Symetric Spinnaker

you went for a swimm then what where you in

Crewing a fireball at the time, Ive nearly done the same thing to my crew when Ive been helming, at one point last year we were coming down a nice screaming reach across the bay with Aly yelling 'don't look at the dolphins' at me. Not that I could see anything for the spray anyway!

Originally posted by lemeouttahere fireballs are amazing 3 sailing but i was thinkin bout a time we went out in 25knts(gusting 30) and 2 sailed up and down the river coz the apparent wind shifted so much the kite was impossible(we tryd once an submarined it blasting the kite back out of the chute into the boat!!      t'was some knarly sailing till the tiller came off in my hand.

Now try doing that on the sea with some large swells coming through (in a 'classic' Fireball which just doesn't have much bouyancy at the front.....)

For bonus points when you get flipped off the wire make sure you land on the mainsheet jammer and take it clean off the boat.....

or

Round the first gybe mark well up the fleet (in the same boat) and then watch as the helm gracefully falls out the back of the boat (again)...

Just kidding Jon....

Paul

oh brightlingsea can give some pain in the a s conditions espsh for rescue.

Fireballs kick ass on a 3 sail reach.  They will also keep racing when everything else is either breaking or still on the beach.  The faster they go the more stable they are and the modern wide bow boats are fine in big waves, although still "slap" upwind in short chop.

Abersoch 2003 saw some serious wind...max gust was 42 knots on day 2 and the Fireballs kept going.  And yep, we even flew the kites.  Not one Fireball lost a mast all week compared to about 15 RS400s, and it's an identical stick.  The Cherub lot will be bored with this story now but I consider it a fantastic testament to a 40 year old design, and the modern boats are fantastically well engineered.  The old boats represent excellent performance per pound and a really cheap way into a big circuit.

Anyway, to the original poster, if you really want to learn how to fly the kite, go to one of the UKFA training weekends, or pair up with an experienced Fireball driver.  And my one tip for getting to grips with a windward bag launch, forget all this 123 hoist rubbish, and go for the pitchfork option instead.

Enjoy!!