Mirela requested this... so blame her for the redundancy!
this post is more "me"... VS the calm sunset post from this morning. I think this will show my true passion for sailing..
here is one of my favorite boats to sail, it is a J24... this is J24 USA 4306.. "Disturbed" the boat I race
The above picture is just as we crossed the finish line,
Speed with a sail boat is all relative, at this point we were probably sailing at about 6-7 knots. But on this boat, I can feel everything, and we will often say... "we feel fast" or "we feel slow... whats wrong" you really sail by the seat of your pants and by feel... (at least when you are racing) And you do have to control the boat, and set things up differently depending on wind conditions. halard tension, Stay tension and sail trim are just a few of the basics to make the boat go fast.. we even will adjust the mast for certain conditions.
here is a great upwind shot in a pretty stiff breeze:
You may be thinking, they look a little close... That's one of the reasons I prefer one design racing... it gets VERY close... It can be a game of inches.
Just to be sure every one understands that sailing for me is not the Calm martini sipping afternoon, the next two shots are of a boat in our fleet wiping out.. This fun maneuver is called a "Death Roll" Lucky for us there was some one with a camera out on the course, and doubly lucky is it is not us wiping out.. (we did the same thing on that leg... you get a little to aggressive and BAM! you pay for it!)
That's step 1 in a death roll, Partially the skippers fault (its always the skippers fault!) for steering to far down wind when its blowing, and partially the guy trimming the chute... He let that clue go past the forestay and mother nature takes over.
Step 2:
At this point you can probably see the keel of the boat.. NEVER a good thing! The rudder comes out of the water and the boat spins out of control and tries to flip to windward... Hopefully everyone is still on the boat, and you did not shred a sail or do any other damage and you recover after everyone passes you!
Mirela, You had to make me do this??? now I really am missing sailing!!
here is another fun shot, Winter sailing... on HARD water. now we are talking about speed.. 50+mph inches from the ice. Can you pick me out in the photo?
That's the Metedeconk River in Brick NJ ... Same place with the sunset photos from last night. We had great ice that year... unfortunately I don't have any good action shots of the Ice boats... But WOW what a rush, the fastest you will ever go with out a motor, other than jumping out of a plane...
You asked... (one of the secrets to life... Ask and ye shall receive!)
I hope you enjoyed the quick photo journey
Rob
Robert Rauf
WOW!
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