06.26.06
Sailing, Round Two
So I took a Hobie 16 out again today. But I took crew this time in case I capsized. We went onto the lake, which was very nice. Over near Kirkland we pitchpoled, which was a new experience for me. Pitchpoling is sort of like capsizing…but instead of going over sideways, you go over sort of forwards-ways. What happens is the bow (front) gets pushed underwater, which causes it to pretty much stop, and the forward momentum carries the back of the boat into the air. But the back only gets to about 45 degrees, then the whole thing sort of falls over sideways. I found a picture of this happening here:
http://www.catsailor.com/images/Tradewinds/2005/pitchpole.jpg
You’re looking at the bottom of the boat.
So once we got the boat back up (no problem–they’re made to do that!), we had a blast cruising back and forth across Lake Washington near Kirkland. Then I tacked and the mast fell down. Not exactly what I had planned. Another club member was sailing near us and sailed back to the University to get a whaler to tow us back in. Meanwhile we sat and baked in the sun for an hour. The mast fell down because one little clevis pin fell out–once we were back on the dock we had the mast back up in 20 minutes. But it was a great day–the mast falling down was somewhat entertaining, and a learning experience. Although I’m not sure if a pre-sail inspeciton would have prevented to the problem, I’ll be sure to do one next time.