Drummond Island Capsize

A sailor's 21-foor Sea Pearl turns turtle, and the lessons learned...

Article by Andrew Blodgett

As Paul rode his bike nearby and asked yet another question about my boat, the marina worker leaned in and said, “Don’t worry, he’s crazy but he’s harmless.”  My Sea Pearl 21, with its cat-ketch sailplan, lack of standing rigging, canoe shape, and, most of all—its leeboards—always draws double-takes and questions at the dock or launch which I’m normally happy to answer. But having lugged my waterlogged possessions over to the launch ramp, and now attempting to drain half of Lake Huron through the boat’s water ballast tanks, I was in no mood for such questions. The capsize an hour earlier exposed the Sea Pearl’s greatest flaw:  it is not recoverable after a capsize. This stranger’s pesky questions about the boat I’d loved unequivocally two hours ago, but now was not so sure about, were testing my graciousness.