Yesterday the forecast for today was 10-20. This morning weather.com was saying 14-16 gusting to 22. I had to go. I HAD TO. I know you guys understand. I called a friend of mine and she called a friend of hers (!) and the three of us went to the lake. After I siliconed the mast and boom some (ref: http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1070 ) we headed out and even with three of us the hull was almost flying. I taught both of them to crew the jib and we practiced the man-overboard drill once. I told her friend to jump off and we'd sail in a circle to get him. That was cool.
The wind kept a lot of skiiers and tubers off the water so there weren't too many waves. After about 90 minutes my friend's friend decided he wanted to go in so I had him disembark as I sailed past the marina (he swam in) and then my friend and I went around for another 45 minutes or so. HOO BOY if I had double trap wires we could've been double-trapped. I had to un-sheet quite a bit to keep from going over. Most fun I've had on my boat yet!
Gotta get me a 6:1 mainsheet because the 4:1 is tough to pull in with winds like that. Also the old-school jam-cleat main traveller is a pain with 18mph winds. And then I want a harness. And then a second trap wire. And a second harness. And new jib sheet clam cleats. And the new jib traveler system... And then and then and then.... this is a financial hole. LOLOL!
The only downside came when I brought the boat back to the slip and discovered a quarter-sized (well, if you folded it over) chunk out of one of the bows! Gonna have to fill that. GRRRRrrr
Still... GREAT day! I would've sailed more but it looked like a storm was coming into the area. *sigh*
Wish y'all could've been here!
Warm regards,
Jim