Pirate & Scooter
Member
I put these pics and the story to go with them on Book of Faces for family and friends but I figured I’d share them here as well. This winter and spring have been ridiculously windy and there’ve been plenty of 15 gusting to 20, 25 gusting to 30+ days this boat has survived. These pics were taken in 24 gusting to ‘waterspouts’!
The US Sailing Multihull Championship was in our backyard (literally) and they cancelled racing this day because of the sporty weather and some folks filmed one of the larger spouts that blew through. These links have the video and story:
https://weather.com/storms/severe/video/waterspout-swirls-over-fort-walton-beach-florida
http://www.ussailing.org/multihull18-final/
My family was down from Michigan enjoying the sunshine and they brought a professional photographer friend so we figured some big wind sailing would make some fun photos and we were right. He saddled up on the dock and I blew by a few times until the gusts got absurd. I made it back as the first tornado warnings were issued and the waterspout in the video ran up the north/south road parallel to our street a half mile to the west. Great timing indeed.
The fellow who restored and sold the boat to me said I’ve voided the warranty by planing in big wind a couple dozen too many times (actually he’s pretty proud the boat has hung in there and he enjoys sharing the pics and stories). Tornadoes and waterspouts probably double void any warranty…
Thankfully the Chesapeake racing experience has paid off with zero flips this season while I’m paying attention and only one from sliding sideways down a wave on a broad reach out in the bay while I was trying to take pictures (no surprise).
Love this Sunfish and the wind this year has been nothing but wild fun!
***Bonus tip- surprisingly having the boom as high as it is has not caused nearly as much bad heeling behavior as I was worried about. He sails flat and neutral helmed in big wind as long as I cinch down on the vang. The super bonus is that tacking is very comfortable compared to the racing rigged boats I'm used to where I've gotten my life jacket snagged in the boom hardware too many times to remember. I'm sharing that in case anyone out there is a 'big dude' that struggles with ducking the boom on tacks and is considering raising the boom but has been discouraged by stories of easy tipping or snapped masts. If you're big and getting stuck just raise it up!
The US Sailing Multihull Championship was in our backyard (literally) and they cancelled racing this day because of the sporty weather and some folks filmed one of the larger spouts that blew through. These links have the video and story:
https://weather.com/storms/severe/video/waterspout-swirls-over-fort-walton-beach-florida
http://www.ussailing.org/multihull18-final/
My family was down from Michigan enjoying the sunshine and they brought a professional photographer friend so we figured some big wind sailing would make some fun photos and we were right. He saddled up on the dock and I blew by a few times until the gusts got absurd. I made it back as the first tornado warnings were issued and the waterspout in the video ran up the north/south road parallel to our street a half mile to the west. Great timing indeed.
The fellow who restored and sold the boat to me said I’ve voided the warranty by planing in big wind a couple dozen too many times (actually he’s pretty proud the boat has hung in there and he enjoys sharing the pics and stories). Tornadoes and waterspouts probably double void any warranty…
Thankfully the Chesapeake racing experience has paid off with zero flips this season while I’m paying attention and only one from sliding sideways down a wave on a broad reach out in the bay while I was trying to take pictures (no surprise).
Love this Sunfish and the wind this year has been nothing but wild fun!
***Bonus tip- surprisingly having the boom as high as it is has not caused nearly as much bad heeling behavior as I was worried about. He sails flat and neutral helmed in big wind as long as I cinch down on the vang. The super bonus is that tacking is very comfortable compared to the racing rigged boats I'm used to where I've gotten my life jacket snagged in the boom hardware too many times to remember. I'm sharing that in case anyone out there is a 'big dude' that struggles with ducking the boom on tacks and is considering raising the boom but has been discouraged by stories of easy tipping or snapped masts. If you're big and getting stuck just raise it up!