after almost 6 months of winter snow out at the lake this week i finally got my nacra 5.2 back in the (cold) water, surrounding volcanoes still covered in snow

today had the most breeze and as i had the gps on board i tried to better my previous top speed of 16knots, set the end of last year

still a noob and without a proper trap harness i've been making do with an old windsurfer harness and just sliding my butt off the side of the hull. all winter i've been reading "catamaran racing for the 90's" so was sitting just behind the dagger to reduce transom drag

winds picked up, aimed for the reach and off we went, played the main to keep the windward hull just kissing, wind blew a little more, speed picked up another level, leeward hull starts kicking up big spray and suddenly the whole platform starts tipping forward! leeward nose almost completely under and i slide back to the rear beam as fast as i can

everything pretty stable in that position and a couple of minutes we are across the lake and out of the main breeze

gps says top speed 15.5knots and later trackpoint data downloaded to show the points either side

23/04/2008 12:46:07 0.2 nm 0:00:41 14 kt 98° true
23/04/2008 12:46:48 0.1 nm 0:00:29 15 kt 109° true
23/04/2008 12:47:17 0.2 nm 0:01:01 13 kt 113° true

looks like it isn't going to be easy for me to get much quicker. going to need a proper trap harness, foot straps, nonslip tape, more time on the water and slightly bigger balls;o)

another plug for GPSaction replay, very cool cranking the speed up and watching the boat zip around the track with each section colored according to speed, pic attached