Sailing Fast

My dad posts about a speed record set by a big catamaran, going almost 30 knots steadily for 24 hours.

You can't imagine what it's like to sail that fast. Well, maybe you can. I can't. The fastest I've ever sailed was about 18 knots, on a 40 foot trimaran, sailing around Long Island when I was in college. It was an overnight race and we were on watches, and I was on deck alone with a 65 year old guy. I was flying the spinnaker in the starlight and he was driving and the other two crew members were down below, asleep. The water was skimming by below the trampolines between the hulls and I was watching the knotmeter thinking, "Wow."

I've had moments on an Etchells or a J/24 that have felt even more precarious, when the whole boat was vibrating and up on a plane, with sheets of water bursting out from the sides of the boat and every line and wire stretched taut and the boat shooting along and the crew holding on for dear life, exhilirated and hoping no rivet will pop, hoping the boom won't catch in the water and spin the whole boat into the wind, hoping a gust won't take the spinnaker and pull the boat into a death roll. But our actual speed probably was 13 knots in those moments, max.

And in college one day it was too windy to practice but some of us rigged up boats anyway and went out just to thrill ride. There were waves in the harbor. My crew and I popped up on the top of a wave and the boat became a surfboard, the whole hull almost entirely out of the water, she and I crammed as far back as we could be to balance out the forces pulling the bow down and keep the hull from diving into the wave in front of us and pitching the boat end over end. We were screaming with amazement and delight as the boat buzzed along. The forces on the rudder were so strong that it vibrated in my hand, and the with the slightest movement I could slice the boat along the waves. We barrelled along across the harbor toward a huge pile of rocks. We both paused for a moment as we watched the rock hurtling towards us. Afterwards, I confirmed that she had been weighing exactly what I was thinking. On the one hand, if we keep going, we'll surely crash the boat and perhaps die. On the other hand, if we turn, we'll have to end this amazing, exhilirating, wild ride. At the last possible moment, I turned the boat upwind and away from the rocks.

I haven't sailed really, truly superfast yet this year.

Comments

[DWL]

Nice post! I don't sail, but what you're describing sounds like the feeling that makes me love my surfski (long skinny racing kayak) so much. On a good downwind run, it's quite a ride.

What would you guess the average salary of your fellow sailing aficionados is?

[Susannah]

I remember that day vividly exactly as you describe it.

xoxo
Suze