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ill Flannery likes to help folks out, especially on the water. On Wednesday morning, he accompanied visiting sailor Don Carlson who wanted to move his CT Yachts gaff rigged yawl from the Town Dock to a slip up Smith Creek. It meant taking the “Sally Lightfoot” and her wooden masts under the Oriental bridge.

Wednesday afternoon, Will was in Pitt Memorial Hospital with a leg injury he sustained after the main mast snapped off upon hitting the bridge.

The bow of the “Sally Lightfoot” was positioned over the Town Dock so that Oriental’s First Responders could more easily lift Will Flannery off of the boat. At right, laying along the port side of the boat, is the snapped-off upper section of the wooden mast.

The boat was brought back to the Oriental Town Dock where Oriental’s first responders and Pamlico Rescue worked to carefully get Will off of the boat and in to an ambulance.

Don Carlson, shaken by the accident, as Oriental’s First Responders and Pamlico Rescue prepare to move Will Flannery from Don’s boat. The splintered remains of the mast is at left.

Don, visibly shaken by the accident, said that as they approached the Oriental bridge he had been at the helm and Will on lookout on the bow, looking up, “to make sure we cleared it.”

“He said he thought we’d made it,” Don Carlson said Wednesday afternoon. “And then BAM, it came down.” He says that along with the mainmast, a bowsprit also came undone, about in the same area where Will had been.

The mast snapped at the Oriental Bridge and Will Flannery suffered several breaks in his leg as a result. Here, Eric Kindle and other first responders prepare to lift Will on to a waiting stretcher.

Will, an accomplished sailor and windsurfer – he has wind surfed much of the length of the East Coast. Flannery runs a boat tour business and repairs inflatable boats.

Will Flannery, last summer on board his Zodiac at the Town Dock.

Don Carlson says that he took measurements before they attempted to pass under the bridge. Carlson says he ran a line to the top of the mast, measured it and calculated that the distance from mast top to water’s surface was 41 feet. When they reached the bridge, he says, the gauge read that there were 44 and a half feet of clearance. “We thought we’d clear it by three feet,” he says.

Wednesday afternoon, Carlson rode with another friend to follow Will to the hospital.

A member of the Deaton’s crew, moves the “Sally Lightfoot” in to place alongside the Town Dock.

Initially taken from the scene by ambulance, Will has been transported by helicopter to Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

The “Sally Lightfoot” and the splintered mainmast, at Oriental’s Town Dock Wednesday afternoon. The boat is a CT Yachts 42’ center cockpit gaff rigged yawl. While the hull is fiberglass, the masts are of wood. The boat displaces 40,000 lbs.

“Sally Lightfoot” and her classic rig in happier times – here under sail just a few days ago. ( Photo by Ken onboard Patina)

Posted Wednesday February 17, 2010 by Melinda Penkava

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