I don’t know much about sailing but the following picture was hanging on the wall of a place we stayed in recently. It is reproduced curtesy of my Blackberry, the name of te yacht is Silk II and I’ll let the blurb underneath it tell the story

“Silk II” was a Bashford & Howison designed 41ft ocean racing yacht caught by the Beken camera during Cowes Week 1996 on what was to be known as “Windy Tuesday”.
In gusts of 50 knots she had run before the wind for some 10 miles unknowingly taking in excess water into her bow area below deck. With a man on the fore deck she took one wave over the bow followed immediately by another which tripped her up nearly causing a catastrophic pitch-pole.
With her rudder and keel out of the water she presented a very dramatic sight. One man was thrown into the water and the bowman was carried some four metres under the water!
As the hull rose up to the vertical, the spinnaker collapsed and she fell over onto her port side in a classic broach. After “Silk” righted herself the crewman was picked up and she retired for the day.
After a minor amount of repair to he rails and rigging, she was up and running the next morning to go on to win the prestigious “Brittania Cup”.

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