Pitchpoling is when the bow buries into a wave and the boat somersaults

November 7, 2023 4:26 PM

On New Year’s Day 2022, more than 200 miles off the north-west coast of Scotland, Roman Titov's 33ft Colin Archer-type cutter Vperyod was pitchpoled and dismasted in atrocious conditions. In this account, translated from the Russian by singlehanded sailor Roger Taylor, Roman describes how he spent 17 days under jury rig bringing Vperyod to safety at Ullapool.
posted by ambrosen (11 comments total)

Great story! I have enormous respect for single-handed sailors and can only imagine the hardship he went through trying to clear the broken rig before even thinking about setting up a jury rig.
posted by dg at 4:55 PM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yep, I couldn't really pick out one big bit of hardship that was the worst. My thought was the 2 days of manual bailing before he even got to start clearing the broken rig, or even started properly drying out. Just incredible.
posted by ambrosen at 5:02 PM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

At 1530 I reported to the harbour office and at 1630 I went to sleep.

Yeah, that sounds about right.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 5:29 PM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I mean, considering all he’d been through, it says a lot about the guy that he didn’t do the latter before the former
posted by armoir from antproof case at 5:31 PM on November 7, 2023

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Golden_Globe_Race it looks like he was not able to compete in the race.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 6:09 PM on November 7, 2023

I subconsciously was expecting a dramatic style like The Perfect Storm, apparently, so "I toughened up and felt that the cold was no longer an annoyance" was a hilarious surprise. It's kind of a "dad casually talking about his horrible, inexplicably strenuous hobbies" vibe
posted by Baethan at 10:06 PM on November 7, 2023 [4 favorites]

I was on a catamaran that pitchpoled. It was scary and weird: it's awkward to imagine a boat rolling over forwards and a lot of built up reactions to capsizing are overthrown in the moment.
posted by fatbird at 10:51 PM on November 7, 2023 [4 favorites]

Great story. Nothing but respect for people who not only have the skills but also the jam to do it on your own. Same as those mountain climbers.
posted by dancestoblue at 11:49 PM on November 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I didn’t realize that “jury rig” was a nautical term, but if you look in up on Wikipedia, be aware there is a prominent racial slur in the article.
posted by rikschell at 8:49 AM on November 8, 2023

there is a prominent racial slur in the article

That slur was in widespread use when I was growing up in Texas, decades ago. I don't believe I've said it in 20+ years.
posted by neuron at 1:49 PM on November 9, 2023

In the 1978 book Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down (which I highly recommend), the author says that most of the ropes you see on large sailing ships are there not to operate the sails but to keep the mast(s) upright. A quick look at a picture of such a ship confirms this. It's not like you can sink the mast into the ground like a telephone pole.
posted by neuron at 1:53 PM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]