| I've never sailed one, but raced against them a bunch. My
favorite time was an afternoon of 20 ~ 25 knot winds
offshore with 5 ~ 8 foot waves, many of which were breaking
especially in the current near the inlet. I was sailing
somebody else's Olson 30, another lightweight flyer. The Hobie gained on us on the upwind leg, partly because we
were overpowered and partly because they had a huge gang of
self-propelled sandbags on the windward rail. When we got
the windward mark they were maybe 200 or 250 yards ahead and
took off like smoke downwind, small spinnaker up. We set a radial-head spinnaker, probably not the smartest
thing but when we hit 18 knots I said "We're going to catch
up to that Hobie." The helmsman was a slow learner, plus the Olson has a small
rudder anyway. We broached. A lot. Some were only minor
slews to one side with the spinnaker flogging, but some were
real hair-raising dip-the-mast-in-the-water types. After one really bad broach in which half the crew was
hanging on under water, we came back right-side up and
everybody took a deep breath then somebody said, "Guess
what, we're not going to catch that Hobie." Fresh Breezes- Doug King |
DSK
Aug 4
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