Dude, Where’s My ProStart?

The day before 2013 Moth North Americans in Charleston, SC, Anthony Kotoun and other Moth sailors were out for a tuning session. There was a cruise ship in town scheduled to depart that day. Like insects to a light, the Moth sailors were drawn to the crowds of cruise ship passengers returning to their boat. As the Moth fleet was buzzing around the Charleston waterfront, the cruise ship sounded its horns signaling its departure.

The sailors heard the horns but never saw the dock lines go slack as they went in for one final flyby. On his last pass, Anthony wiped out at speed. The crash was directly astern of the ship. There was a cruise ship worker on the back deck blowing a whistle and pointing at him and the harbormaster was called. In Anthony’s own words, “It was almost a situation, but it wasn’t.” He was able to right himself and sail away before anything more came of the capsize.

However, in the high-speed wipeout Anthony’s Velocitek ProStart was ejected from its cradle and unfortunately was not secured with a lanyard. While Anthony didn’t use a lanyard, he did write his name and phone number on his ProStart.

Thankfully, Anthony had an additional ProStart with his spare Moth parts. With his backup ProStart, Anthony went on to win the final event of the Charleston Moth Winter Series and was crowned the 2013 North American Champion.

Weeks later, Anthony got a text message from a friend, “Dude, did you lose a Velocitek in Charleston harbor at some point?” Anthony’s Velocitek ProStart was recovered five miles upstream in a sandbar. The ProStart had the new battery gasket and the only damage from the capsize and a five mile trip upstream were three dead AA batteries!

The morals of this story are: use a lanyard, write your name and phone number on your Velocitek, and by all means get the new ProStart Battery Compartment Gasket! – Source