Air Draft

jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
24,888
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Necessity is the mother of invention. :yikes:

I’ve seen water bags used to heel a boat from the mast. This is the first time I’ve seen a second not used. A lot of trust placed on the “guide boat” to not deviate or get pushed close to the sailboat.
 
Jan 19, 2010
13,080
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Necessity is the mother of invention. :yikes:

I’ve seen water bags used to heel a boat from the mast. This is the first time I’ve seen a second not used. A lot of trust placed on the “guide boat” to not deviate or get pushed close to the sailboat.
I was waiting for a jetski to come racing up between the two boats....:biggrin:
 

pgandw

.
Oct 14, 2023
259
Stuart (ODay) Mariner 19 Yeopim Creek
Back when I was young and stupid, I was trying to impress a young lady on a 1st date by taking her for a day sail. Bad mistake, it was a lot cooler on the water in Oct in Connecticut than I expected. Had to take the 20ft keel day sailboat under the railroad bridge, which had enough clearance at low tide, especially with the fresh wind we had. This was before radios, all we had to signal the bridge tender was a mouth-powered horn. On the return, the wind had died some, died some more under the bridge, the tide had come in some, and the mast got trapped between 2 stringers on the closed bridge. With everybody's weight on the leeward side, got the mast low enough to clear the stringer and the rest of the bridge. Learned many lessons that day, and actually survived to tell the tale. Needless to say, I never got a 2nd date with the young lady.

Fred W
 
Oct 26, 2010
2,231
Hunter 40.5 Beaufort, SC
I believe there is a "service" like this at the Bellhaven bridge in North Carolina. Not sure who you contact though. I was with a buddy sailing his boat up the ICW and we hung a "salvage bag" from the main halyard held out by the boom and got enough clearance to go through but still "tinged" the VHF antenna. There was a good deal of "pucker factor" and few "celebratory F&^% YES!" when we made it through.