A fun daysail becomes a cascading series of unexpected events when the weather turns for John Churchill, Sail Magazine:

When several members of our Florida sailing club, the West Coast Trailer Sailors Squadron, decided to get together for a group daysail on a recent September morning, I knew I wanted to go along. I’d never sailed at the Dunedin Causeway, and I’m always up for a fun sail on Transmogrifier, my repurposed Thistle.

Despite a weather radar showing thunderstorms, they were moving away when we convened, and we had blue skies, a few puffy clouds overhead, a gentle breeze, and pleasant temperatures following the storms.

In the light breeze, I left the beach under full main and jib. I’d acquired Transmogrifier as a derelict hulk, but now with her cockpit decked over and a full-width cabintop, she’s a great beach cruiser, which I’ve dubbed a ThistleCruiser. Originally intended for a crew of three, she is over-canvassed for a solo sailor, making for fast and exciting light air sailing.

But her modified self-bailing cockpit makes her self-rescuing, and with her heavily weighted centerboard, she is nearly self-righting. I have modified her rig a bit with a masthead float, a freestanding roller furling jib and three reefs in the main. I knew from our club’s recent capsize clinic that she is hard to capsize and easy to right.

But today was to be an education, and it started shortly after I left the beach. Unfamiliar with the shoals, I found myself playing the centerboard pennant as much as the sheets. The pennant had gathered a couple of half hitches, so I brought her head to wind to sort them out. I thought it would just take a moment…then she tacked, and with the sheets still cleated and my weight to leeward, over she went. While some other club members were a bit concerned, I was mostly embarrassed at my foolish carelessness. I was able to quickly right her and resume sailing.

The wind gradually picked up a bit and Transmogrifier became overpowered. I tried to roll up the jib, but the attachment of the tack to the luff wire failed and prevented furling, so I simply dropped it and stuffed it into the forward anchor well. A bit later I took in the first reef, and she became much more docile while remaining speedy.

The group’s goal was a nearby spoil island. As I got closer to the island, I saw that dark clouds had started approaching from the north and west. A thunderstorm was likely. After watching the sky and considering the options for a few minutes, I decided to return to the launch area. As I headed back, I hailed Tom in his Sea Pearl, and he said the group’s plan was to shelter behind the island if weather came. This seemed an attractive option offering continued sailing and remaining with the others, so I turned and resumed my original course.

It only took a minute or two to realize that I was once again about to make a familiar mistake of trusting others’ judgment over my own. Reversing course yet again, I had a nice broad reach back to the beach and made it safely before the storm arrived. As the dark clouds neared, I got the wet sails off the boat quickly and stowed them in my truck, leaving the boat pulled up on the beach.

Before I could retrieve Transmogrifier, I had to help another club member who was having trouble with their rig. By the time that was squared away, the wind had shifted, gotten gusty, and the first few heavy raindrops were starting to fall. I backed my trailer into the water and got out to retrieve the boat. And that’s when it got interesting, as she wasn’t where I had just left her.

The gusts had pushed her off the beach and she was being blown downwind, along the beach but somewhat divergent. I chased after her, gaining at first, but as I got into thigh-deep water, my progress slowed. I turned and slogged back ashore, sprinted along the beach to get ahead of her, and splashed out towards her, swimming the last bit. At the last moment, I was able to grab the mainsheet that was trailing astern.

I mistakenly thought I had things under control. Standing, I now realized I was in neck-deep water. Between the wind on the boat and a soft bottom below, I couldn’t pull the boat towards shore by walking. I tried pulling her while swimming, which was equally ineffective. After splashing, slogging, sprinting, pulling, and swimming, I was becoming exhausted. – Full Story