Holy Schnike

I finally got to sail my H16 in some real wind. Today after a little thunderstorm we had 20-25 MPH winds. So of course I put the boat in and sailed it solo. Holy schnike these boats fly, flip and can be a really wild ride. Let’s see I flipped the boat three times one a pitch pole. I flipped it three times but I ended up righting it four times I righted one time and had it flip over in the other direction. The really odd thing about it is I thought in higher wind the boat would come around easier than in lower wind. I have the Hawaiian style righting lines but it did not work the best. Are the lines supposed to be routed inside or out side the shrouds? Because mine are on the inside and the lines kept getting snagged on the little twisted clip on the base of the shroud. The really bad ting about the day is I lost the bottom mainsail batten one of the times I flipped. The batten was old and the end cap was pretty much destroyed so the batten slipped out in the water. Ii was missing one when I bought the boat now I am missing the two longest battens for the main sail. If anyone in Wisconsin or the U.P. has extras that they would like to sell let me know.

Outside.

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I was going to make a similar post about sailing in high winds! Friday I took the afternoon off and went out and had an absolute blast... flew a hull for the first time.. heard the hum finally too! It was a fantastic afternoon of sailing... I went farther and faster than I have before and I felt very comfortable in the process.

Saturday on the other hand was a completely different situation.... crazy high winds with gusts over 25... I made it out of the harbor with ease, it actually rocketed right out of the bay, way faster than any other time. I should have known I was in for it! As soon as I got out in into the lake I was greated by actual whitecaps.... some pretty big waves for lake winnebago. Stupid wind from the SE made the West side very rough but I was determined to go a few miles south to a swimming area. After about 20 minutes of bucking the huge waves I tried to make my first tack which resulted in failure. As I was coming about, I obviously wasn't fast enough and the jib back winded on me along with the waves, it pushed me back to my original heading, so I pulled in the sails and regained my forward momentum and tried again... same thing. AT this point I was drenched, working hard, but still having a good time... but there was a feeling deep inside that I was a bit over my head out there, so I made a judgement call and decided to make a quick jibe and head back into the calm waters of the bay.

The jibe worked and thankfully I didn't tip it over in the process, I nearly did that on Friday doing a lazy jibe... nearly went swimming as the stern submerged and the cat went vertical... I flew up the tramp like a monkey getting my weight on the high side and it laid down as it should.

Back to the story... after I got headed back into the bay, I realized that heading this direction was really nice... I had no issues at all. I was back in the calm bay in a heartbeat and I decided to just buzz around in the shallows for awhile. After all, I planned on sailing all day. I did a few tacks, trying to get better at coming about without stalling it!

One time while coming about, I must have released the jib too soon and it basically wrapped around the forestay in a really awkward situation... because the battens didn't allow it to wrap nicely, but I couldn't easily get it to come back around because it had air in it. I was a bit outside the bay at this point so I was back in the rough waters and my instinct said to leave the damned jib and just get moving back into the calm water with the main, so thats what I did. After getting back in the bay, I messed with the jib again but was unable to free it. I decided to call it a day or at the very least go to the dock and fix it.

Getting to the dock became another task as I'm on the North side of the bay with the dock being directly SW of me. Should be no problem except there are some pretty shallow waters near the shoreline that I want to avoid because of rocks. My jib was a giant brick out on the front of my boat which caused me to fail coming about 2 times as I headed to the dock.. it actually caused me to come about once as I headed into the wind right next to the dock. I was 3 feet from my destination but it turned and the wind grabbed me, I had to act quickly to not hit another dock that was in front of me. Another 5 minutes and I made a perfect pull in to the dock ending up right into the wind as I pulled up.

The jib was easily fixed from the dock, no harm done... but I was absolutely exhausted and I hadn't even been out for 2 hours and didn't even have to right it. It was definitely an experience. I learned some very good lessons about heavy wind sailing. It also made me really appreciate the steady 12-15 winds that I had on Friday. It was so much easier. The heavy winds can be crazy fun, I bet, once I'm a little more experienced, but for now, I think I really had more fun in the steady winds where I could practice lifting the hull and working the main sheet to raise it higher without the risk of gusts putting me on my side!

Saturday was an amazing day. I went out on Lake Thunderbird here in Norman Ok. The wind was about 20 gusting to 25. There were white caps every where. I was a little worried at first but after a few minutes I got to feeling pretty comfortable.

The first time that things got bad was when I had to tack in high winds right out in the middle of the largest open area with huge waves crashing all around. Make note that I have a 14T but in big wind I had the jib furled. Has anyone ever tried to tack a 14 without a jib. It is very tough, if not impossible. The only way that you have any hope of actually tacking is to basically back the boat up once you are facing the wind. Managed to pull off this manuver and by the end of the day I could tack like that faster than most of the boats could tack normally.

But other than having to use some that weird tacking method, it was a great day. I loved it, my little boat is so perfect. I think that Hobie should start making the 14 again. My boat is in good shape but someday she will wear out and I am going to need to replace her. I want a 17 but also would like to have a 14 in the yard for high wind days.

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Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

I'm very new to cats... but can somebody explain why it seems so difficult to tack properly in high winds? I seem to get stuck which usually ends up with my jib back sailing and putting me back on my original tack instead of getting through the wind and switching sides.

On a monohull the weight will carry you through the tack, our cats are blazing fast but the reason for that is the lack of ballist. So in turn we get to fight with tacking. I do not know if you have read any other post about it but on of the best ways to tack in high winds is to sail backwards for a sec and use the rudders to turn you to the proper tack. There are some very detailed instructions around. Just search for high wind tacking.

As for the getting stuck coming back to the same tack, it happens from time to time. I have a 14 and without the jib it is the hardest thing on the water to tack. But it is possibe, don't turn to hard, anything past about 35-40 degrees on the rudders is more brake than turning, so just gentle turn not throw your self around.

I know it can be hard sometimes but these cats are well worth it when you get them on a reach and fly past a monoslug with one hull up in the air.

Remember practice makes perfect so go out often and don't get down about it!!!

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Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

Thanks for chiming in guys. For a while I thought everyone was just laughing at me. The cat is fun but much differant than my old monohulled boat. I look forward to next season to improve my skills but for now I will learn more on the differant cat boards.

Ditto! I don't worry about people laughing though... Especially when you get it all set properly and take off like a bat outta hell! Thats awesome!

The people in the park on saturday sat down to watch me brave the rough waters, they must have thought I was crazy... I had a blast!

Flying the hull on friday was thrilling! I can't wait to get the trapeze going!