(no subject)

[which_chick]

PoTC:DMC opens today. I will probably wait until the weekend proper to attend because I don't like the crowds of opening night. Also, will be mucking about with the boat.

We haven't heard much from you lately. It's supposed to be One a Day, so what's up with that?



I went out on the boat yesterday after work. There was some wind but not huge amounts. (I am aware that there are official scales and measurements for wind. Unfortunately, I don't have any of them to hand. "Not huge amounts" is the best I can do ya.) At times, there was just enough wind for me to put my footies under the footie strap and hang my ass out over the side of the boat, this being the most appropriate general procedure for keeping the boat from going SPLAT! just when it's getting exciting. Those of you who have sailed smallish boats in the past may think that I am talking about sitting on the sides of the boat and *leaning* out of the boat with my torso. That would not be the case. No. In this procedure, your ass is suspended directly over the wet. It isn't actually supported underneath by anything and will, if the wind dies, get wet when the boat stops leaning if you fail to hop back in the boat quickly enough. (Guess how I know this.)

There are actually two ways to keep the boat from going splat in more wind. The other way is to let go of the big rope that controls the sail. When you do that, the sail swings away and loses all the wind and the boat quits wanting to tip over so badly. This does not make the boat go very fast but it does help with the splatting problem until you get brave enough to hang your ass out of the boat. It is better and more appropriate to hold on to the big rope and shift your ass out of the boat, which makes the boat go way faster, settles the steering, and generally improves things all 'round.

Topic for today: the gybe. There are two ways to turn the boat around with wind. One is to turn the nose of the boat through the wind and this is what you do when you're tacking. It's not hideous and if you fuck up, the boat sits there, pointed directly into the wind, with the sail flapping madly. (This is called being caught in irons.) Being in irons is annoying, but usually not an involuntary swim even in pretty decent winds. The other way of turning the boat around with the wind is to turn the ass of the boat through the wind. This is called a gybe. Because the wind is coming from behind the boat, the big huge boat sail has wind pressure on it the whole time and the boat is kind of tippy. It is my sneaking suspicion that gybes in a Laser are for making sure that everyone gets enough practice righting the boat from a capsize. Anyway, this is what today's practice is going to involve.

Finally, since you've plown through three paragraphs of a subject that most of you have only marginal interest in, here is a neat video of people who are less sane than I am, fucking around with their Spitfire catamarans off the coast of England. The boat-flopping-forward splat-tastic maneuver that these boats do when running is called pitchpoling. Lookit: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/218548

Comments

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

It is quite shallow. A foot or so seems about right, on average, and it's got a nearly flat bottom. The transom (back end) is shallower than a foot by a good bit but the front is a bit deeper.

Here is a nice picture of some of them:
http://www.cedarpointphotos.org/gallery/lasers2006-04-09/P1010078 (http://www.cedarpointphotos.org/gallery/lasers2006-04-09/P1010078)