Has anyone on the east (USA) gone sailing this weekend, from the reports down here it sounds pretty bad.
Sounded like the right kinda weather for a speed trial![:D]
If its not blowing it sucks!
About 10 years ago when I still lived in Florida we had a “dry tropical storm”. Winds were about 45mph but no rain. My father and I went flying r/c sailplanes on the slope. It was so windy you could lean about 45 degrees into the wind and no fall. The flying rocked! I have since sailed my Hobie 16 in 30mph winds, its certainly an experience and a great way to break stuff.
Kristopher
BIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGG let down,
I live near boston, and was hoping to throw in my laser 2 and show my fiancee what trapeezing in big wind was really about. . . we hardly saw 15 mph just west of boston. Freakin sucked. Biggest let down I have had in a while!
You need to wait for the Nor’easters to get big wind in beantown. Took my windsurfer out on south pleasure bay in 45 mph wing and 45 degree air a few years back. Couldn’t keep it in contact with the water…
Will Gorgen
tb:
I find your remarks a little insensitive regarding a very serious storm. If you were watching CNN, my car was the red Volvo that was underwater and being used as a floating dock by 6 ducks. You wouldn’t be complaining about lack of wind in the face of 60 mph and a 12 foot surge that would have turned your Laser2 into shards went it went through the front window of my condo building or landed a 40ft powercruiser in a swimming pool 200 ft from the shore.
Squid man
Isabel stormfront photos
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Well, I have to go with tb on this one. I too live to experience all that Mother Nature has to offer. Even though I knew there could be damage, I found myself to be disappointed that one, the storm fizzled out and two, that it went south west of us. Life is too mundane to rejoice the missing of a great storm. I am sorry for Squid man?s material losses, but when you live on the waterfront of a major ocean, then the risk is yours and I don?t feel that bad for you. Mother Nature rules, not the floating Volvo. What the heck was your car doing there anyway!? Sounds like you screwed up to me, no?
Greg V:
When you need to leave you take what you can, your family, your pets, whatever is dear. A family vs. a Volvo? I screwed up? I did the right thing. I got out early. I got my family out safely, and was not allowed back. Going back could have endangered me and rescue workers.
Go to San Diego, go to Gloucester, go to New Bedford. Read the names on the plaques to those lost at sea, a lot of them are my relatives. I didn’t want anyone else in my family to join them on plaques in other stone gardens, so we took the safest vehicle and got the hell out.
If you need to get your kicks in the big winds and waves, do it in a sector where my buds in the Coast Guard do not toil, I wouldn’t want them to lose their lives saving your sorry ass.
Chad:
Don’t worry about kicking me out of this forum. I am out of here.
…I don’t know why the Coast Gaurd would be saving my sorry ass when it’s 30 miles from the nearest waterway? …???
What with Squid telling us where to go, I figgered I’d chime in: If you wanna see storm damage, take a full-size boat and put in at Stonington, CT. Then take the channel out to Watch Hill. THEN, instead of taking the channel back, cut directly from Napatree Point in towards Mason’s Island. Go SLOW - there’s a reason they have a channel marked and you won’t be in it. While slowly putzing laong, look over the side and keep looking. You’ll motor directly over an entire neighborhood that’s 3 feet under - caused by the '38 blow. I spent my teen years camping wwith my family on Ram Island, which is in the mouth of the Mystic River (CT). It was a major-league resort desination for New Yawkers in the early part of the century, with daily steam boats up from the City, etc. 3-story hotel, the last bare-knuckle prize-fighting on the East Coast. Yep - the '38 storm got it. When I camped there, it was (and still is) a scrubgrowth covered U-shaped rock… We know about storms, Squid. You hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Kenneth Graeme, Wind in the Willows.
some personal adventures
when i was a teenager, my parents and myself crossed the Channel…windforce 7-8, waves about 4-5 meters…our yacht was a 36 feet…god we were scared…we felt little…the wind was so strong…and 7-8 is not that strong compared to what happend in the USA…well, that experience thought me :
dont f"#$ with mothernature…she wins always
we had to call the coast guards…a wave broke the door and water came in…you know the titanic feeling…well i do know it…thanks to the coast guards…they saved our life
Laurent
if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!
Tb, wish I could get the wife to trap on my Laser 2, she won’t even go sailing with me anymore. Says its too tippy. I normally singlehand the boat, but I have not had the guts to trap yet. I have flown the chute singlehanded, good way to go for a swim 
.
Mother Nature does have a way of making you respect her. I grew up in south florida, and have seen some of the worst. I was in Hollywood for hurricane Andrew, it was a real mess down near Homestead. It was kinda strange after the storm; it had been covered with buildings, after you could see for miles. I was a kid when we went sailing (38foot wooden sloop) down in the keys and ran into “tropical storm” Bob, we saw winds over 100 mph. Having said that, I have to quote (paraphrase) Sir Francis Chitchester: “Anyone dumb enough to go to sea in a small boat should be prepared to die like a gentleman”. All the idiots that get stuck in these storms unprepared should be left where they are.
Kristopher
My mate charters a yacht down Chile, Antarctica, Falklands & all that area.
He said they had 90knots for 6 weeks.
He had the safest yacht in one of the Sydney to Hobart.
He has been down to Antarctica in a fibreglass yacht to do the chartering
Rob