People have sailed vast distances in much smaller vessels of course.. Many of the boats of modern times just are not that great unless the crew have had a lot of experience. Structually and rigging wise they where never intended for severe service either.

I am quite happy that there are severe penalties for false maydays in the United States.

We were based out of Port Hope Ontario and covered a section of the north shore of lake ontario. We reponded to requests to have a look for private vessels thought overdue by their families or whatever. The requests came through the royal canadian mounted police.

We used our steel utility club boat to do this. When it turned out that most requests where not that serious we eventually gave up doing it. We were putting ourselves in danger sometimes and it was for absolutly nothing.

We were raceing an older now but current then alberg thirty through the night one time. The wind picked up pretty good and one guy stated he had not seen sailling conditions like this in twenty five years. He meant they were ideal.

As the night progressed it got worse and worse. I heard trees where blown down that night ashore. We landed up running off before it with the small jib tied in half. There was no jib furling back then and it was the smallest sail aboard. Earlier I had suggested running off as the conditions where geting very bad.

Only one boat managed to finish the race and I suspect he was the leader and got into quieter waters before the storm got too serious.. That night is about all I felt that alberg thirty could really handle. The owner was below trying to get the engine started. I went below and told him it might be stirred up sediment in the tank that was causing the no start. That caused fear in him although I explained the engine would have been worth nothing in our current conditions. I did not want him in a state of panic as we were going to have to cross through an area that had only about twenty five feet of water pretty soon. I was not positive but thought the waves might be higher there and shorter in distance between peaks. As I was up on the fordeck tying that jib in half it looked to be twenty feet down to the water in the valley just ahead as a crest of a wave was passing under us. I was tethered and went up through the forehatch.

We had at least two hundred miles to a lee shore that night. I was considering setting a drouge fabricated out of what I could find on board that might keep together. Running it off the stern. The boat was doing okay in general. Decided to see what the shallower area was going to be like before making the decision.


Considered laying to but even that much sail up might get us overpowered. The rain was going horizontal but that is not that uncommon. It finally blewout about four to five hours later. At least no boat participating in the race got sunk.

That night the alberg 30 was about as small a boat as I would want to be in. The boat had a fairly good displacement hull with a longish keel compared to most designs that came later. Although technically you could survive in much smaller boats. I would just not want to be the guy doing it.

I never think of it normally but still will never forget that night. I never though we would perish but it was rough all the same. Another thing in the boats favour is they were strongly built. Some of the modern later plastic boats where like toys in comparison.

The lake freighters had run as close to the windward shore as they could and dropped anchor we found out later. I had never known them to do that but over the years they probably had on occassion. Unloaded they might have no other choice. They are large boats that carry bulk commodities.

There was no windspeed indicator on the boat so I will never know how hard it blew that night. To take trees down ashore where the winds velocity is usually less meant they were sustantial at the same time.

. They say a good sailboat can take more than a human can endure and survive on occasion. I would not want to be a participant in a senario like that.

After that alberg got over the shallow ground with no really serious issues I really was not concerned with too much. I had tried to figure with the top of waves to the bottom of the troughs distance so great if we might trip the boat going through. Yet there was no alternative that night. You cannot really accuratly determine top of wave to trough heighth in conditions like that. Shorter peak to peak distances on the great lakes as well I believe increasing the danger.

As I did not really understand just how hard a wind can blow. I felt it could not blow any harder that night . In parts of the world it can.

It was dark that night but you still resisted looking over the stern. The rain hurt your face and it was concerning what you observed. Perhaps just a little more speed and we might have been stern swamped. The small sail area was still great enough to provide good steerage. Even under bare poles it would have been enough. The sail reduced the chance of any broaching though. Under bare poles too much momentum may have been lost in the troughs. It all is a trade of in conditions like that. If something is working try to leave it alone. Better the known than the unknown.

Todays electronics are tremendous improvemets compared to that era. Weather charts etc are there by demand for example today. In conditions like we experienced rescue is not really an option if something had gone wrong. Survival time in the water would be too short. Some of the other boats had a much rougher time of it that night. Some where even dismasted. Still all the boats survived. A few people had minor injuries. Still there were no fatalities.