'MAYDAY, GRANDAD OVERBOARD!'

When David Richards and his grandson Henry went out racing from lowey, they didn't expect their sail to end with a lifeboat rescue

Henry, my grandson, and I decided to sail together for the Fowey Sailing Opal series, the last yacht race series of the season, as his dinghy season was complete and he was at a loose end (sailing-wise) until his winter sailing started with the RS Tera South West Squad. The Opal series is based on handicap starting, with slower yachts setting off first.

So, on 23 September 2023 I was skippering my 18ft yacht, Doux Bisou, a Beneteau 18 SE daysailer, with Henry as crew, in one of the series races. I was then aged 70 and Henry had just turned 13. I have experience of dinghy sailing over many years but class myself as moderately competent. Henry has six or seven years’ dinghy experience and is a competent single-handed sailor of smaller dinghies. My experience in the boat was limited, as I had taken delivery of it towards the end of the previous summer.

I am qualified to Coastal Skipper level (motor) and also enjoy time on the water in a 27ft motor boat. The forecast was for southerly wind, initially gusting to around 16 knots, and a 0.8m (2-3ft) swell. Both wind and swell were due to build later but conditions should have been comfortable enough during the period of the race. The course was D, G, M, Q, G, D, that is: south out of the estuary, turn west at the Cannis Rock South Cardinal, anticlockwise around St Austell Bay, and back.

An early minor problem (the soft shackle attaching the jib sheets to the jib came adrift, so I hove to, to remedy the issue), caused me to be well at the back of the fleet shortly after the start. Still, I decided to push on and complete the course. We didn’t regain touch with the other yachts and after the last mark in St Austell Bay, Q, we were heading east to the Cannis Rock South Cardinal and home. The wind was gusting to about 20 knots, possibly more, and the swell was about 1.8m, the weather conditions having deteriorated earlier than anticipated. No other boats were in sight.