As we move from those soft breezes of summer to whipping winds of Fall ... it's good to remember our limits.

I was out this past week pushing my P-18 to its limits. Boy, you really can push that boat. Steady 15-20's directly out of the NW (Now, that sure sounds like Fall to me). Almost 500 lbs. on board with continous 3 to 5 footers. It always amazes me how rigging stays up as you are crashing, jumping and submerging those hulls.

Anyway, our horror story occured on landing. We beach on the South shore in a very shallow landing area. Both rudders kick-up just as I'm trying to bring the bows around into the wind with heavy wind filling our sails. As the rudders kick I only partially get the bows around. We're still 50 feet from shore, but only in knee deep water. I jump off and leap to the bows to try to get them into the wind but the wind is pushing the boat back into point of sale.

I'm thinking - this is not going to be pretty. At this point, my crew is off his side also going for the bows. We tried with everything we had as a bigger gust pulls the boat from our grips - and there she goes. Sails uncleated and boat un-manned, full speed into the shore. Let me tell you, without any weight on board in heavy wind, a cat picks up an incredible rate of speed in a very short distance. The boat flys into shore and digs into loads of sea-grass and the sterns start coming up - and now I'm thinking I'm going to witness my first un-manned pitchpole! Luckly the gust passes (but it's still blowing) and the sterns settle back down.

Now the boat is halfway on shore with the wind still filling the sails. We yank the boat back into the water and finally pull the bows around. We very carefully dropped the jib as it was flailing and all was good. Thankfully, no damage to the boat or us, but another lesson learned.

It could have been a very ugly (and expensive lesson) as there were docks and power boats on lifts within 20 feet of where our Cat met the shore.