[quote=JohnES]NACRA 5.8…. just got the new sails and was sailing in Long Beach Harbor with what I thought was an experienced sailor… after all he bragged about being on the USC sailing team…. It was a good 20 kt breeze and this boat is honking… I have never experienced this much power from a sailboat…
Anyway we’re gybing and the sails get a good boost of air and the boat takes off with a burst of power that leaves me sliding off the boat… I look up from the water up to see the boat taking off with a terrified newbi with his arms flailing “Danger Will Robinson… Danger Will Robinson” while the boat keeps getting further and further away… and then, it pitch polls. But, this is a good thing as another 100 yard or so it would have hit the rock jetty at a pretty good clip…
I swim to the boat we get it upright, the crew gets on first and starts to power up the mainsheet and again the boat takes off while I am holding on to the dolphin striker being dragged through the water… after a few minutes of shouting “ cut the sheets, head up wind..” with nothing happening I finally held on to the righting line, played it out under the boat to the rear, turned the rudders for the boat to go up wind, and then reached released the main sheet telling the crew to DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING.
I get back on the boat and head direct for the beach to where I had asked the crew how much experience he really had sailing… to which the truth came out… he went out on one of the school’s Yinglings… once….
Another experience was the Sharknado Fish Guts saga..
We’re sailing back into the harbor one summer day when my crew decided she wanted to get out of her wetsuit… it is about a ¾ of a mile low wind beam reach to our area know as Hobie Beach… Next to us coming in was one of these cattle call fishing boats with a bunch of drunks making their way down the throat to their dock somewhere in the harbor…
While she was pulling the suit off, there were a bunch of cat calls requesting further de-robing to which we ignored.. Shortly there after the fish guts started to fly…. Next thing we know it was like Sharknado with fish parts. This must be the west coast version of Mardie Gras beads… Needless to say my NYC temper got the best of me with a few colorful explicative remarks requesting this to stop… Few seconds later… BOOM, someone on that boat had an MLB arm because a full can of beer hit me square in the chest… then rolled of the boat before I could grab it… which was a waste of a good can of beer… the horror, the horror, the horror…..
Lucky I had my harness and PFD on otherwise this would hurt…
Now I am thinking in a few minutes it is going to be me against 20 longshoremen… odds that I could handle while driving in the opposite direction… We came about and put some distance between us and that boat and then hit the beach…
Few minutes after we tore the boat down and we’re getting ready to leave this F350 dual axel pulls up and this big burley of a guy gets out and I am thinking OK here we go… it was the organizer of the fishing trip and he wanted to apologize for the altercation… I was OK with the situation, but my crew was a redhead and she wasn’t OK… Let’s just say Master Gunny Tramonti would have been proud of her dressing this buffoon down…[/quote]
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