Suddenly Overboard (18 page)

The boat rolled, slowly at first but quickly gathering speed with the increasing leverage of the board, but then kept rolling over the top of Junior.

He splashed back up to try it again, this time easing his pressure on the centerboard as the boat came upright. This time it stayed upright. The cockpit was full of water, the cabin dropboards were missing, and the cabin was at least partly flooded. He checked that the mainsheet was not cleated down so hopefully they could avoid getting knocked down by the wind again.

But it only took a few seconds for the waves to push the boat over again, and once more it turned turtle.

Junior turned from the boat to his family in the water. The boys were flailing about in their flotation aids, their teeth chattering and their faces white, but they seemed okay for the moment. His father, however, seemed barely able to tread water. He realized then that his flotation device hadn't inflated. Quickly Junior swam to him and towed him back to the hull, where he felt around in the water and finally pulled the toggle line to inflate the PFD. His father's face looked bloodless.

On the other side of the hull, Tommy was gasping and coughing up water, having trouble in the waves. Junior quickly got to him and managed to push him up onto the hull, but Tommy seemed unable to hang on to the centerboard and slipped back into the cold water. Junior got him up again, then hoisted up Hayden. Again Tommy was slipping off, shaking with cold, and Junior had to keep pushing up against Tommy's legs and feet. Hayden was able to stay on the hull on his own, but Junior didn't dare release Tommy. After a minute he called to his father but didn't hear an answer. He started moving back around the boat to check on him, but Tommy started sliding down again so he stayed where he was to hold him up.

It was a terrible decision, having to stay with his son and hope his father could make it on his own. Hayden was not strong enough to hold on himself and support Tommy on the hull. Now Tommy wasn't moving; was he unconscious?

The waves were slapping his own face and he was coughing up water. He didn't know what to do. It took all his energy to hold up his son and try to keep his own mouth free of water.

After a little while he heard the engine of a boat some distance away, but he had no way to signal it. Their flares were in the cabin underwater, and he didn't dare try to swim down to look for them. With his last bit of strength he hauled himself higher on the hull and waved frantically at the passing boat.

They didn't see him.

From his higher position, before sliding back down the hull, Junior saw Roberts floating a short distance away from the hull, not moving. The inflated PFD had ridden up his torso and shoulders, and his face was near the water being splashed by waves.

But he couldn't leave his sons. Tommy was unconscious, and he couldn't tell whether he was breathing. He was a whitish-blue color all over.

Junior finally thought to fish his mobile phone from his wet shorts, but it was dead.

His mind raced and then strangely went blank.

Almost an hour later another boat passed. He was so cold he barely noticed it at first, but then he roused himself and waved. The fishing boat turned and approached. Even before the boat reached them its skipper was calling for help on his VHF radio. Junior looked around, but his father had drifted out of sight.

The fishing boat came alongside, and with the help of its crew they got Tommy aboard. One of the men started CPR. Junior and Hayden were taken aboard and wrapped in blankets.

The skipper radioed the Coastguard again for urgent medical attention for Tommy and reported that a man was still missing in the water. A helicopter was launched, and a water search began with lifeboats.

It did not take long for the helicopter to reach them, and Tommy was winched aboard and flown to the nearest hospital.

Roberts's body was found facedown in the water about a half mile away.

The helicopter returned shortly and evacuated Hayden to the hospital.

Tommy was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Roberts's body was taken to shore in the lifeboat. The postmortems later ruled that Roberts died from a combination of drowning and hypothermia and Tommy died of hypothermia.

Junior and Hayden recovered.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) conducted a thorough investigation of the incident. Among its conclusions were the following. The foreign-built sailboat did not meet UK stability and buoyancy requirements and could not be easily righted after capsize, although the owner could not have known this. The crew had insufficient dinghy-sailing experience for the conditions they experienced, and they wore clothing providing little protection against the cold. They had not received the latest marine forecast of deteriorating weather. Roberts's PFD was not securely fastened with a tight waist belt. They had no accessible means to signal or call for help
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Lake Hefner is a large recreational lake in the northwest section of Oklahoma City. Flanked by a golf course on one side and circled by a bike path, it is an easily accessed urban oasis popular for picnicking, fishing, and other water recreation. Since personal watercraft, waterskiing, and fast motorboats are banned, it is particularly popular for sailing, and sports a wide variety of sailboats seldom seen so far from America's coasts. With a marina and active boat club, even larger cabin boats call the 2,500-acre lake home. The land surrounding the lake is flat, allowing steady, often exciting breezes.
There are sail races almost every summer weekend, and kiteboarding too has become popular. Casual sailors can rent Hobie catamarans, and others trailer their boats here or launch small daysailers from the beach.

It is a family-friendly lake, ringed by parks, playgrounds, and places to eat. On weekends it seems kids are everywhere, on land and water. Sometimes the water feels like a large playground itself, there are so many boats out. But that gives the lake a welcoming, safe feeling. Who could find anything to worry about when you're surrounded by so many others?

That was the atmosphere the Saturday that Mike and his friend Jerry planned to take Mike's two kids sailing in his new Hobie 16. With the help of a couple teenagers they launched the cat, and Mike's kids, Christine, 8, and Josh, 6, ran off for an ice cream while Mike and Jerry stepped the mast, rigged the boat, and bent on the sails.

“Get your life jackets,” Mike told the kids when they came back. “Leave everything else in the car, and we'll have a picnic after we sail for a while.”

Mike and Jerry stood in the shallows holding the Hobie steady while the kids climbed aboard. Josh looked almost lost inside his life jacket, as Mike had bought them large enough to last a couple years as the kids grew. His own life jacket, like Jerry's, was old and a little frayed. He'd grown up nearby and had gotten a lot of use from it over the years.

What a day! The wind felt like a steady 12 to 15 knots from the southwest, great for sailing a Hobie Cat. Out on the lake, off the aptly named Hobie Point, he could see half a dozen boats already zipping along; the more experienced sailors were flying hull as they beat into the wind. The kids were going to love this! With this many boats sailing and surely more to come, there would probably be some impromptu racing too. That excited Jerry, a Laser sailor who didn't know much about Hobies but was eager to learn.

Mike pointed to where he wanted Christine and Josh to sit, one on each side of the trapeze, forward and out of the way. “Hang
on, kids!” he said with a grin, and he and Jerry pushed the Hobie deeper, dropped the rudders, and climbed aboard.

They pointed out at the middle of the lake, the breeze across the starboard beam, and took off. As they accelerated rapidly, Mike motioned for Jerry to slide over and join him on the starboard edge of the trapeze. “Let's stay flat for a while,” he said, “no use scaring the kids until they get used to it.”

He looked over at his kids. Christine was grinning, strands of hair coming loose from her ponytail and flying around her face. Josh looked more somber, his knuckles white from his grip on the trapeze frame.

On a little gust Mike felt the starboard hull start to rise, and he immediately turned more to port to flatten the boat. “Spill some wind,” he told Jerry, who was controlling the mainsheet, “at least until we see what the wind's doing.”

Within minutes they were several hundred yards off the beach, closing on another boat ahead.

“Having fun, guys?” he shouted at the kids.

“Yeah!” Christine yelled back, and Josh nodded.

Experienced sailors righting a Hobie catamaran. (Henrik Dalgaard)

Then it was time to tack. Mike explained to the kids what they were about to do, again emphasizing that their main job was just to hang on. “Once you get used to it,” he promised, “I'll let both of you help steer.”

When everyone was ready, he shouted, “Helm's alee!” and he and Jerry ducked and scrambled under the boom as he turned to starboard.

It wasn't the most graceful tack, Mike thought as he headed up on port tack, moving toward the lake's western shore. But they hadn't lost all their speed and had jumped on the new course quick enough. He looked back over his shoulder at the other Hobies and noticed that one with red sails had gone over. As he watched, the two sailors in the water flipped it back upright and climbed aboard.

“Let's do it again,” he said. “Ready to tack?”

Maybe he should have waited until he heard Jerry say “Ready,” or maybe Jerry had just gotten hung up with the sheets or wasn't paying attention. In any case, when he turned sharply and slid across to starboard, Jerry didn't follow him. Mike's steering was perfect; within a couple seconds the sails filled and shot the boat forward as the starboard hull rose and he felt the reduced control as the starboard rudder came out of the water. Then, before he could correct the helm or shout at Jerry to release the sheet, a gust knocked the boat over.

Mike catapulted into the water clear of the boat. Because of the flotation bulb at the top of the mast, the boat floated mostly on its side and canted only slightly past vertical with the starboard hull in the air above him. Christine floated in the water a few feet from the port hull, apparently okay, but Josh had managed to hang on to the starboard rail and was dangling with his feet a couple feet above the water. He looked terrified.

“Josh! It's okay to let go!” Mike shouted as he breast-stroked back to the boat, his motion hampered by his life jacket, which rose high on his shoulders. “Just let go, buddy! I got you!”

Jerry was at the aft end of the port hull by the rudder, keeping out of the way.

Josh let go and splashed into the water just as Mike reached him. In a moment he was bobbing alongside Christine, his small face grim between the wings of his life jacket, which was floating high up on his body. “Okay, buddy?” Josh nodded. “See, it's not so bad. I guess I should've told you that could happen, but I didn't want to scare you.”

Christine had managed to paddle over, fighting her life jacket, and put one hand on Josh's shoulder, holding his life-jacket strap. “What do we do now, Dad?” she said, trying to sound cheerful.

“Now we get the boat back up!” he said. “I want you two guys to stay together on this side. Don't come close to the boat, and keep away from the mast. Jerry and I are going around to the other side, and we'll climb up and pull the other hull backward into the water. You guys just watch, okay? Just stay together, and I'll come back and get you when the boat's ready.”

“Okay, Dad,” they said in unison.

Mike and Jerry worked their way around the hull to the other side. Jerry looked up at the hull, which seemed an impossible height above them. “This is easy in a Laser,” he said. “You just stand on the centerboard and lean back. But I'm clueless what to do with a cat.”

Mike studied the hulls and the frame and bottom of the trapeze. “It's the same principle. We just climb up there and grab the hull and lean back to lever it over.”