hi all, yesterday when i sailed off from the beach on my 5.2 the guy i bought it off was sitting in the windiest part of the lake, taking photos of 2 of his windsurfer students doing to speed runs past his dingy
with him already out there as backup, in case of a capsize, (have been worried that my 70kg, (154lbs), wasn't enough to right the boat's 155kg, (340lbs) it was the perfect chance to explore the upper lean angles reasonably risk free
what a blast! with the gps showing around 16kph, 8knots, i would lean in to the middle of the tramp, find the last bit of boat speed with the rudders then as the windward hull started getting light pull her up with the main
with the rear leg on the center tramp bar and the forward leg under the hiking/jib wire i would start hiking out to control the rise and gently start turning into wind and slipping the main slightly if that wasn't enough
occasionally the the wind would gust at this point and i would end up turned almost into the wind at very high angles with the boat almost slowing to a complete stop before a final drop on the mainsheet would bring her back down
this went on for about 30 minutes and some of the hull-up runs must have been getting up around 45sec, (new personal best:-) until i finally overcooked it and found myself standing on the tramp bar watching the mast ever so slowly continue it path to the water
even with the sheet completely loose the mast had gone too far to stop now and every moment i had less effective weight to lever the boat back
with hindsight if i had done like a laser sailor, dropped everything and started climbing over to the daggerboard while holding the hiking strap i might have brought her back...but by then i was already diving for the stern
once in the water uncleating the sails went well enough, (but may have forgotten to loosen the downhaul) and the combination of mast sealing and beachball at mast head was enough to stop turtling, so there was lots of time to run around the hulls, (boy do they flex underfoot), and get my knotted righting rope over the hull and start leaning out.....and leaning out.....and leaning out some more
just couldn't get that last few feet of the mast to budge from the water. meanwhile previous owner was motoring around me like a curious shark. several times i worked my way up to the bows and stayed there until the bows were about 45degrees to wind for a bit of "power righting" with the wind under the sails and then lent out again until i was almost touching the water....but nothing. so i tried it again from the end of the daggerboard but the angles seemd all wrong and it was flexing a lot, so i asked mr.shark to stop gloating and pull up the the mast tip from the water. once it was about 3 feet out of the water up she came and i grabbed the dolphin striker to keep a hold of the boat and stop her going over again and pulled myself on board
so i learned quite a few things
1. you can fly a hull easily in quite mild winds 2. you really do slow down a lot the more you tip over 3. i really do need a trapeze harness for this kind of play 4. i REALLY need a righting system 5. the nikon d50 takes really good pics
the previous owner, a former hobie 14 national racer, also commented that he was sure i was going to pitchpole it before laying it over on it's side and that those big hulls were much better for that kind of tomfoolery than the little bananas on the hobie 14 and 16
eric e happy newbie have attached 1 of the 20pics here and will post another to the "lets see the cats" thread
