How to Sink an H28

Talk on 21 August 2006 by Bev & Keith Agar of H28 Tamujin

At the first meeting of the H28 Association, under the guidance of our newly elected committee, the guest speakers were Keith and Bev Agar. They had recently reached the attention of the boating fraternity by surviving the sinking of their magnificent boat Tamujin.

Keith started his talk by saying that in view of the large turn-out at the meeting there must be plenty of
people wanting to find out how to sink an H28. What a great sense of humour having just lost a splendid boat. Keith and Bev took turns to tell their tale of high drama, tragedy and pleasant surprises plus lessons learnt.

Keith and Bev had left Opua on the 6th July 2006 having waited for a favourable window in the weather. A good SW wind of 25 knots got them on their way. It kept up for three days and then freshened to 45 knots. Then the wind vane bent and they had to resort to hand steering which was tiring. The auto helm was then taken off the boat by a big wave and things started to look awkward as they sailed on the wind towards Tonga.

Then the weather gave them a break for two days with not a breath of air and an oily calm sea. The weather forecasts, however, warned them that there were two cold fronts converging on them. Then the seas got huge and sailing was difficult for days. Bev and Keith were tired and had not eaten properly for some time. They had no energy to cook and merely nibbled snacks. “Keith was also seasick – again”, said Bev.

When they got close to Tonga Bev described looking back from the crest of a huge wave, “like being on the top of Kilimanjaro” and said she had never seen seas as big in her life. Terrifying. They did not want to try to enter harbour in those conditions with strong
winds but chose to find some shelter on the lee side of a mountainous island with steep cliffs. Also, the halyard on their furler needed repair. Behind the island it was relatively calm and well sheltered. After some time they realised that the wind was gradually blowing them away from the island so after about four hours they started the engine and motored towards it again to benefit from its shelter. By this stage it was getting dark. The process was repeated a couple of times – gradually blown away from the island, then motoring back into its sheltered lee side.

Keith explained that they were close to a very deep trench and closer to the island it was still 80m of water so any thought of anchoring was out of the question. Once more, around 11:00 p.m., they motored in to the shelter of the island and Bev expressed concern that they had perhaps gone too close. Their chart plotter showed that they were still a distance from the island. Keith felt safe there so he turned in for a nap while Bev did some chart work planning for the next day.

After a while Bev looked up from her charts to examine the chart plotter again and it showed that they were right up against the island. She immediately
called to Keith and went to start the motor. Too late – there was an awful crash as the boat hit the reef next to the island. Bev went to the tiller and it broke off in her hand. The boat had hit the reef stern first and the rudder was smashed.

Keith said “You cannot believe the violence – it is enough to shake out your fillings”. In spite of their
predicament they calmly went through all of the
correct procedures. A Mayday was sent out. They
got into wet weather gear and put on good shoes,
because of the sharp reef, got out the grab bag which
was ready and added some extra items.