Rob B
Well-Known Member
Joel Lambinus unfurled the sail on his 14-foot Laser on Sunday and then happened to glance backward.
What Lambinus saw made him leap for his life. A Fort Sumter tour boat loaded with tourists was bearing down.
"I looked over my shoulder, and I saw the boat, about 75 yards away and headed dead straight for me," said Lambinus, 57, an experienced sailor who was competing in the Charleston Yacht Club Open Regatta.
Witnesses told the Coast Guard the tour boat was the 102-foot-long, 32-foot-wide, 97-ton, Spirit of Charleston, and that the vessel was crossing an area reserved for sailboat racing. As Lambinus swam to avoid being pulled under the tour boat, it cracked and broke his sailboat, tearing chunks of it with its propeller.
Lambinus said he felt his legs bumping the hull of the tour boat, and he feared the propeller would slice him up, too.
"By the grace of God, I was able to get away," he said. "When I popped up, I realized that if I had stayed in the boat I would have been mincemeat."
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/jul/23/tour_boat_smashes_sailboat_at_regatta11241/
What Lambinus saw made him leap for his life. A Fort Sumter tour boat loaded with tourists was bearing down.
"I looked over my shoulder, and I saw the boat, about 75 yards away and headed dead straight for me," said Lambinus, 57, an experienced sailor who was competing in the Charleston Yacht Club Open Regatta.
Witnesses told the Coast Guard the tour boat was the 102-foot-long, 32-foot-wide, 97-ton, Spirit of Charleston, and that the vessel was crossing an area reserved for sailboat racing. As Lambinus swam to avoid being pulled under the tour boat, it cracked and broke his sailboat, tearing chunks of it with its propeller.
Lambinus said he felt his legs bumping the hull of the tour boat, and he feared the propeller would slice him up, too.
"By the grace of God, I was able to get away," he said. "When I popped up, I realized that if I had stayed in the boat I would have been mincemeat."
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/jul/23/tour_boat_smashes_sailboat_at_regatta11241/