The keel fell off

Jonny_B

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Oct 14, 2004
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I got a good show at the Lakefest Regatta on Lake Texoma a couple weeks ago. On Friday racing was cancelled due to too much wind (35mph steady, gusting over 50mph). One guy decided to take his boat out to see how fast he could go. We went out to watch.



The keel (actually, the lead bulb at the end of the keel) falls off at about the one minute mark. That's when the boat looks like it's going to take flight. The gps said they hit 19.9 knots (22.9 mph, which on a sailboat feels like 200mph)
 
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That's fucking awesome. Did the damage make that an expensive stunt?

Haven't heard the bill, but I don't imagine it was cheap. Probably a couple thousand. Still, probably worth it. One of the guys I was watching with decided right after that if he'd known what was going to happen, he'd have paid $2000 to be on board.
 
It's just relative to what you're used to. Wind conditions being what they are, and not having the money or connections to spend time racing fast boats all the time, a lot of sailors spend lots of time barely breaking 10 knots. It doesn't feel slow on the water, it just is when compared to how fast you can go with a couple hundred bucks of liquid dinosaur coursing through big iron. Physics dictates top speeds and it takes the right conditions to reach them in any given boat. When you spend time there, you're also at any given moment on the verge finding the weakest link of your rig and that adds tension. It wouldn't feel nearly as fast if I lived in San Francisco and spent my time racing Aussie 18's. Those things can sail twice as fast as the wind.
 
It's just relative to what you're used to. Wind conditions being what they are, and not having the money or connections to spend time racing fast boats all the time, a lot of sailors spend lots of time barely breaking 10 knots. It doesn't feel slow on the water, it just is when compared to how fast you can go with a couple hundred bucks of liquid dinosaur coursing through big iron. Physics dictates top speeds and it takes the right conditions to reach them in any given boat. When you spend time there, you're also at any given moment on the verge finding the weakest link of your rig and that adds tension. It wouldn't feel nearly as fast if I lived in San Francisco and spent my time racing Aussie 18's. Those things can sail twice as fast as the wind.

so its like doing 200 in a neon?