Shortly after commissioning Knot Again the Admiral and I started cruising. Knot Again is a C&C 35 MK III, a great racer cruiser. When we cruise with the many cruisers of our club, we are often the first boat in port and have a head start on sundowners and party planing. Chardonnay time is a real favorite aboard our boat. Knot Again is a stable, fast, roomy and well-found vessel. She has gotten us through some very uncomfortable experiences, which in hindsight may have been hurled at us by Poseidon and his pal, Aoleus. (see Wind; Lats and Att’s issue 97, June 2008). We also race her and have collected a boatload of silver over the years.
My son, Adam (not the owner of this blog), loves Knot Again. Shortly after the name change he and I and four other stalwarts entered the Around Long Island Regatta. As far as ocean races go, this one is a short race of about 200 miles. The course is to keep Long Island to your left from start to finish. The start is off Breezy Point and there is a 100 mile easterly ocean leg taking you to Montauk Light where a sharp left turn takes you northwesterly through Plum Gut into Long Island Sound. You then head west until the finish at Hempstead Harbor. The only really dangerous part of the trip is through Plum Gut where the tides often exceed your boat speed and, when cleared through the gut, there are underwater spires that reach to about 6’ from the surface if your stray too far left after entering the Sound. For most boats, this is no problem however; if your keel is 6.5’, beware!
Here is where this gets weird. Ariadne is not what you would call a common name these days. One of my crew had a new daughter and her name was, you guessed it, Ariadne! Having excessive scientific hubris, I did not connect the dots and see what was coming. After about 80 miles of beautiful sailing, we set the chute for a reach to Montauk. Most of the crew was new to the boat, as were its owners. My foredeck man, a very nice bloke nick named Sven was used to manhandling the spinnaker pole on the boat he raced on. Knot Again had a roller bearing car on which the pole could be easily raised and lowered on its track. The wind lightened and I called for the pole to be raised to increase the belly in the sail. Sven, thinking that he would have to manhandle the pole upward, released the up-haul line from its cleat and gave a mighty tug. He positioned himself over the pole in order to get good leverage and when he pulled the pole, now released and riding on its ball bearing car, it flew up and caught him on the chin where he almost bit his tongue off. I gave him some ice to suck on and after a while, the bleeding stopped. OUCH, one crew down.
We made the turn at Montauk and had a lovely run through Plum Gut. Then we met it. The boat was an Express 38. It was, believe it or not, named Cerberus. I was down below trying to sleep and my son Adam was on the helm. We had th
e big chute up and were doing about 8 knots. We were flying. Cerberus. Not even in our class came chasing after Knot Again, or was he chasing down Persephone who has escaped from Hell. Cerberus had rights and pushed us left. Adam, now too busy racing and not acutely aware of the hazards lying below was actually going faster that Cerberus and almost was abeam to regain rights (back then, mast abeam was still in the racing rules). Just a few seconds from safety, I was awoken from my sleep by a loud and horrific sound. Until I was re-aware of where I was, I thought a train hit us! When I popped my head up through the companionway and saw where we were, I instantly knew what had happened. I grabbed for my electric drill and started to undo the floor panels to see if we were taking on water – we were. At this point, I told the crew to put up the protest flag against Cerberus as he had pushed us into shoal water and after our crash did not stay to assist. I assigned the crew to the manual bilge to assist the electric pumps. I radioed the Brewer yard in Greenport, explained our circumstances and turned the boat around to go back through plum gut. We doused the sails and were able to equalize water coming in with water going out. OUCH, one boat down. We arrived at the travel lift at low tide. Water in equaled water out, that was good, however, draft also equaled depth, that was bad. We were barely able to make it into the slings under full power while making a gouge in the mud. When the boat was hauled, the front of the keel had a decided gap all around the front. The yard manager heard Ka-Ching as he surveyed the damage. Cerberus prevailed and had returned Persephone to Hell!
Twenty some thousand dollars later, I still did not get the message. A year or two later, while on the hard, a storm came up right after the boat was placed onto its jack stands. The yard had not yet installed the chains to prevent the stands from moving. The wind caught the cover and pulled it off the boat. The ties caught a jack stand and pulled it out from under the boat. Knot Again tumbled to the ground. My rod rigging sliced the mast of the Tartan next to me in two. My hull was scraped, but intact, however, my long keel was positioned at a new and unique angle and my rigging was toast. OH NO, Knot Again! Ka-Ching! Some thirty some thousand dollars later I got the message and appeased Poseidon. Since then we have enjoyed great cruising, escaped from Aoleus’ fury (see the wind article) and have had much success racing, coupled with wonderful cruises.