We had struggled up wind against a strong gusting breeze and a good size swell. On rounding the windward mark we set the spinnaker. It quickly became apparent that the downwind leg was going to be a wild ride. We had trouble furling the jib and as we tried to fix it we got an hour glass in the spinnaker. It took a while for us to get the spinnaker flying again and at one point we almost took it down. We ended up leaving the jib partially unfurled. All this time the boat was sailing fast downwind, surfing on the large swells. Flying the spinnaker wasn't easy, every time the boat would catch a wave it would literally out sail the spinnaker causing it to collapse. The three of us had to sit at the back of the boat in order to prevent the bow sprit from disappearing into the back of the next wave whenever we reached the bottom of a wave. It was a little crazy at times but never out of control, we had sailed before in similar conditions. Fairly soon it was time to jibe. The spinnaker jibed without a problem but I think the main sail remained on port and when it finally jibed the boat broached. Chupacabra parked on it's side, mast in the water. We'd been in this situation before and so we just patiently waited for the boat to right itself. Nothing happened - the boat remained on it's side. Jerome dropped into the water, released the main sheet and the vang. Mike and Nik climbed over the high side onto the keel. Slowly the boat began to rotate, but in the wrong direction. No amount of weight on the keel could stop the boat from turtling. With the boat upside down there was nothing holding the keel, at one point it almost fell back into the boat. With the three of us in the water pulling over on the keel the boat slowly started to come back up. At one point it looked really promising, however, as the boat righted itself it was apparent that it had taken on a lot of water. The bow started to sink and fairly soon the rest of the boat followed. We were about a mile out from shore and the sun was just beginning to set.

We spent about 10 minutes treading water trying to comprehend what just happened and trying to attract the attention of the other racers, two boats responded. It took them some time to pick us up - not an easy task in those conditions.

A big THANK YOU to Jack Mayer on Y-Wait who rescued us after the boat sank. I can't express how thankful I am to them. It was a very difficult rescue due to the waves breaking from everywhere and the wind still blowing in the low 30 knots. Jack and their crew have shown great skills to take us all out of the water. Thank you again so much.

Jerome Sammarcelli