Today was driving home when I saw a Hunter 17 on a trailer heading for the boat launch on Lake Sammamish. I immediately followed them to watch the "stepping of the mast". These guys (2 Eastern Europeans) had the mast stepped in 5 minutes. I watched closely as my first one alone took about 1.5 hours with some bitching and cussing thrown in to boot.
I only live about 5 minutes from the launch pad so I took my wife home and the went back with binoculars to watch the action. Little did I know it was going to be a BIG SHOW. To step back, when I first saw them they told me they were going to fly only the jib and it was pretty windy. They told me they gave Lake Washington a try, but it was too wind there.
So, when I got back I watched them tacking back and forth in front of the launch without making any real progress toward the middle of the lake. Finally, one of the guys decides to put up the main, but when it was raised, it was way too much sail for the conditions. So then, he decides to do a "reef" on the main. He pulls the main down to the reef point and refastens the main., but he doesn't do the rest of the reef. So now he's go a main that is reefed on the mast, but a full sail on the foot (like maybe an 30 degree angle down). This has now cut the visibility of the helmsman down since the rear of the main is now almost to the deck.
So, now they make another turn to try to head out and a gust of wind KNOCKS THEM DOWN right in front of me (I'm watching from the beach and they're about 150' out.
They first attempt to right the boat, but that doesn't work. So a motorboat goes over, ties a line on the Hunter and drags it to the dock where the boat was successful righted.
At no time did I see the center board in the down position. When I went up to the boat after it was righted, the center board was locked up. And that's the reason I figure that they couldn't make any headway with the jib when they first started out (the wind was blowing almost straight in and they were trying to tack into it).
With the speed these guy put up the mast and got ready to sail, I thought they really knew was they were doing.
Funny how things can go to hell in a hurry if you leave one step out (in this case the center board.)
I only live about 5 minutes from the launch pad so I took my wife home and the went back with binoculars to watch the action. Little did I know it was going to be a BIG SHOW. To step back, when I first saw them they told me they were going to fly only the jib and it was pretty windy. They told me they gave Lake Washington a try, but it was too wind there.
So, when I got back I watched them tacking back and forth in front of the launch without making any real progress toward the middle of the lake. Finally, one of the guys decides to put up the main, but when it was raised, it was way too much sail for the conditions. So then, he decides to do a "reef" on the main. He pulls the main down to the reef point and refastens the main., but he doesn't do the rest of the reef. So now he's go a main that is reefed on the mast, but a full sail on the foot (like maybe an 30 degree angle down). This has now cut the visibility of the helmsman down since the rear of the main is now almost to the deck.
So, now they make another turn to try to head out and a gust of wind KNOCKS THEM DOWN right in front of me (I'm watching from the beach and they're about 150' out.
They first attempt to right the boat, but that doesn't work. So a motorboat goes over, ties a line on the Hunter and drags it to the dock where the boat was successful righted.
At no time did I see the center board in the down position. When I went up to the boat after it was righted, the center board was locked up. And that's the reason I figure that they couldn't make any headway with the jib when they first started out (the wind was blowing almost straight in and they were trying to tack into it).
With the speed these guy put up the mast and got ready to sail, I thought they really knew was they were doing.
Funny how things can go to hell in a hurry if you leave one step out (in this case the center board.)
