[Rhodes22-list] XSailing

[Luis Guzman]

Hi guys,

I have been a little bit out of touch because I've been busy with too many things.

The boat is out of the water for a bottom job, and I'm replacing the axle on this trailer as it is the wrong one (Triad trailer with a strange axle)

In the mean time, I have been crewing for a friend who is racing his newly acquired 32' catamaran.That thing flies.

We have been doing pretty good, considering the lack of experience with the cat. We got 2nd places in the first 4 regattas (finishing very close to the cat that got 1st), and the 1st. place in the last one.

The last race was very exciting. To start, we anchored in about 10' of water before the race, and my friend dove under to clean the hull. When we were ready to go, he started the motor and started going while I was getting the anchor. Well, the weather was starting to turn bad and the water was getting very choppy. When I had the anchor out of the water and trying to avoid it from hitting the hull, a big wave hit us. First, the outrigger that I was standing on when down, and then it when up quick and catapulted me into the water while holding the anchor. I held on to the anchor as I did not want it to fall on me. Also, I knew that the anchor was still attached to the boat. I went straight down to the bottom. As soon as I got there, I let go of the anchor and follow the line to the surface and then pulled myself into the boat. I thought it was pretty funny that I fell off the boat holding an anchor, and while I was in the water, I was trying very hard no
 to laugh because I did no want to ingest large amounts of water.

Anyway, that day we were averaging 17.5 knots and, in one instance, we achieved 19.2 knots. That was sweet. 

We realized in the last race that we really need 3 or 4 people to properly handle the boat in strong winds.

Luis

S/V Miracle