Great day sailing....

[bendoo]

Boat is back in the shed, unloaded the van of all the tools/snacks/clothes for the kids and me...and enjoying a cold one after my best day out there yet.
Just a casual afternoon at the club. A bit gusty and shifty, but plenty of breeze all in all. Probably averaging 12 ish, but gusts in the upper teens (especially later). Hooked up w/ a guy named Mike (505, I14 sailor and talented). After the kids and I got done chasing ducks around the pond w/ the boat, Mike and I set out. He knew how to drive and I knew the spinny set up so who was doing what was an easy decision. There is a neck at the top of the little lake (Lake Washington, deep water channel for ships coming up from the bay to Sacramento) that we headed up, tacked over and set.....and immediately got laid over. It took what seemed like forever (probably a minute or two) to figure out why the kite wouldn't fill, kept flappin away, and why we were on our ear getting dragged around....then, while sitting up on the rail (mast almost but not quite in the water) I realized the wind had shifted and we were off on a tight reach coming down the narrow neck. We simply decided to carry on that way a few more boat lengths until we had the real estate to head down deeper (REALLY nice to be so confident in the boat that riding around on your ear is no problemo). Finally cleared the last mark and entered the body of the lake, headed down, boat popped up, kite filled, bow rose up about 6-12 inches and we accelerated "like a G-6..."
What an INCREDIBLE rush! The sound coming out of the companionway was like someone doing a double footed drum roll on a base drum! The boat stinkin FLIES!
Lake Washington is fairly small so it wasn't more than a minute or two and we had to douse and head back up for more fun.
My wife Molly took a few pic's of me sailing around by myself earlier, but nothing that you all haven't seen before. I wish I had footage of our spinny runs! It was MADNESS!
Keep building guys.....you will NOT be disappointed!
bd

[jerome]

Yeah !!!!!!!!!!!!

So great to hear about those sailing adventures !

THANKS

[Tim Ford]

I'm thinking you may need a Soto 40 for the "cruise" now....

[jray]

Thanks for sharing Ben, reading about your day helps keep me pushing my build as I'm getting closer to the end, launch and first sail. Looking forward to gaining the trust in the boat that you have developed. Don't know if I would be as composed being knocked down like you were.