Near disaster and swim on a cold windy day.

I went up to Lake Lanier on Sunday. Winds were forecast with 12-15 with gusts around 25. Starting with light winds in the morning and getting stronger through the say as a cold front pushed in.
I had a leisurely downwind cruise from my my launch area. It was slow and uneventful. I played in the lake for a little bit, but soon the winds started building. The wind wasnt bad but the gusts were more than I wanted to deal with. Plus I knew that I had about 1.8-2 miles straight into the headwind to get back into a relatively narrow cove.

The gusts were really strong so I was playing with front seat, pedaling and pinching as high as I could to get back.
A couple seconds after one tack I felt a thump or bump.. something. (Its obvious in the video) I thought that the sail had just pull tighter since it was furled and I suddenly had some slack in the main
I am usually in the back seat so I tie the end of the furling line to the loose end of the main. This is fine if you are in the back.
I had moved to the front, and still had that loop behind me. When I pulled the main from the front all that slack had managed to get tangled on the aka crossbar. So wind hit it hard, it managed to press the release in, and pull the bar up. This resulted in an instantaneous release of the leeward aka crossbar. LUCKILY I had the trampolines on. Otherwise I would have rolled over instantly ala-Chekika. I never saw it happen and continued on like this for almost 20 minutes and 3 more tacks. At one point I looked over my shoulder and noticed it and about wet myself.. no pun intended.
My only thought was about Chekika's flip.
So lessons learned.. If your in the front seat, I probably shouldnt have the furling and main tied together behind the rear cleat. If nothing else at least keep an eye on the lines behind me.
My next improvement will be some bungee/keep out lines.
Dress for the swim. You never know when you are going in.

Heres the GPS track
https://www.strava.com/activities/522356168

And the video :
https://youtu.be/m7eEePC74vQ

Aero70: took me a while to figure out where Lake Lanier was (45 min north of Atlanta according to the ad). Good video -- funny, actually. Yeah, I'm using keep-out lines. Tramps do a good job, as you found out.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Nice video, kind of like a kayak flight data recorder. I’m glad everything turned out o.k.

Great video.

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas