'My boat was a write-off'

Leo Heaney's regular yacht club race night quickly turns dangerous, and leads to seven months of frustration to rectify the damage

- Leo Heaney

The thing I remember most about the initial collision was the noise. The seconds before impact, the whole crew had gone silent. No more yelling of 'starboard' or expletives, just acceptance that we were about to sustain a hit. Not a glancing blow, but a full-on crash.

What followed was a cacophony of tearing glassfibre and stainless steel as the anchor flukes of the Bavaria 40 locked onto the pulpit of our UFO 34 Unicorn and proceeded to, almost hungrily, tear down the starboard side of the boat, ripping and gouging at the glassfibre and devouring the uprooted safety rail stanchions from the deck.

Upon reaching midships of our vessel, the Bavaria rose high over the toe rail, almost as if she was attempting to get into the cockpit and turn her malevolence on the hapless crew. In one final act to satisfy her appetite, the Bavaria's anchor tore off our newly fitted bimini, leaving a semblance of twisted stainless steel tubes and canvas as a parting gift.

Quick change

So, from what had started as a composed twilight sail, held every Wednesday evening during summer, turned into something potentially catastrophic with the collision having the makings to cause injury or death to the crew.

On board Unicorn that night was a collection of club members, all with varying degrees of competence in offshore and inshore sailing, one having done the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race and numerous other offshore races on the west coast of Australia.

Only my partner Mari was a novice sailor. The rest of the crew, including myself, raced regularly on an Adams 13e during the Summer Inshore Series. The boat was owned by Annie and Ole Otness. Ole was from Norway, and had named his yacht The Longboat-what better name for a long, sleek Adams designed boat.