Tag: sailing

Hobie 14 Pitchpole

pitchpole

The boat in the video1 reminds me of the 14 I used to have and the customizations I did to it: double-grommeted trampoline with larger diameter shock cord, dolphin striker, trapeze, and non-skid on the side rails. It was awesome!

The pitchpole reminds me of a beautiful morning many years ago, screaming across Eagle Lake on the trapeze in freshening winds before the chop had built up. Increasing winds must have pushed the leeward bow under the water because the next thing I knew, I was swinging out in front of the mast, my mass pulling the cat turtle in no time flat. And it was then that I was glad my trapeze hook had the opening at the bottom.

I’ll never understand why Hobie stopped selling the 14. It’s the first catamaran Hobart designed and his best. RIP, Hobie.

  1. Following a chain of YouTube videos starting with my prior post resulted in this Hobie 14 video. ↩

Wind-Powered Laser

2011 LASER WORLDS– RADIAL MASTERS FLEET STARTING LAST RACE OF REGATTA

Here in the Great Northwet, temperatures are in the upper 70’s and it’s breezy — a good time for a break from the news of the day for a little sailing.

The Laser sailboat is one of the most popular sailboats of all time. Designed to be a simple single-handed sailboat with great performance, it has been sailed by many top sailors and is now an Olympic class sailboat, increasing its desirability (and its price).

In the 70’s, a group of sailors met at San Francisco Bay to race Lasers. Unlike most sail race courses, this was to be just an upwind-downwind slalom course. I remember reading about this in a sailing magazine at the time and wishing I had a Laser. I looked for the magazine last night but my magazine archive isn’t complete as I had hoped — I don’t have the issue anymore.

Fortunately, someone filmed the race and now it’s on YouTube.

Update. Unfortunately, the Youtube video from the ’70’s has disappeared. This one, from decades later, is pretty cool, too. Oh, it makes me want to be on the water. :-)