2015 Hobie Adventure Island in 20 knots

.

_________________
Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

It's more probable that it's not just wind that prevents me from being capable of making any headway up wind. It likely also has alot to do with where you are and the sea conditions. For example in Sarasota bay I have been out many times in winds over 20 mph, and up to 35 mph (never on purpose), where the vertical chop is well over 5 ft and hitting you from all directions (no different than being in a washing machine). Those conditions are clearly quite different from what is in the above video. In those conditions the boat is being thrown around like a rag doll and you have very little directional control over the boat. I have also been in Tampa bay and it's even worse there. Just getting back to shore for me turns into a 3 hour totally exhausting ordeal. With the vertical waves if you are broadside to the wave the boat will capsize if you don't hike out whether you have tramps on or not. I know first hand that the strain from the waves hitting and passing over the boat easily sheer the nylon sheer bolts on the ama's (I have sheered many). I have also snapped rudder pins in those conditions. Once your rudder pin goes you are completely helpless, there is no means to steer the boat, and repairs cannot be made in those conditions (I know first hand because I have tried). I have tried many times to try to steer with a paddle after a rudder break, it can't be done in those conditions.
My advise is it's probably not a good idea to take an AI or TI out in weather advisory conditions on purpose. In south Florida and the keys we often have sudden un predicted storms (sometimes daily) usually with extreme winds. If going offshore it's probably a good idea to re-enforce your boat to prevent the obvious failures outlined above, and also have some alternate means of steerage that is tested and proven in severe conditions, in my case I have twin steerable powerful outboards that I can power up and get myself out of danger and back to shore at high speed (with one motor or both, just in case one fails). As I mentioned above, more than once I have been driven out to sea by strong winds and fierce currents off of key west unable to get back to shore (vary scary experience).
All this only applies offshore, or in extremely large bodies of water sometimes miles from shore.
I'm only mentioning any of this because I don't want to see anyone get hurt, know your boats limitations....
FE

Just from my own experience (and I'll be the first to admit I don't exactly have a Ph.d in sailology), I agree with FE about what seems to happen in practice. What happened to me was - I and a buddy were in South Fl Gulf around the Ten Thousand Islands. Winds were about 18-20 mph from the NW. We were trying for another island 5 miles to the NNW of our position. We tried for hours and could not tack our way over there. We could go way out SW and way over to the E, but it seemed like the centerboard couldn't keep up with the tendency to push us sideways. Also, taking the waves broadside was just too uncomfortable. We finally gave up, turned back toward our camp island and had a nice quick ride back to the SE in following seas.

I'm sure if we had been experts we could have technically made it over there but it seemed like it would have taken days and been miserable.

Oh, I'll add one more thing - later we looked at our GPS track from that "trip" and in the comfort of a sheltered island it looked amusing. It looked like we had been bumping against a force field around the island.

One minor thing.. when you furl the sail it moves the CE forward with respect to the centerboard CE. This is good for going downwind.. not so good for upwind.

I always pedal (big reason I like these boats) and maybe that is part of the reason I think they do well in higher winds?

I tell people that sailing my AI-2 upwind on a 15-20 mph day is roughly akin to body surfing.

_________________
2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]