AFTERMATH
Got everything home and the next day, (when I could move around again, from the soreness!) :-\ started organizing and evaluating.
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"Wreck of the Irish Pennant."
Unloaded stuff all over the carport and the garage, just to get the boat empty.
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The foam was 4 days drying out, in August 90% humidity.
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Trying to dry out one of the batteries; doubtful if it will recover.
Started pumping out the lockers with the manual bilge pump and draining the hose into the opened ballast tank.
After what felt like more sweating, than actual water removal, I wondered how my submersible bilge pump had fared.
A little WD-40 and some contact cleaner on the switch and plug connections, and it was fine. Hooked it up to the battery jump pack I keep for inflating the RIB and got the lockers cleared out in a hurry. 8)
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There was still some water that the pump couldn't reach, but the wet/dry vac made short work of the rest of the water.
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Towels, blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, pillow cases, chamois for wiping down things, cushion covers, flags, hats, a "Doc" Bandana, and my foulies were all laundered and folded, all ready for re-installation in the boat.
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Here was something I would not ordinarily have thought of, as being a problem: :-\
Pretty identical generic freezer/dry bags, no? ???
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Every single one of the Ziplocs with the plastic zipper flooded; (at left) only one zip strip bag (at right) flooded and it had a hole in the plastic.
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BEWARE of plastic zippers on dry bags! >:(
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All those bags are being replaced and in fact, I discovered the freezer-rated double zip-bags have a slightly higher mil count (thicker) so I'm going with those.
FAILURE MODES:
I) HATCHES:
Probably my second biggest problem, with recovering my boat from a capsize had to do with the hatch latches.
They are very flimsy and break off easily. I end up replacing at least one, every time I go out on the boat.
These are the floor hatches where the batteries are kept.
The pic below is a little misleading; the left hatch latch was intact until I got home, the right hatch was missing the latch on the right side and the left cam wasn't holding on the left side of the hatch.
So while it might look like it could latch, in fact, it was open, because the left cam was just spinning around.
The right hand compartment was totally flooded and the left hand compartment, only partially flooded.
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It's not lost on me, that the partially flooded hatch battery may be recoverable and the completely flooded hatch battery, will probably not be recoverable.
The sole hatch that WAS functional got very little water in it even after 24 hours, so the hatches/seals are not the problem; the fasteners are.
Starboard hatch was already missing a single latch, when I went out Saturday and I thought I would be OK, as long as I didn't capsize, or something . . . . . ::)
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Ditto with the port hatch latch, I had used up all my spare latch replacements (buy them 2 at a time) and was going to replace them (again!) when I got back.
Just for a simple day sail, it would probably be OK, right?!? ::)
Learned differently!! :'(
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Here are some of the missing pieces; I went out with 2 missing latches and three more broke, before I got the boat home again.
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I am ALL DONE >:( with those cam latches. Still mulling over exactly how I'm going to do it, but in general, I want a brute simple, brute force, closure.
Perhaps like an ordinary hatch dog of some kind.
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Will probably epoxy the holes shut in the hatches and screw these suckers into all those doublers, I installed behind the hatches.
The only hatch that held up, is the stern lazarette hatch that I got for 5 bucks at a flea market, didn't even get water inside.
I mean, God Forbid, my anchors should get wet!! :P
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The two stern hatches were another interesting story; one locker filled with water, one didn't.
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When I compared the flooded locker to the merely damp locker, I discovered the plywood/epoxy surface was rough in two places, which could possibly have prevented the O-ring gasket from being able to seal properly.
It's going to get sanded, REAL smooth! :P
In general, all the round Armstrong hatches performed well, all the rectangular hatches . . . . didn't.
(Thanks, Doug, for putting me onto them.) :)
I believe my leaky hatches are one of two main reasons I had so much difficulty recovering my hull from capsize.
I just took on way too much water.
Take a look at these three capsized SCAMP pics:
Notice how high out of the water, they all are? Notice how high the noses are? ???
Even with guys sitting on them? ???
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Take a look at my hull and observe how low it's sitting, in the water.
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It looks like (estimating) I only have 1/3rd the flotation, the other SCAMPs have. :(
II) SPARS:
I was gifted the mast and boom from an old Luger 16 sailboat and modified it for use as a mast and boom for the SCAMP, and added an aluminum tube for the yard, made to specifications from John Welsford.
The performance of the equipment has been fine, and I was happy to have been spared having to build a birdsmouth mast, but there may have been hidden costs I hadn't taken into consideration.
Weight and Flotation.
A Gig Harbor Boat Works Aluminum mast for a SCAMP weighs 13 lbs; my mast weighs 18 lbs, so, five lbs extra? Not that bad, right?!? ???
Wooden masts, using Spruce and birdsmouth construction also weigh about 18 lbs, so I'm still in the ball park either way, right? ???
A wooden boom is about 14 lbs and my aluminum boom also weighs 14 lbs.
Well . . . . . . . . . A lot of water drained out of the mast and the boom when Chris dragged them aboard the RIB.
Since I firmly believe:
"If You Can Put A Number On It, It's Science; If You Can't Put A Number On It, It's VooDoo!"
I needed to get out of the VooDoo realm, so I started doing the arithmetic.
The mast is based on a Dwyer DM284 extrusion and while it is teardrop-shaped, the inside walls form a circle 2 and 5/8" in diameter.
OK, 2⅝" I.D. X 17 feet, what have we got here?
π x r2 x h = cylinder volume.
Set r to 1.3125 and we get 1, 104.2 cu in. or .639 cu ft.
62.4 lb per cu/ft x .639 cu ft = 39.874 lb of water weight.
That 17 foot mast now weighs close to 60 lb when you fill the inside with water.
Repeating the arithmetic for a 12 foot boom and you get 28.16 lb of water weight added to my 14 lb boom, for 42 lb weight
ONE HUNDRED pounds of soggy spars! :o
I had thought my spars were better sealed than all that, but the water draining out of them all the way back to the ramp proved to me, to be far different.
The Gig Harbor Boat Works hollow metal mast is sealed and floats. It's a 2-part mast and each section floats independently.
The Birdsmouth wooden mast, floats.
Mine doesn't.
I suspect whatever I end up with, I will also need a mast head float, not as a concession to the design, but as a concession to Septuagenarian usage.
After all, 2 of the 3 pics above, are using wooden masts and still turtled, so I need something to minimize that.
My mast (and boom) actually acted more like an upside down keel, when it turtled.
Look at the pics again:
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Nose is high on the pic above and the nose is low, on the pic below.
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That's how much the waterlogged spars were weighing the boat down although in fairness, it might also have been helped along by extra buoyancy in the stern lazarrette hatch, that didn't flood.
IOW, this was a self-inflicted design/build flaw, that will have to be corrected.
DESIGN VARIATIONS:
Another unforeseen difficulty in righting the boat, was my Bimini top.
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I regard it as a Necessity for forestalling more skin melanomas, but another word for it could also be: Sea Anchor.
Never even occurred to me, that 25 sq ft of canvas in the water would be such an impediment to righting a hull.
I suspect that the combination of the Bimini drag and the water weight, is why it was so difficult to parbuckle and right.
For any future capsize recovery, folding the Bimini top down, is going to be the first priority.
Because of the shortcomings in the hatches, spars, and Bimini top, my single biggest mistake (of many!) :-[ was in not righting the hull immediately. I was distracted by concerns for the safety of a child I might otherwise had been able to ignore, if he had only been wearing a PFD and been bobbing around, like a cork.
Hard to estimate accurately when you are running on Adrenaline Time, but I suspect it was at least 5 and possibly as much as 10 minutes, before I was able to devote any attention to my boat and by then, it was too late. :'(
Read the descriptions from all the guys capsizing SCAMPs and they all say to right the boat quickly, as it gets harder with time.
I was completely aware of all that, but had no idea until I experienced it myself, that the Time/Difficulty Curve, is exponential in its' difficulty. :o
Principal construction of the Irish Pennant was completed in April and it looks like some major remediation and improvements, are in order.
And the biggest thing I have to do more work on?? ???
Me.
Complacency and Laziness in equal parts, are the main contributing factors to that disastrous weekend.
I had gotten too used to how much fun it was to use and cruise with, and had taken entirely too much of a laissez faire approach, to sailing it.
Some examples:
1) Had gotten lazy about changing out busted latches.
2) Had ALSO gotten lazy about closing the latches all the time, for fear of breaking one.
3) Had gotten lazy about stowing loose gear in the cabin. Lost most of the stuff in my go-bag, because it was a tight fit getting in and out of the cabin, so I had left it out that day to make it easier to get to stuff in it.
Lost binoculars, spare VHF battery, spare eyeglasses, sunglasses, PLB, 12 VDC charger cables, portable battery fans, portable headlight, flashlight, and wind meter, all because I simply failed to secure it properly.
A more usable (and reliable!) hatch and a better-fitting bag, would have eliminated all that.
4) Had gotten complacent about storing stuff on the cushions. Not lost on me, was that the stuff I DID recover, had been clipped on lanyards.
Lost my (2nd) phone in 4 months, :-[ because I figured it would be OK on a cushion seat. I'm all done with that. It's going to go in a water-resistant bag and get clipped to a hard point.
All my pics in the future are going to come from an underwater camera. (Also attached with a lanyard!)
5) Going to have to add a few more hard points to attach things to inside the veranda. The Luggable Loo, the trash bucket, and the cooler, all survived but only because they were in the veranda and there simply wasn't enough wave action to dislodge them.
Every one of them already has a handle of some sort, so it would be trivial to add lanyards and secure them, in case the Worst Happens, because: It's ALREADY happened!! :o
RETHINKING:
Some procedures that I take for granted, are going to be modified.
For example, I keep a spare set of eye-glasses in the go-bag, since you never know when you might happen to lose a pair, while trying not to drown underwater. :o
Losing my main eyeglasses AND losing the spare eyeglasses on the same trip, has me now using a badly out of date prescription pair of eyeglasses. I think in the future, I'm going to keep the spare eyeglasses in my yellow dry bag. that stores my wallet and truck keys and phone.
That way, if I have the capability to drive my truck, I will also have the capability to see where I'm going, in it!
Most of my sailing is day sailing, except for infrequent cruising events (FL 120, CDCR, BEER Cruise, etc) yet I always keep the boat equipped like I'm going voyaging on a moment's notice.
I need to consolidate all the cruising gear into a bin kept in the garage, until it's cruising time, THEN load it aboard.
Simple day sailing doesn't require a fraction of what I had aboard; safety gear, anchors, fenders, and dock lines, should be more than sufficient.
COST:
Laziness and Complacency, have caused me to deprecate a highly capable, self-sustaining, micro-cruiser, into an engineless day sailor and for that, I am Truly Sorry. :(
I will get it back to being cruising capable as soon as my means allow and by then, it's going to be a far more resilient craft, when I do.
The jury is still out on practically everything electrical, so any inventory is going to have to happen at a much later date. :-\
Suffice it to say: I've had a LOT of Simplicity, suddenly forced upon me!! :o
They say a Conservative, is a Liberal who's been mugged; I think something similar is what happens to a Laissez Faire Sailor, who has capsized.
Charles Brennan
Charles, thank you for such an excellent and detailed assessment. Without a doubt the child was the number one priority over the boat. When considering your timeline and description of the events it increased the chance of turtling before you could attend to I.P. The mast filling probably hastened the process. If the wind direction was broadside of the boat that could also speed things up. Perhaps the side the boat capsized on allowed the square hatches to flood helping to turtle the boat more rapidly. Might be the side that filled the one battery compartment all the way but not fully filling the other when the boat flipped. Murphy playing with a stacked deck!
Because of my experience sea kayaking I am in the habit of tying and clipping stuff to lines on the boat. I have a waterproof camera on a line tied in a pocket of my PFD for quick access to take a photo. A VHF tied in another. A knife is also attached to my PFD. Sometimes a 10X monocular clipped to a shoulder strap. Or a phone in a waterproof case tied to a strap and tucked in between my chest and PFD. Since I depend on this stuff to be on hand, I am also wearing the PFD. Those Habits transferred over to my sailing when I took it back up in 2016.
It's just easy to keep stuff stored on the boat, but I also think that day sailing without expedition gear has merit.
Hatches, I love and hate hatches. I have had to work on a number of hatches on kayaks to get them reasonably waterproof. I have been planning from the start to replace my square hatches and build some Like the hatches on the kayak I built. I've had my Scamp for four years now but haven't done so yet. You're not the only one that tends to being laissez faire/complacent! The thing is I have had several projects that came first and vowed to sail it more than work on it this year. You have me reconsidering the hatch project.
Another thing I like for waterproof storage instead of Ziplock bags are Silicon storage bags which are very durable and long lasting but cost more. They come in various sizes. Stashers were the first I came across but I like something that cost a bit less with a handle and loop that can be clipped to a line. Here is an example.
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Doug, You raised a good point that I knew about, but hadn't fully considered, until I read your response.
I was headed roughly south, beating into south-east winds of approximately 8 - 10 mph on a port tack and making 1.8 - 2.0 knots, as indicated on my GPS. My intent was to head just south of the ramp, come around to the west and broad reach in toward the ramp, until time to drop sails and motor in.
Between the yard, the lazy jacks, and the lack of a bolt rope, I can drop the sails on the SCAMP, far more quickly than I could on the Windrose.
The sudden gust that capsized me, was from the west, or perhaps west-southwest.
So I was definitely broadside to the wind that capsized me. With the mast in the water and being pushed east, the sail would have behaved more like a plow through dirt and forced the rig into turtling.
The wind clocked around in mere seconds, and is why I was caught so flat-footed and unawares.
I shouldn't have been, though.
I was majorly distracted, from a small child bouncing around all over the boat:
"What's-THIS?!?-What-does-that-do?-Can-I-try-this?-Where's-my-drink??-Can-I-steer??"
And was not looking outside the boat at the wind and water changes.
I had noticed my son dropping sails at what I felt was too far from the ramp to make sense and did not realize he might have been reacting to the sudden strong winds that were already headed my way.
Had I been keeping a proper "weather eye", (as I clearly, failed to do) I might even have forestalled the disaster, altogether.
(The other side of the coin is, neither would I now know about my boat's severe weaknesses, that need immediate correcting.) ::)
And in a Perfect World, I should have swum the mast clockwise at least 90ºand maybe even 180º so that when attempting to right the boat, the wind against the sails would help right the boat.
You know: Like every 9-year old Optimist Dinghy sailor, already knows!! :-[
Just one more reason I treasure the TSBB resource and our ability to discuss things with multiple points of view, leading to a fuller understanding of things.
Some people provide expertise here and lately, I provide all the Bad Examples! :P
Oh, well.
If you can't be Respected or Legendary, at least try to be Notorious!! ;D
Thanks for the insight,
Charles Brennan
Charles, it is a pleasure to read and learn from your mistakes! ;D That is if I can remember to be alert while I'm making them myself!! :o I know after capsizing my Wayfarer several years ago on a very windy day I became much more attuned to how quickly it can happen. I did and still do have anything important secured because of learning the hard way paddling kayaks and canoes. Hey, being Legendarily Notorious is two out of three...Impressive.
They say we learn from our mistakes. I have made so many I am approaching Genius Level! 8)
STUNNED!!!
Can hardly believe what I'm reading. I thought the Scamps were almost impossible to capsize. Obviously not.
Truly a gut-wrenching story, Charles. For starters, glad everyone is safe.
(It's late. Still got to read the responses. May comment more tomorrow)
Take care!
Charles and Chris,
Thanks for the journalism and pictures. Glad that all souls, boat, and a majority of the equipment was recovered.
My latest trip was not idyllic either if such camaraderie helps...not as dramatic as this but there are still some lessons I needed to learn.
I have adopted fishing style non-inflating PFD's on my boats. The one I wear, before dock lines are untied until after dock lines are re-tied, has a clip-on knife, a tied-on whistle, a tied-on waterproof cell phone case, and a small Princeton TEC dive light. When possible, I tuck the tied items into the front pockets of the vest.
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Dale, Thank you! Finally!! Someone who feels like I felt! :P
Quote from: Captain Kidd on Aug 29, 2026, 11:40 PMTruly a gut-wrenching story
And your other observation:
Quote from: Captain Kidd on Aug 29, 2026, 11:40 PMI thought the Scamps were almost impossible to capsize.
Well . . . . here's a coupla SCAMPS tooling along with little heel, in 20+ knots of winds (albeit, with a reef in).
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I've been out in heavier weather (Cedar Key, FL 120) and lighter weather (Cedar Key, Lake Crescent, Lake Weir) without any issues. The main difference is that those winds, both strong and light, were steady.
When I first felt the gust I immediately un-cleated the main sheet, but the gust was so strong and so fast the main sheet couldn't pull through the blocks fast enough, to spill the sail enough.
Plus, I was sailing a SCAMP with Windrose reflexes and failed to move my butt fast enough, at the same time as I loosed the sheet. After all, half the ballast on that boat is: ME!! :o
Remember, I had been doing only 1.8 - 2 knots in 10 mph winds when I was blind-sided with a 20mph gust.
Sand off all the "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda's" and the plain truth is, that I exercised Poor Seamanship, plain and simple, from failing to keep out a good "weather eye".
I had been sailing towards ripples on the water and avoiding glassy spots all morning long, it's not like I wasn't watching the water. I just happened to be distracted by an unruly passenger and simply did not notice the water changes, clearly foretelling a wind change.
Like many a sailor before me, I was careless and got Bit.
Hard.
Three major mistakes:
1) Failure to keep a good "weather eye".
2) Sailing a vessel with known defects (hatch latches).
3) Sailing a vessel with unknown defects (Non-water-tight spars).
It does designer John Welsford, little good to design in massive air chamber volume in his boats, if people are going to thwart him, with porous hatches! :'(
Captain Alfred Gilmer Lamplugh, once said: "
Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect."
I used to have a poster on my wall, with that quote, back in my Student Pilot days.
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What's on my wall nowadays, is this:
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Perhaps I need to dig the other one out again and put it back up! :P
Thanks for a little commiseration,
Charles Brennan
Spot, My kayak vest-style PFD is similarly equipped; it's just too hot to wear in August. Also, that style is generally discouraged in the SCAMP community, since the stuff can snag when trying to re-board. (Like, say , from a capsize!) :P So I usually prefer wearing my Type V inflatable, since it deals with both heat and snags.
BTW, I'm seriously re-thinking all that! :P
Quote from: Spot on Today at 10:49 AMMy latest trip was not idyllic either if such camaraderie helps...not as dramatic as this but there are still some lessons I needed to learn.
We want to hear the story!! :D
Charles Brennan