I have achieved a new personal record of crew weight aboard my Timber homebuild F16.
Each year a local (
high
) school send us a group of pupils (16-17 years) to get to know the catmaran sailing. Each pupil can choose what sports the go to from a long listing and interestingly far more girls choose cat sailing then other sports. Yesterday it was 12 girls and 1 boy.
But then again the gymnastics instructor tells them that sailing is most sitting about basking in the sun.
Soooooo, yesterday we had sunny skies 20 degrees celsius and 15 knots of wind. Ohhh Yeah !
The gals thought that catsailing (especially under spi) was a hoot and nothing like their gymnastic teacher had told them how it would be !
My new record regarding crew weight is now set at 220 kg and interestingly enough the boat still sped along quite well. Under spinnaker we were overtaken the waves (not chop) at speed, making for some spectacular sailing !
I had them working the spinnaker and also they steered the boat on the upwind legs with me holding on to the mainsheet. They took to it quite quickly and even after being totally submerged a few times they weren't feeling cold at all. Every now and them we all would get a massive shower when our 220 kg fully crashed through a wave after riding down the one before. Of course I just had to put one of them on the leeward side during spi sailing for a maximal real life experience !
A great afternoon all together.
My homebuild held out under this abuse perfectly well. I'm very happy with the dependability of this lightweight craft !
Great fun and I think we have a few more converts that sailing can be spectacular.
Wouter
Wouter, You Dog! In America we would get arrested for that! They would call it, Child Endangerment, Abuse or Molestation! <img src=
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But did you get any phone numbers? For crew of course...
I'm sorry Tim, I draw the line at age 20 ! <img src=
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But indeed thank God we can still give teenagers like this the ride of their lifes without some government agency or liability lawer sticking their noses in BEFORE anything has happened.
Of course it is the skippers responsibility to assure everything is done safely. And we do take great care to assure that. However being safe still doesn't mean that it can't be spectacular !
Wouter
Well done Wouter, take every opportunity <img src=
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Here's something funny that happened last week. I took my son's girlfriend out on the Prindle, on the wire, in 15 knots, she had a great ride and now wants my Son to teach her to sail! They are both 14. Since he got into basketball he has lost interest in sailing, now SHE is bringing him back! Score one for the women!
And the day before that, one of the local boys pulled up on a jet ski looking for one of my twin 18yr. old daughters. I first thought about going into the house and getting the shotgun, but since I was on the beach putting up the mainsail on the Prindle and it was gusting to 20, I asked him if he wanted to go sailing (the girls were not home anyway). I figured that would scare him away. So I get the other harness and the two of us go out for some great high speed reaching across the lake. The rudders kept popping up at speed making steering tough, so we did stuff the bows a couple times. He nearly went around the forestay, got dragged in the water, and scraped his leg on the sidestay, but no matter how hard I tried to hurt him, I could not scare him away.
Now he has shown up in my backyard a couple times looking for...another ride on the boat! In his words,
Man, that was frigg'n AWESOME!
Too bad he is bigger than me so I really can't use him for racing crew. The two of us would be about 420 lbs. I'm going to try to teach him to sail it so he can take it out alone while I take the Blade.
I take it you're a better Pilot than Helm when it comes down to passenger safety!! If not remind me not to fly when you're at the controls. <img src=
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420 lbs ? (190 kg combined)
Well, Tim you should take him along on your F16 and have him experience spinnaker sailing in 15 knots of wind while trapped out behind the rear beam !
Downhill Sled Ride !
Then even a shotgun won't scare him away !
Wouter
Well Tim, now that you're wife KNOWS your nuts for buying a Blade AND attempting to sail during a tropical storm ... you can simply buy this:
http:/
It's the Inter20 for sale in FL and you can have TWO BOATS one for uni (or light weight sloop rigged) and one for big bad boys from Sebring on the I20!
And the day before that, one of the local boys pulled up on a jet ski looking for one of my twin 18yr. old daughters. I first thought about going into the house and getting the shotgun, but since I was on the beach putting up the mainsail on the Prindle and it was gusting to 20, I asked him if he wanted to go sailing (the girls were not home anyway). I figured that would scare him away. So I get the other harness and the two of us go out for some great high speed reaching across the lake. The rudders kept popping up at speed making steering tough, so we did stuff the bows a couple times. He nearly went around the forestay, got dragged in the water, and scraped his leg on the sidestay, but no matter how hard I tried to hurt him, I could not scare him away.
Now he has shown up in my backyard a couple times looking for...another ride on the boat! In his words,
Man, that was frigg'n AWESOME!
Too bad he is bigger than me so I really can't use him for racing crew. The two of us would be about 420 lbs. I'm going to try to teach him to sail it so he can take it out alone while I take the Blade.
Offer him the boat and a couple of horses as a dowry! <img src=
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