I just got on the web site and saw that Rick had posted this story. Thanks Rick.
Since everyone has picked up on the "Big Waves", I thought I would give an explanation.
I am primarily a ocean sailor and have certainly seen my share of big waves. My definition of a big wave on the ocean is something that looks like an apartment building coming a you!
The waves on Lake Michigan were not big in this sense. They were probably 6 foot waves from trough to crest. However, they were much closer together and steeper than what one experiences on the ocean.
Because of the steepness, the wave would grab that backend of the boat and rotate it 30-40 degrees very quickly. You would be sailing at say 50 and all of the sudden you were at 85. The boat was thrown into the power zone and you need to head down. Unfortunately, as you started to try to head down the next wave would lift the backend of the boat up and the rudder would cavitate. The first time this happened, it gave me a good scare. The boat just seemed to keep coming up into the power zone and we dumped the main quickly to gain some control back. (Remember, this is with full spin up in 15-20 knots.) Fortunately, the backend would fall back into the water and you would regain control of the boat.
The boat would then take off on a 15-20 knot sled ride. The trick was to keep the boat bounding over the waves without getting stuck on the backside of a wave. Once caught on the backside, the boat would stop, get kicked around by 30 degrees as described above and the whole process would repeat itself.
On Monday morning, the wind finally got big enough that we stopped getting caught on the backside of waves. We just bounded from one wave to the next. As the wind started to increase, the leeward hull started to punch hard.
Eventually, the wind came up to 20-25. We were flying along at nearly a constant 18-20 knots. Finally, we got the boat over 20 knots and we came flying over a wave and down into a trough and stuck the boat hard. The boat went to about a 45 degree angle and the 6 foot rudder was 4 feet out of the water. Fortunately, we had headed deep and the boat did not rotate as it came out of the stuff.
Oh well, we had found the limits of the boat!
Steve
