I know! I was just about to post how I actually agreed with him...until he went a little overboard there with his last one.

http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/buoy/2012/4/14/FWYF1.html

Wind data for a buoy just outside of Biscayne Bay says the wind topped out at 31 knots, gusts seem to have toped out at about 34 knots. It was above 25 knots almost all day (from 8am to about 11pm.)

I did my "sensible post" on thebeachcats.com.

So... who's going skydiving this weekend?

Amen, well said. Learn from experience.

Yep. But if he went a little overboard this time, he'll really know better how to do it more safely next time.

You know that little voice in your head that tells you what is right and wrong? I don't have that.

I have that, but it always asks me, "What Would Karl Do??"

And then I don't do that...

;^)

Awesome video Rick!!,

This is a great real life documentation of how things break down in high winds.

Went out sailing in rediculous high winds,
No communication devices,
Notice crew was fighting with her trapeeze harness even before the capsize.
The capsized boat blew away from the person in the water.
The jib goes completely out of conrol in high winds.

All of these things have happened to me. I just never caught it on video.

Now for the old wise man part.
If you are sitting on the beach and the wind reports 18knt+, reef your sails. If you are distance racing 15knts+, reef your sails. Your boat will not cut the waves any faster.

Will show this video to my Watertribe buddies.

J.P.Ayers
Isotope 186
"holdyourcourse"

That's funny, because I always think, "what would Timmy do?", and then I ignore it.

They were not being stupid. They were in protected waters with chase boats around to save them. What better time to learn high wind techniques?

If you watch the vid of the 20' they are much more careful when they need to put their rudders back down.
the hobie guy didn't even uncleat the jib. you are extremely vulnerable resetting the rudders in that wind. You need to respect that obviously. You loose less time rounding up and placing the crew forward(hobies tip over backwards easily) that trying to reset while on a crazy reach. on a hobie you need to raise your transoms up onto a can or on the trailer and cranck down the cams until you can barely pull the rudder up by hand from the tip of the blade. With the cams that tight you need to keep new cams in there or the cam will deform when you go to lift the windward rudder up whilst sailing. If the cam stays locked down you won't be able to relock the rudder until you stop the boat and pry the cam back up with a screwdriver; a tool that you should have in you pouch.
when i lived in Santa Cruz in the 70's many of the points regattas where held in similar type winds. One race at Coyote point had gust to 45mph at the committee boat. Also the winds out past the mile buoy were quite strong all summer, but with an ocean swell. We all used to go out there every weekend.

over and out.

Was that the year racing was called off for Saturday and started at 9 AM on Sunday? That was a hell of weekend. One of the park rangers said he'd been there eight years and had never seen wind like that before.

Several people mentioned turtling. Biscayne Bay is quite shallow. I think the deepest is about 10 to 12 feet. Sailors told me after the race that their masts were just bouncing along the bottom. I have never seen a cat turtle in Biscayne Bay in 30 years of sailing here in Miami.

There was also a post asking why the sponsoring organization did not cancel the race in these condition. There were about 120 boat entered in the race. Most of the large mono hulls and big multihull boats did just fine. It was the beach cats that got hammered. The vast majority of beach cats never left the beach. I elected not to sail in these conditions. I was very glad I did not attempt this year's MKL Race. The forecast had been consistent for three days prior to the race, 20 to 30 knots out of the east.

That's the thing about mono's, (and big Tri's and big Cat) they can reef and press on in high winds.

After watching this guy flip and right what, 4-5 times, I was amazed when the Tow Boat showed up, that his crew got back on the Hobie and they took off again!

Did he finish the race, or head in to shore somewhere short of the finish?

My wife was watching it over my shoulder, she said, "If that crew was his wife, I'll bet that boat is for sale by now..."

;^)

Yes he finished. Three out of the five Hobie 16s that started the race finished, he came in third.

Once you start the MKL Race, there are very few places to bail out of the race. It is a 43 mile race going south down Biscayne Bay and there are only a couple of marina along the whole way. It is very difficult to go to one of these marina because of jetties and seawalls. If your boat is sailable, you just about have to finsh the course or turn back north to Miami. You only other option would be to get someone to tow you back to shore.

Doug Russell was sailing with his sister Debbie Russel in the video. I talked to them at Gilbert's Marina (the finsh takeout spot) after the race. They are from Ft. Lauderdale and are both very experienced Hobie 16 sailors.

I have posted all the stories I received from the Miami Key Largo race this year. They are posted on the Catamaran Association of Biscayne Bay forum. http://www.catsailor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=3&page=1 There are amazing stories of sailing in this very high wind race.
There are stories of demasting, numerous capsizes, white out conditions, man/women overboards, and much more. It makes for some exciting reading. These stories will probably be in Catsailor magazine next month, but you can read them now if you wish. There is also a link to some pictures I took and put on the Catamaran Association of Biscayne Bay Facebook page.

John McKnight
Commodore, CABB
Miami, Florida

John, do the Kite guys ever do this race? Seems this would have been a good year for them!

As someone that races with sailors with spinal cord injuries (SCI) on Hobie 16's with Trapseats I am always prepared for the worst. Of course if the wind is over 15 knots Trapseat rules dictate you do not go out but I have been caught in winds over this and the first thing I do after a capsize is secure the person with a SCI to the boat (actually the first thing to do is train your crew in real life what to do in a capsize not just talk about it and have a sounding device, light, etc. on the PDF). So when I race with a crew after capsize the first thing to do is make sure they are ok then start the righting process. Safety first and then sailing is always fun. Cool video...

Talk aboout blowouts, I recall the 13th Annual Key Largo Steeplechase held on Saturday the 13th of December.
First day wasn't bad, but the second day the race started in winds over 25, and were said to gust close to 50.
of the 45 boats, only 3 finished.
With the winds out of the west most of the boats washed up on shore all along the Keys on the Bay Side.
The start is on the ocean side and the winds were sailable at the start, so most of the boats were already on the inside of the Keys when the bad stuff hit the fan.
All but a couple of boats, that is. One boat was never seen again, both sailors were rescued.
Marine Patrol and Sheriff were threatening to arrest everyone and confiscate their boats -- saying it was a frivolous activity on the water.

I believe Mary said in her editorial about it, "All water activity is frivolous, except for fishermen and drug runners."

Rick

Frivolous Activity


That's a great name for a racing cat Rick!


I saw a 470 that was named, "Recreational Phamacology".