[quote=DamonLinkous][quote=fxloop]Went out to Arkabutla lake saturday right behind a storm front that had just passed ( Thanks Damon! ). My GF and I got cought up in some huge wind gusts in the 20+ range,white caps and deep swells, almost pitch polled twice, lost our cooler and broke off a rudder! I knew we'd be swimming soon so my GF pulled down the mainsail and we limped into the beach on just the jib and one rudder.[/quote]
An hour later when I launched the breeze had settled to a steady 10-15 and I had a nice cruise down to the dam and all around the lake. A dude launched his big antique pram sailing with two little kids.
Timing is everything. :-D
I was pretty impressed that you were able to take down the Hobie 16 main on the water (during high winds) and sail back to the beach under jib alone, way to go skipper! However I'm not sure I'd recommend that as a first or second option response to high winds, more of a last resort. You got a little lucky because the direction you wanted to go was downwind. There is probably about 200 degrees of compass headings that you couldn't have sailed with just the jib.
Anyway, you got back safe and as we say... "Bad experiences make the best stories!"
I still haven't told here about breaking my mast rotator/diamond wire (through-mast) bolt during high winds the previous weekend. Solo, flying a hull, and a diamond wire starts waving in front of my face![/quote]
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