Local women advance in Adams

The all-women crew of Charleston sailors Jenny Gervais, Jennifer Koenig, Sarah Schaill, and Katie Hughes finished first in last weekend's semifinals of the Adams Trophy, U.S. Sailing's nationwide competition for female-only crews.

The event was sailed in the College of Charleston's J/22s, and with scores of 2-1-1-1-1 in a fleet of four boats, the team advanced to the finals in Oklahoma in September. The other teams were from Columbia, Florida, and the Gulf Coast.

"I just feel lucky to be sailing with my close friends," said Gervais, the team's skipper. "The girls crewing for me are not just good sailors who happen to be friends, we are close friends who sail well together because we understand each other at a deeper level."

Gervais had a stellar career sailing at St. Mary's of Maryland, then sailed in the World University Games in Turkey in 2006 with two U.S. sailors currently on our Olympic team in China: Anna Tunnicliff and Andrew Campbell.

When I asked if sailing with an all-female crew differs from sailing with men aboard, Gervais answered, "Not really — at least not as much as some people seem to think it does."

Rescue at sea

You can outthink the ocean, but you can't outslug the ocean.

Sign at the U.S. Naval Academy

If the sailors aboard the J/120 Avra, from Newport, R.I., didn't believe in Providence before their return trip home from the Newport-Bermuda Race, they might now. At 3 a.m. on July 2, 240 miles south of Cape Cod with seas as high as 20 feet, a 66-year-old female crew member fell backward, hit her head on the lifeline and cut a flap of her scalp loose from her skull. There was heavy blood loss and the captain feared for her life, so he issued a Mayday call.

Some 10 miles behind Avra were Charleston sailors John Bonds, Dwayne Schalles, and Willy Schwenzfeier, returning the J/44 Gold Digger to Newport after the Bermuda race. Fortunately for the crew of Avra, Bonds happens to be one of only five U.S. Sailing-certified Safety At Sea instructors, and Schwenzfeier is a physician. Schalles told me, "If I issued a Mayday at sea, I'd want John Bonds answering the call!"

Bonds offered assistance and cooperated with the Coast Guard's rescue efforts, at times offering valuable advice to the C-130 and the helicopter that were deployed to the scene. "I must have heard the Coast Guard say 'Great idea, Gold Digger' five or six times," Schalles said. "John Bonds is fantastic."

Though Avra had a medical technician aboard, the victim continued to bleed profusely. Captain Bonds then handed the radio to Dr. Schwenzfeier.

"They had used layers of gauze, but the bleeding continued," the doctor told me, recounting the middle-of-the-night rescue. "I asked the med tech what else he had aboard that could be used to apply pressure, and finally told him to use duct tape. It works. It's all about pressure on the wound." When Avra voiced concerns about a possible neck injury in addition to the cut, Schwenzfeier advised duct tape again. "I told them to use a small towel around the neck as a brace, and to hold it in place with duct tape."

After the victim was stabilized, Bonds and crew stood by at a safe distance to watch the extraction by helicopter. "It was almost surreal — just like you see on TV," Schwenzfeier said. In fact, the Coast Guard posted a video of the rescue on the Web at https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/65 1/214525/.

The sailing Web site Scuttlebutt posted the story this week, along with a letter of gratitude from Avra's owner, George Petrides, in which he states, "Capt. John Bonds on Gold Digger was exceptional in that he kept that boat near us from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. to offer moral support and advice to both us and to the USCG rescue teams; repeatedly in the early hours of the morning I saw Digger's nav lights and I knew that they were there to help me and the crew of Avra. Dr Willy Schwenzfeier ... provided critical medical advice which helped stop the bleeding and stemmed the potential loss of consciousness — he had us duct tape the patient's head and to keep applying layers of duct tape until the blood flow ceased — it worked!"

The story has a good ending: the victim was taken to a hospital in Massachusetts, where she was treated and released the next day. Both sailboats continued on to the New England coast.

Results / Coming up

CORA Summer Series I, Race 6, sailed July 9, Charleston Harbor, avg. wind 15 kts. (winning boat, type, owner) A Fleet: Don Quixote, J/120, Beezer Molten; B Fleet: Latte, J/24, Francisco Davila; C Fleet: Indigo, Pearson Vanguard, Elliott Dodds; D Fleet: Knot Twins, Pearson 30, David Smith; N Fleet: Big Booty, J/105, Patrick Eudy; Sportboat Fleet: Wireless, Melges 24, Reggie Fairchild

WEDNESDAY: CORA Summer Series II, Race 1

JULY 19-20: Charleston Yacht Club Open Regatta

JULY 26-27: Carolina Yacht Club Open Regatta

Reach Will Haynie at willh@thepickledish.com.