More On Marblehead FSSA NACs Disaster
on Wednesday July 12, 2006 11:48AM
2006 North American Championship Regatta, Corinthian Yacht Club, Marblehead, MA, July 9-14, 2006
The third qualifying race was held today. This afternoon, July 11th, shortly after all Flying Scots had been towed or sailed to safety at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA, harbor by the Corinthian Race Committee, a micro-burst tornado devastated the Flying Scot fleet and many of the Yacht Clubs' boats and docks. The above photo shows just a sample of the carnage that occurred. Scots on the the dock, such as 34 in the photograph above, were flipped 8 to ten feet in the air, with results seen above. Out of 63 Scots a conservative count would say 30 of those boats were turtled, with damage to many more. Fortunately, all Scot sailors and Corinthian people were injury free. The damage to Flying Scots and other boats in the harbor is severe and will take some time to assess. The Corinthian staff will dedicate their efforts on becoming operational over the next day. Then they will focus on helping the Scot sailors get their boats righted and back to shore.
In the meantime, thanks goes to Eastern Yacht Club which has offered their help to the regatta sailors. Tomorrow (Wednesday, July 12th) will be spent trying to recover as many boats as possible. Already Scotters such as Harry Carpenter, Larry Taggart, Carrie Berger, Bill Dunham, Ryan Malmgran and Hans Noordanus have begun the ordeal of retrieving the fleet.
The FSSA board and members are extremely grateful to the efforts of Corinthian Yacht Club. The club is extending special support to the FSSA this week, in spite of the fact that it will be at least two weeks before the the yacht club's own members will be able to use their facilities
Sadly, the North American Championship is over.