Strong gusts from the summer's first storm wreaked havoc on a Beverly yacht club race, sending two sailors to the hospital.
In another storm-related incident out at sea, the Salem harbormaster had to aid a man Sunday night who got into trouble while sailing from Gloucester to Salem.
Both incidents were blamed on the coastal storm that has knocked down tree limbs, soaked the North Shore and dragged on for days.
The injuries happened in Beverly on Sunday afternoon during the final race of the Jubilee Yacht Club's annual J-24 "Around The Rocks Regatta."
Two experienced sailors who have competed together for years both were struck by the sailboat's boom, suffering head injuries, according to the Beverly harbormaster's office and a club official.
Michael Taber, 58, of Marblehead was hit by the boom and knocked overboard around 1 a.m. Sunday during the final race of the tournament for the sleek sailboats. He was clinging to the side of the boat and pulling himself back in when a crew mate, Robert Kramer of Athol, was struck in the face by the boom.
The Beverly harbormaster's boat guided the J-24 sailboat back to the Jubilee Yacht Club and called for an ambulance.
"They were both bleeding from the (head), but they were alert," said Mike Henebury, a deputy harbormaster in Beverly. He credited the other crew members on the sailboat with aiding the injured sailors.
Both men were transported to Beverly Hospital, Henebury said. They were treated and released.
Just as the injured sailors were put into the ambulance, the harbormaster got a call about another sailor from the same race who had fallen overboard and was having trouble getting back into his boat.
"He was in the water with a life jacket on bobbing up and down and caught in a little bit of a chop," Henebury said.
Assistant Harbormaster Michael Gelineau tossed a life-ring buoy to Jackson Maddux of Peabody and helped pull him from the water.
Chuck Twombly, the commodore at Jubilee, said the J-24 regatta went well until the final race, when the winds suddenly picked up.
"It was just a couple of big gusts that came through," he said.
None of the sailors was seriously injured, according to Twombly. Taber and Kramer were back at the club later in the day and "were in good spirits," he said. The man who fell overboard was joking with club members, he said.
In a separate incident, Salem Harbormaster Peter Gifford said his office got a radio call around 8 p.m. Sunday from a 27-foot sailboat hung up on a lobster pot near the mouth of Salem Harbor. Gifford and Assistant Harbormaster Steve Levesque guided the sailor back to Winter Island.
Anthony Cagnina of Gloucester was sailing alone from Gloucester to Salem, Gifford said.
"He never should have attempted to come down from Gloucester ... in the storm," Gifford said.
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