gruitt who had the chance to test a Hadron.
She was planing along beautifully, but I took my eye off the ball...