For those of you who ask if you can capsize a 216, just wanted to share our experience yesterday afternoon. We had our race our first race of the season yesterday - 1 week delayed due to weather issues.
It was a strange day - 10 -15 with gusts in the low 20s. Sometimes the wind would completely disappear and the return in an instant. Waves were from 1 footers to 4 footers in minutes. We started our downwind leg with our asymmetric spinnaker. The gusts began building 1/2 down the course when we needed to jibe.
The jibe was sloppy and we lost a ton of speed during it. The spinnaker was already jibed to starboard. The boom came over and being that we lost all our speed during the spinnaker transition the pressure caught and carved us up in an instant. Not a desirable tactic while racing.
Now we've broached before performing equally sloppy jibes. But this one was extraordinarily sloppy. The boom hit the water, the starboard rail buried itself with water up to the the middle of the cockpit seats.
After a few seconds we righted and continued on our course. Being frazzled we had an equally sloppy take down at the leeward mark.
The moral of the story - don't loose speed during your jibes. But perhaps more of the point is the 216 once again did not capsize. I'm sure a lethal combination of wind and waves could prove otherwise under other conditions. But not this day.
Although not a goal this builds confidence in the boat. Plus we learned more stuff that we need to to get better at this season.
It was a strange day - 10 -15 with gusts in the low 20s. Sometimes the wind would completely disappear and the return in an instant. Waves were from 1 footers to 4 footers in minutes. We started our downwind leg with our asymmetric spinnaker. The gusts began building 1/2 down the course when we needed to jibe.
The jibe was sloppy and we lost a ton of speed during it. The spinnaker was already jibed to starboard. The boom came over and being that we lost all our speed during the spinnaker transition the pressure caught and carved us up in an instant. Not a desirable tactic while racing.
Now we've broached before performing equally sloppy jibes. But this one was extraordinarily sloppy. The boom hit the water, the starboard rail buried itself with water up to the the middle of the cockpit seats.
After a few seconds we righted and continued on our course. Being frazzled we had an equally sloppy take down at the leeward mark.
The moral of the story - don't loose speed during your jibes. But perhaps more of the point is the 216 once again did not capsize. I'm sure a lethal combination of wind and waves could prove otherwise under other conditions. But not this day.
Although not a goal this builds confidence in the boat. Plus we learned more stuff that we need to to get better at this season.
. Live and learn. Die and the kids get all ur stuff.