On august 1, 2012, operator's sailboat, grace, was heading southeast down the pasquotank river.  Operator turned the vessel to the left to sail across the river before returning to elizabeth city.  He was attempting to put up the spinnaker (sail) as he approached the center of the channel.  Operator stated that he never used the spinnaker (sail) and that he was relying on the two passengers that he had on board to manage the sail for him.  He was so distracted by fixing the spinnaker (sail), that the vessel went into the shallow water.  He dropped the main sails and turned the boat hard to the left and tried to get back into the main channel.  Before he could get into the main channel, he hit bottom.  He then started to bring down the spinnaker (sail), but it pulled the vessel onto a submerged piling.  The vessel then hit the piling on the port side (left side), putting a hole in the hull.  The vessel then started to take on water.  Operator advised all passengers to put on a pfd.  Operator contacted the uscg by vhf radio requesting assistance.  The uscg launched their small boat vessel to render assistance.  Initially they attempted to pump water out of the cabin of the sailboat but found the vessel to be taking on too much water and noticed a 6 -12 inch gash in the port side (left side) of the hull.  The uscg then took operator, and two others off the vessel and took them to lambs marina where operator began to make plans to recover his vessel.  The uscg noted in their report that there was no pollution and the vessel posed no risk to navigation.  Operator had the vessel re-floated and taken to lambs marina.
SHILOH                        