Video of the week

Originally posted by r2d2 Originally posted by seamonkey Originally posted by themeaningoflife Two out of 4, !   Well done ... no doubt you will be expecting Noble to pick up the bill for your "little adventure" and we can all expect to see your premiums bumped up a bit ... I tend to agree (glad it isn't only me feeling a bit grumpy)   and its not at all surprising that things break if you take them past their design loads - hence the 3 failures

It was reading less than 25 when we launched, around 22-23mph and constant. The video's story "25 and building" is a little more dramatic than the reality was at this time. We've all sailed in that before, and had it been much more I would never have launched. As we were launching it began to pick up a bit, and while out there an unforecast squall came through. We didn't expect that and would never have launched in those conditions. The wind wasn't the problem, either. The waves were a lot larger than I've ever seen before at TBYC. If you can honestly say that you've never been caught out by a squall before then by all means say it was stupid, but sailing's an unpredictable game that involves harnessing the weather and the sea: some of the most volatile and powerful forces on the planet. It's always a risk, and when we launched the risk seemed low enough to justify going out. As it happened, we were caught out on the offchance.

Edited by Jaws - 23 Jan 12 at 5:37pm

Spot on :)

As I said before, we've sailed in 20-25 knots plenty of times before. That's what we thought we were going out in. The wind picked up to something like 32 gusting 41. As a matter of strict policy I never sail in anything stronger than force 6, which is the same as that of the 29er class racing limit. The boat can take those winds. The wind we thought we launched in was below that self-imposed - and personally experienced - limit. Perhaps as we were launching it picked up more, but it's hard to tell with the onshore waves; the boat's always a pain to launch in 15+ knots S, SW or W. The fact we all seemed to capsize whilst launching is because one tipped over, and then the domino effect kicked in. Luck was not on our side and we all started to head in at the same time. In heading in, I had to tack round, and that was when I capsized. Soon after, the other boat which later snapped its mast capsized. We weren't putting the kite up and zooming off; we were heading in after 15 minutes afloat. 

Originally posted by seamonkey Looking at that video it dosn't seem to change much in wind strength; 40 knots is serious wind that would have been covering the camera man is sea spray ... just seems like a bit too much wind for the ability of the sailors ... agreed better sailing than computers but if you want to stretch your boundaries perhaps try a deep lake in those wind speeds where you get less punishment for getting it wrong.   Chop, shallow water and plenty of breeze for these guys was always going to equal a broken rig or two ... should insurance cover somthing that could have been foreseen?