Got Trashed

Humbling experience this last Saturday. Great Salt Lake is a great place to sail, but very unpredictable and mean as a snake.
Checked the forcast and predicted 12-18 mph. Went out for a great day. Was keeping an eye on a storm cell heading north the other side of Antelope Island. Warned a kayaker to watch out if it changes direction. Great winds. Probably set a new personal best High speed for solo sailing. (19.6mph) Storm stops moving, wind shifts and is coming directly from the storm. I head for the marina and get nailed (30+mph) about 400 yards out. I am off the trapeze and sitting out at the rail with the main sheeted out and the jib completely flogging. I'm doing OK until my tramp fails (new one in the mail). I'm now butt down in the water as the boat goes over. No problem, plenty of wind to right it. Swim the bows around, climb on the lower hull, grab righting line, and wham! Over again. Do it 2 more times, just for the practice. Don't know what the winds are, but checked later and were steady around 35 and gusting to 45 or better. No way to keep the boat on it's feet so hunker down on the lower hull to wait it out. Only problem is, waves are building and when the hull drops in a 3-4 foot hole the mast comes up and over we go again. It was so violent this time that I was certain that the mast would not survive. I'm telling you, these boats are tough. Went over at least 3 more times with absolutely no damage. Incredible.
Not the only problem. The cause way is coming up at about 3 knots. It consists of a pile of rocks that they put a road on the top of. I am imagining what is going to happen when I hit those rocks. I decide that I need to prevent the boat from flipping again when the hulls hit the beach. So when I get about 20 feet from shore, I dive in and swim to the mast head and hang on. By this time I have an audience of about 10-12 cars watching the show. A nice guy and girl get out of their car and come down to the beach to help. I also was lucky enough to find about 20 feet of sandy area to beach the boat on. They held the hull while I carried the mast up onto the beach. This is where the only damage was done. I couldn't get the main off fast enough to prevent the waves from putting so much pressure on it that I broke 2 battens and torn out 5 batten pockets. All is well. I put on the new tramp last night and am working on the pockets and looking for some local battens (98 incher if anyone has one) so I don't have to pay the shipping fees. Sorry this is so long, but thought you all might find it entertaining or even educational. Another adventure on the Great Salt Lake.

Holy crap, what a ride!

Thanks for sharing. I always find these informative if nothing else. Posted something similar last year. It was part cathartic, but mostly I got some good input and advise.

Good luck next time!

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'81 H16

If it ain't a blowin', I ain't a goin'

Great story. Amazing skills you have and you made good decisions. Your story was not long enough!

Id love do have been there.

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ALLEY CAT 1984 RED LINE HOBIE 18 MAGNUM
Sail # 10505 or 277

I enjoy reading about heavy weather adventures.

And watching heavy weather videos:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUsggqBCpUY[/youtube]

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Anderson, SC
1987 Hobie 16
Learning to sail.

Great story and thanks for sharing the experience. The video of the race was amazing also, I guess that is what a hull looks like when it is skewered at high speed by another H16

X 2

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'97 Hobie 16.

Skype: rob_arnolda

Another after effect is that I feel like someone has taken a baseball bat to every inch of my body. I didn't realize at the time what toll was being taken, but I certainly understand now. Ibuprophen 3 times a day and it is the 4th day after the event. I'm getting old.

I just arrived on the forum, but see this is an appropriate thread for the maiden voyage on a '77 H16 that I inherited from my step family. The boats in great shape as it has been in pieces in my step dads basement since 1987.

Maiden voyage was July 9th on Pleasant Lake, NH. not sure how hard it was blowing but it was bending trees, and making white caps. We launched (blasted off) from a very narrow beach in theory aiming out between two rocky shores. Needless to say that didn't go too smoothly, mostly cause I was too preoccupied with why the mains sail wouldn't stay pulled in so i steered us straight into the wind. Which soon blew us back towards the rocky shore. First mistake: I threaded the main sheet tracking cleat in the wrong direction so it wouldn't grab (as all you pro's know the cleats only work in one direction). We fixed that, and it wasn't long before we was flying along on one hull and I get taught my second lesson: uncleat the main sail before the angle of tilt gets too big and we slide off the tramp.

So without any hesitation we was off onto our Third lesson: Righting the rig. We got this down pretty fast because I had anticipated some issues and had installed the righting line. I'm 200 lb and Jim's 175 lb and it was sluggish but steadily righted.

We both hung on tigher when things started to get very tilted so we had more speed and the next spill (crash) was a full semi submerged frontal flip. The classic Pitch Pole. So we learnt to sit way back, and let the main out to slow down when we after we get tilted and start to submerge.

The final spill I'm not sure exactly what happened. We was having constant difficulty getting into the irons on our taks (takes(?), turns. The sails must were still cleated, or maybe it was a big wave. The Hobie reared up, the back sank, the wind got a hold of the tramp and we went over backwards. A reverse Pitch Pole.

At that point we started to get pretty good at righting but it was very exhausting. The next day was mellower winds and was an attempt at 100 sails on lake, we sailed again, we was easily the fasted boat on the lake. We're both hooked on Hobie Sailing.

Congrats, Martin! You drew the Hobie 16 newbie Royal Flush! And it just gets better. Be safe, have fun, learn, read, practice, repeat!

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16

My wife and I experienced the "reverse pitchpole" on a similarly windy day. My wife and i together are about 350 lbs and on one tack, my wife came too far back on the boat and with our vinyl trampoline, the wind caught the tramp from underneith and we were almost pitch backward. Luckily, my wife scrambled forward and brought the nose back down. After that, she made sure she moved across the trampoline near the front crossbeam when we were sailing in high winds.
It definitely was a learning experience.

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Eric Weller
2006 F18 Capricorn
1980 H16
Keep the pointy side up!

Martin, it sounds to me like you experienced in two trips, more than I have in a dozen!

I cant wait for the weather to heat up over here so I can start having a bit more fun!!!

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'97 Hobie 16.

Skype: rob_arnolda

+1

Martin, you were 5 for 5 (1.000) on your first outing!

sweet...

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Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com