'Savage Beauty' Lost off SF

[GordMay]

Savage Beauty ravaged ➥ Sail-World.com : Images from 'Frisco: Savage Beauty ravaged

Death of a Beauty ➥ norcalsailing.com special report

[Sandero]

Very dumb sailing so close the those rocks, especially with a swell running. I'd be curious to see what the insurance company has to say about the incident.

[imagine2frolic]

This area is treachorous, and known to eat boats. Sounds to me like the race was more important than starting the motor earlier. Maybe instead of the Golden Gate racers should call it HELL'S GATE!.......i2f

[gonesail]

wow those are BIG rocks to be playing around with ..

[scotte]

The 'lectronic latitude write up has some interview with the crew (plus more pictures): Latitude 38 - The West's Premier Sailing & Marine Magazine

"We were constantly keeping an eye on the boats in front of us, to see how far inside they were going, [...] From past experience I've always known the area to be pretty deep. None of us felt like we were going extremely close or that any of the other boats were either."

As always, it's hard to say what happened unless you were on the boat and there to make the call. I'm scared to death to go anywhere close to those cliffs myself, but people do it frequently. If nothing else, this serves a good warning to everyone about treacherous submerged rocks in the area.

[imagine2frolic]

I have been caught outside the Gate with no wind. Wanting to return against the heart of the ebb. I found myself motoring backwards, and had to get close to the northern shore to make headway with chart in hand I might add. I NEVER NEVER go near the South Tower.....i2f

[CharlieCobra]

It seems that their prop got fouled and they didn't find out until they went to power off. A big swell (they were running 10' that day) pushed them onto the rocks.


To my knowledge, it's the first FT-10 Tiger to be lost.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by defjef

Very dumb sailing so close the those rocks, especially with a swell running. I'd be curious to see what the insurance company has to say about the incident.

...people back at the yacht club would have been saying how smart they were to get out of the current.

This is common race tactic in the gate, to try to beat contrary tides by riding the eddies. There are some races you just can't win without doing it.

I raced the doublehanded Farallones race a few years back and watched as a Wylie Cat went within a boat length of those rocks, and then later on scooted around the island more than a hundred yards closer than I deemed safe. He won the race, and I didn't. So which one of us was smarter?

[imagine2frolic]

Only because he made it back safely. It could've been the other way around though. I know coming from the east in racoon straights when I was just beginning. I was motoring against the current with nearly no wind. While a wee bit larger boat was spinning along in the ediies full sail up right against the rocks of Angel Island keeping up with me. Local knowledge everywhere is what can, and does make the difference. Now the owner of Savage Beauty has a wee bit more local knowledge, of where not to go........i2f

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by CharlieCobra

It seems that their prop got fouled and they didn't find out until they went to power off.

I believe that the prop was initially clear, but motoring wasn't able to break the keel free of the rocks. The sheet became wrapped around the prop during this attempt.

By the way, Savage Beauty didn't hit the rocky cliff, but fouled her keel on some submerged rocks (these are actually charted, or at least some rocks are shown in that area). Other than these isolated rocks, the water stays very deep right up to the cliff. I often ride the countercurrent in or out of the bay, but I am too chicken to get in very close. Of course, I don't win many races!

[sarafina]

man that sucks... great they all got off, but man what a heart breaker to watch her bust up on the rocks...

There's a reason that sailing the Bay is one of the best/toughest teachers in the world. Large LARGE amounts of water pushing and pulling thru narrow DEEP canyons... with surface tides pulled in two directions... and a confluence of weather and ocean currents that are rivaled by few other locations...

I had a day along time ago when it all went bad for us in a matter of about 4 minutes... and I only got the prop in the water and was able to motor off the west side of Treasure Island by the skin of my teeth.... just doin what we had done dozens of times before...

And I never win ANY races... way to not interested in loosing more of the skin on my teeth... When Himself talks about racing I smile and mention the Tuesday night beer can races around the corner... that will be just FINE for us!

The Bay is beautiful... but she can be deadly...

[Randy]

Originally Posted by sarafina

The Bay is beautiful... but she can be deadly...

It surely is beautiful and sometimes hazardous to say the least.