Sailkb
Member
OK, I'm having a great sail in rather light wind today. There is a portion of the lake where tops of dead trees are sticking up out of the water. By the looks of the trees I would guess the water to be 5 - 8 feet deep around these trees. I decided to sail over and get a closer look. I was probably 50 feet from the trees when my dagger board hit something and my boat stopped dead. I was barely going 5 knots but it still almost threw me out of the cockpit. For seconds, my boat just sat there as the pressure from the sail kept my dagger board pinned against whatever was underneath. I am guessing it was a tree branch running parallel to the surface of the water. I adjusted the sail and easily moved the other direction away. I was a little worried that my trunk might have cracked but she contined to sail fine. Later, after trailering my boat I decided to pull the boat to a picnic area a few hundred yards away before derigging. I saw some shade and thought it would sure be nice to pull under that tree to stay out of the hot sun. I was going very slow, but had forgotten that my mast was still up. I only realized this after I heard the small branches breaking as I moved under the tree. Pretty stupid on both counts today. However, after inspection, I did not see excessive water inside the hull and I found no visible cracks around the dagger board trunk nor the mast tube. I sail a pre-71 boat and she is apparently still very durable. A big sigh of relief. I'm on the last few days of my vacation and I'd rather be sailing than fixing. 
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