I agree with Mary, on all her points, I dont think you can set a beach cat to self tend in anything but the lightest winds. Even parking gets hairy over 18knts. By the way the HT parks great, it doesnt move, it stays planted in one spot, (under 18knts or so) I wonder if this is a uni-rig thing. It the rig does flop around if its choppy, and the motion isnt comfortable in the chop, but it will park very nicely.

and in re-reading Gary's post he indicated that he did his Heave to in light winds. Its a different deal in storm conditions.

The most intense winds I was in was Sail for Hope and it was like 35knts sustained with higher gusts. The most in control I felt was double trapped, going to weather. Pinching in on the gusts was the only way to control the power. We had every line pulled as tight as possible, with the main as flat as we could get it. Bearing away was not an option, tacking was a micro-second event.

By the way - heave to on a mono hull, in storm conditions requires dragging a drogue to create a slick that waves dont break in, and going mostly downwind, with the boat at an angle to the wind, approx 45 degrees. If done right, its a rather calm, relaxed state as compared to trying to sail upwind in a storm. I've done it and it a great way to ride out a storm when you are at sea. It cant be done with a lee shore, or with any regard to your heading, its kind of like, ok, lets hunker down, and wait, and when the wind backs off, start sailing again.

There was a thing on TV this morning with Sir Robin Knox Johnson(?). The backbone of his ocean racer broke in the middle of the ocean in the middle of a storm. To take stress off the boat and preven it breaking in two, thousands of mile from shore, he "trailed warp".

You put 600' of 2" rope off the stern, attached to each side, giving a 300' loop of "shock absorber".

Now you know what to do with all your old mainsheets.

btw- the old Hobie literature said you could maintain any leeward course under bare pole. . . if the wind was over 50 knots!!!

I'd like to see the video of that!!

Guys:

I can believe you could bear pole in 50 knots. A few week ago it was blowing stink so I turn sterns to wind to raise mast on my H17. I didn't even have to hold the mast for it to stay up. It was scary. I ended up chickening out. First time in 27 yrs i was to scared to go out.

Doug Snell
Hobie 17
www.tcdyc.com

Most monohull dinghies can indeed park. They teach how in learn-to-sail classes (US Sailing's included) and call it the "safety position".

That said, I too do not recall seeing monohulls park between races like cats do. I suspect it may be because (1) monohull sailors don't work as hard while racing and aren't so tired, and maybe (2) monohulls don't take off on you like cats do when you aren't paying attention.

I know the Tanzer 16 certainly doesn't. Then again, it's so slow that you simply don't have much time to wait between races. Maybe that's it.

On second thought, maybe that was Jack Sammons, "Welcome to A fleet".

Seriously, I think I read that BEFORE videos were invented!!! The first Hobie video I recall was Dean Fromme(?) sailing an 18 over those massive waves in Hawaii.

I don't think the monohulls park because it takes so much effort to get them up to speed again.

I remember that! He also shot over a sand bar and towed a guy wake surfing on a daggar board. Dean works for the Oahu Hobie dealer now.

Did it look anything the guys in "Serie 2"

http://www.torsten-hengstmann.de/segeln/download/videos.htm

Why would that matter if they are just waiting around between races?

That was Dean.

You know? I do race my Hunter 23 from time to time and we don't ever try to park it. Perhaps I'll try - but the boat is so easy to sail that it's not really a big deal to keep moving about. Secondly, I suspect that it will handle so poorly when it's not moving that it won't be very controllable.

When you are parked, you don't have steerage until you accelerate enough to get some flow over your rudder. A mono hull would take a long time to gain that steerage. Therefore, parking a mono hull would mean giving up control of being able to steer enough to avoid a collision.

Since we are able to power up our rudders so quickly, parking is practical. For a mono hull to give up their steerage in order to relax, would not be a true way to relax since they'd be worried about some numb-skull driving into them while they are comprimised.

GARY

Oh yes you can!





Oh no you don't. See above.



I have heard that said, way too many times. I don't believe that I can't plant an I20. I look forward to proving so.

GARY

I don't think parking an I20 is impossible but the advent of self tacking jibs makes this quite difficult to achieve. It certainly behaves much differently than my F18 and caught us by surprise on several starts last weekend. I found myself several times surprised in irons or with forward speed that we (I) had not accounted for.

If a self tacker is causing a problem, then furl that stinking jib. Cat's without roller furlers on their jibs are dangerous.

Really can't accept a ridiculous statement like that!

It's apples and oranges. Gary is speaking in terms of someone who routinely sails alone offshore in dangerous waters. In that case, a roller-furling jib is probably essential for safety reasons. If you are doing round-the-buoys racing on protected waters with lots of other boats nearby, it is not that big a deal.

Okay, then don't. But I will attempt to add some qualifiers to my statement so that you or others like yourself may find it more palatable. Here is my attempt:

Cat's that have jibs that cause the skipper to be in a situation where the jib is in control of the boat and the skipper is not in control of the boat because of the jib should have roller furlers in place so as to give the skipper the ability to get rid of the sail that is causing him to not be able to control the boat.

I feel your frustration in your view of my remark. It is the same feeling I get when somebody says that they can't stop their boat or that a particular type of boat is unstoppable. Especially when they blame their jib.

I say, if you have a jib arrangement that disallows you to maintain control of your boat at all times, then that jib has no business being on the boat without a way to douse it.

If you can't accept my statements and you find them to be too ridiculous, fine. I'm okay with that as long as you are okay with me having those opinions.

It's a good forum with a few members who might have rediculous opnions.

GARY

Everyone's entitled to an opinion, what is not an entitlement is stating something that is just an opinion as fact. So, yeah, I'm OK with you having opinions....

You're right, it is a good forum and to the most part, good natured.