So today up here in MA we had a pretty big rain and wind storm. I was pulling into my driveway and straight in front of me is my sail boat. But not where I had it. IT WAS IN THE AIR! It was pretty much flying. The wind picked it up off the trailer and it landed 8 feet away on the ground. Amazingly it landed softly on a huge pile of leaves that I had raked into a swampy area of my yard, and it landed upside down. I had luck on my side. I have my racing sunfish on the bottom of the trailer and the recreational one upside down face to face with the racing one. they are both covered indiviually. Now I will strap them down! I wonder how fast the gust of wind was that it picked it up. The boat weighs 129lbs. If my niece was in the yard she could have blown away!
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Fly away boat!
- Thread starter AJC6882
- Start date
If someone can come up with the area in sq. feet of the bottom of the hull we can figure Wing Loading.
Here is a chart for reference, I'm guessing the boat is lightly loaded. It also depends on the angle the wind hit the boat at which would determine the aspect ratio. If the wind hits the boat at 90 degrees to the bow you would have a nice wing. If the wind lifted the bow it could be it just flipped end over end without really lifting off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_loading
Here is a chart for reference, I'm guessing the boat is lightly loaded. It also depends on the angle the wind hit the boat at which would determine the aspect ratio. If the wind hits the boat at 90 degrees to the bow you would have a nice wing. If the wind lifted the bow it could be it just flipped end over end without really lifting off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_loading
Your luckier than I was, a few years ago I owned a Hotfoot 20 (now called an Ultimate 20), it weighed 1100 lb. and was attached to a trailer where it sat keel up and mast down. It got hit on the beam by a gust of wind somewhere in the 40 knot range, this lifted and rolled trailer and boat over the edge and down 8 ft. onto a concrete tidal grid. The boat was heavily damaged (port side of hull has smashed in leaving gaping holes) but was later repaired to like new condition. A substantial quantity of leaves on that tidal grid would have been welcomed.