The crew of a 38-foot Portland sailboat -- the L'Orca -- has one heck of a whale tale -- and the proof to back it up -- but this is one sighting that may be too close for comfort for even the most avid of whale fans.

Jerry Barnes, his son, Ryan, and a crew of about six were racing in the Oregon International Offshore race Thursday morning. They were about a half-hour into the race, three miles off Cape Disappointment, when a whale with some very poor timing brought their race to an immediate halt.

"All of the sudden, a few inches, a foot maybe off the starboard side, a whale came breaching out of the water," Ryan Barnes told the Coast Guard in a videotaped interview at the docks in Astoria. "It looked to be a humpback whale, about 30 feet in length roughly, it hit the mast about halfway to three-quarters of the way up, and proceeded to fall forward and on the starboard side of the boat. The mast came down as well as the forestay and all the rigging, and our tow rail and all our life lines on the starboard side of the boat were demolished as well."

All of the crew were in the cockpit at the time, and no one was injured, Barnes said.

The crew radioed the U.S. Coast Guard for help and were towed into Astoria by the lifeboat crew from Cape Disappointment, said Shawn Eggert, Coast Guard spokesman. The whale/sailboat collision is the first he's heard of in the six or so years he's been here, Eggert said.

No one is sure what became of the whale, though Eggert said he doubted it was gravely injured. It did however leave behind a small memento of its brief visit.

"We have a nice piece of whale blubber as a souvenir and proof of what happened," Barnes said.