Hobie 14 (non-turbo) top speed - 20 knots?

Hey everyone, just came back from an awesome weekend of sailing in 15-20 knot winds, flying a hull pretty much the whole time.

From my calculations, my average speed was 13 knots/24km/h when I was keeping track which in my books is quite impressive. Given this was the average speed, I am estimating the top speed I reached was ~20 knots on a broad reach, going with the waves. Is this possible or am I way off base? I'd like to have my facts straight before bragging

Cdogg

P.S. has anyone been able to recover from a nose dive with water almost at the front cross bar, because I did and could no believe it!

Hi mate, those speeds are pretty good. I recorded a max speed of 23.2kts on my Garmin GPS. I was sailing in a stupid wind speed though, and after recording said speed, I probably had a trully magnificent pitchpole, which ended the day, as I bent the mast a bit. It is possible to save that sort of pitchpole, but you have to have lightning reflexes, or very good luck. This was with the turbo rig set. Standard rig is probably 3/4 knots slower, but thats just a guess, I would ask Bob Curry about this though.

Cheers

Pierre