The launch ramp being across Somers Cove from the marina, each two-person team split up: one sailing the boat across the cove, the other ferrying car and trailer to the Somers Cove Marina parking lot. With wind dead astern, Uncle Al (above) chose to sail Hans' beloved Nutshell over under jib alone. - click here to see full-size pic

So, Dick, Tony and Al all turned back immediately, Al (above) using this opportunity to see if he could sail upwind under jib alone. Provided he kept his speed up, the board fully down, and the jib not cranked in too hard, Al found The Nutshell well up to the challenge of beating under jib alone, something worth knowing for who knows what emergencies.

Upon getting back to the launch area, we learned that Team Girard had evidently not seen the launch ramps here, and been under the mistaken impression that they needed to drive back down the road to the Coastguard launch area next door. Early in this little jaunt, their mast met overhead wires which ripped off their forestay and wire jib halyard and brought the mast crashing down. "I specialize in communications wires," was André's reaction, I believe. Fortunately the mast was bent but not kinked and could thus be straightened and re-used, and Roger and André did not have to cancel their cruise as they had at first been sure would be the case. I believe the guys supported the mast on a couple of our trailers with the worst of the bend in a gap of about ten feet between the supports. Then repeated judicious bounces of body weight at the point of maximum bend slowly reduce the bend, is the way I saw George Blanchard do this. By the time I got there, the mast had been rendered functional once more, though a picture just past half-way down the Watts Island page shows W3098 at anchor with a mast that still could use more bend reduction.

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