I woke up this morning at about 5:30. I could hear the wind outside and see the trees moving against the night sky. For some reason I could not go back to sleep and the lake was just calling to me. So what did I do...

I hooked up the Nacra and called a close friend who owns a Hobie 16, we were on the water by 8:00am. It was a little cold but the wetsuites did their job and we were pretty comfortable. Just for fun we had a little race about 4 miles down the lake and back. We were not really pushing the boats to much but not taking it easy either. I got to try out the new trap harness and the new 6:1 system. Both worked great!!

And just so you all know he beat me!! He was using both his Jib and main while I was only using the main. But it was pretty close and we had fun. All total we spent about 3 hours on the water and had a blast.

Did anyone else make it out today?

Not around here, 30 degree weather is too cold for me........I dont have a drysuit so I stop at around 45 degrees temp., but sure sounds like a ton of fun. I know a guy who goes out and sails his Nacra every year at the lake on New Years eve, if you ask me he's insane, but he says he wears a heavy duty drysuit and all the proper equipment.....but i still think he's crazy, I've seen him out in a snowstorm before at last christmas,.....crazy........

I'm down in Tybee Island visiting some friends and I'm kicking myself for not bringing the nacra with me. Its supposed to get up near 80 degrees this weekend down here with a nice Northerly breeze.

Two A-cats and one F18 with chute out today on beautiful Lake Santa Fe, North Florida: 8-11 knots for some trapping and practising the Wild Thing. 78 degrees F, sunny, clean water- just lovely. I did put my old farmer john for splashes. Tomorrow will be just the sunny same.

PS: Can anybody tell me how to get our now/old 8 ft Avon inflatable chase boat with 6 hp Johnson or 8 hp Honda to plane properly? Starts to plane out, but at about 13mph, it pulls down air, prop cavitates and loses planing speed. Transom is 16 inches, hard plastic section floor has a new light steel strongback on each side= very stiff. Is transom too tall= made for Seagull outboard? Hydrofoil addition to motor cav plate? Motor angle change no help. Help or reference welcome, thanx. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I don't know to much about inflatables. I have used a small outboard alot on small John boat and Vbottoms. The best result I have ever had was to put more weight in the back and to get it a little deeper, but you may just have to go to a longer shafted motor.

Dacarls: Look for a hydrofoil wing that bolts onto the horizontal fins of the outboard. They give more water flow over the horz. fins so when you adjust the angle of the motor the bow comes down faster. My sister has one on her motor/inflatable and it works great.

PS how is the weather down there?

I agree that the cavitation plate extensions will work wonders for the Avon.
Here is one example.

GARY

Mother and Sister at Virginia Beach - say it's like an Irish Summer - should it not be a bit colder there at this time of year <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
Edit: I should have said "a good Irish Summer"

Dermot, glad to hear it, wish you were here with them! I hope you were able to get near a boat today?!

Anyway, you won't believe this but today, when I rigged up my boat, my WIFE came out and said she wanted to go for a ride!! Now, I have been married to this gal for 20 years and in that time, she has NEVER said she wanted to ...go for a ride...at least not on my cat! So, I took her out for a good blast reach across the lake, with me on the wire and her on the tramp, yelling, "I'm going to fall in, I'm sliding off..." all the way. It was only blowing about 15 gusting to 20 but that is more than she has ever been out in. I tried to get her out on the wire but she wouldn't even put on the harness. Still, she was out there getting wet and screaming every time the hull came up. It's a start, maybe there is hope in the new year?

She took some video of me sailing up onto the beach alone afterwards, I will try to get it posted somewhere after I review it. All in all, a great way to end 2006. Now, I can only hope she will go out tomorrow, a great way to start the new year!

Hope you and your have a good one! See ya.

A lot of times around here the real Winter doesn't kick in until around mid-January and February. Some of our better snow storms have happened in early March. Extremely rare is the white Christmas.

Dermot - I'm about 2.5 hours inland from VA beach - we will have a high of 18-19C, so a tad cooler than the last time I was in Ireland in July, but still, way, way warm for this time of year here. Purportedly this is due to El Nino weather pattern, which keeps pumping lots of warm gulf weather our way - keeping the jetstream north and west of us.

I need a wetsuit!

Summer holidays here had a genuine 20knot plus gusts a couple of days ago with three on the wire total crew weight 275kg on my mates Taipan
regards

Hi Guys, I suppose that a good Summer day in Ireland would go to mid or higher 20s C. 18-19 C would be very pleasant <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
It's a bright day today, but the temp is 6C. The lake is at quite a high altitude - water very cold, so no sailing until March.
My sister and her husband moved from Palo Alto to Maryland last year and also have a house in Virginia Beach, where my mother spent Christmas. Must get over there someday <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Tim, keep working on that "new crew" - She might be another "Mary Wells" yet and go off and get her own cat <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Keith, The worst winter we had in living memory in Ireland was in '47 and did not kick in 'til Jan 20th. So we should be happy with our "mild" weather at the moment.

We were going to go out today but the shore break was a little too big.

Come on don't you have a wave piercer?

Famous last words to a friend " I know your boat can make it through that"

someone photoshop a tiny cat on that picture and call it

Worrell 2001 - Jensen Beach

Who is that?