Winter 2005 - New England Multihull Association

scene within 20 minutes. They put two
men aboard - a medic to take my vitals,
and another man who stayed aboard
Arvinda to help Tom and Cindy. The
medic determined that I had dilated eyes
and a concussion; the two men evacuated
me onto the 25 footer, which I was
able to board with minimal assistance.
“That’s my seat, right?” I quipped, pointing
to the co-pilot’s swivel chair in the
doghouse, “And I’m driving.” “No, you’re
going to lie down in there,” responded
the bosun’s mate pointing to the forepeak.
“That looks like a bucking bronco
berth to me –I’d rather you pull the cushions
out so I can lie down right here.”
They obliged. I told the Coasties not to
bother calling Tow Boat/US as the owners
had no insurance, and if they were
going to tow Arvinda, they should keep
the speed down to under 10 knots
(Always the Captain, barking out orders).
They managed to rip out Arvinda’s bow
cleats in their enthusiasm to catch the
surf boat anyway, but it was darned nice
of them to provide Tom and Cindy with a
guest mooring in Point Judith when they
pulled in 20 minutes later.
The local fire department EMT’s
were waiting on the dock and lost no
time strapping the patient in and racing
to the local hospital. The dismasting was
at 14:15 and I found myself in South
County Hospital in Wakefield, RI by 15:30
- those Coasties do good work! The
technicians took xrays and a cat scan,
and the doctors determined that I needed
more help than they could render
(plastic surgery). They dosed me with
some morphine and shipped me off in an
ambulance bound for Mass General
Hospital in Boston where I was stitched
Arwinda under tow with broken mast
up in the emergency
ward and released
around midnight. I had
reconstructive surgery a
week later from which I’m
still recuperating.
Everything functions normally
and I have only a
small scar on the cheek
as visible reminder; the
facial bones served well,
protecting my eye, and I
was lucky not to lose any
teeth (or my life, for that
matter).
Aftermath: Arvinda
has been hauled out at
Tripp’s Marine in
Westport, MA, from
whence we took our illfated
departure. Tom and
Cindy continue their
odyssey aboard his
camper-converted van;
they are searching for
that magic bit of land in a
sunny clime where they
can park their home afloat.
I’ve advised them to forego a new mast
and put a second Yamaha 9.9 four stroke
on the port side to balance out the one
on starboard, and make the boat into a
motor cat. Two other experienced sailors
gave them the same opinion, completely
independent of mine!
I now have a bionic skull with 4 titanium
plates embedded, permanently
held in place by machine screws. Two
months later, recovery from the surgery
is slow but steady with lots of swelling
and numbed nerves which are slowly
coming back to life bit by bit; it looks like
I’ve had botox on the left side
of my face. This is expected
to go on for another month or
more. I’m off for another sailing
adventure on a delivery
from the Bahamas to Puerto
Rico in February. This time
the rig is a Composite
Engineering all carbon wingmast
on a solid 42' trimaran
platform.
–Tom Cox
Arwinda
Lessons learned:
1. Survey your boat before you
buy it; if you don’t know how, hire a
pro. Tom and Cindy went in “blind” on
a dream, and wound up paying full
rate for a poorly maintained vessel
which needed tons of work. With a
survey, they would have detected
many structural flaws which could
have been remedied before purchase,
factored in to a discounted price, or
steered them clear of the deal all
together.
2. Trust your guts. If the rig looks
shaky, don’t use it. Even though I personally
supervised the repairs to the
mast during haul-out, I knew it was
under-engineered and poorly constructed.
In hindsight, any wind over
15 knots was simply too much for this
rig, even with the tiny scraps of sail
we had up.
3. Make sure everyone aboard
knows how to use the VHF, and make
them practice with it. Keep a spare
antenna not mounted to the mast.
Winter 2005 N E M A
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