As I mentioned in my earlier post, last weekend I had a chance to go out on my Nacra 5.0 for the first time this season. Nice conditions – wind 16 to 20 knots from south, waves 3 to 5 ft. Good sailing and even better filling of doing that against my doctor’s advise (car accident in March). However one scary slide across the trampoline almost got me in big trouble of being in 56 deg cold water of Lake Michigan. These short, chop like waves here, can hit hard and toss you out of balance in a second. How I recovered from it without flipping the boat or falling in the water is a mystery.
To prevent it from happening again I am thinking about either coating or stitching something to the bottom of my harness that will add more friction while sitting on deck or trampoline. Last year we were discussing on this forum different ideas to add friction to the deck but that will not help when you are sliding on brand new trampoline. Did anybody have or had this kind of problem? How did you solve it?
Do you put your feet in the hiking straps?
Ron Beliech
Nacra F-18
Brandon, MS
Put swim NOODLES over the hiking straps. Pete
prindle pete
nacra55 wrote: Do you put your feet in the hiking straps?
Normally I do, but at that moment I didn't.
pbegle wrote: Put swim NOODLES over the hiking straps. Pete
I haven't thought about it :-O . Are you using those noodles for easier feet inserting into the straps or as something to keep your feet against?
Both. And don't slight them to install, but run a nut with string thru noodle to pull webbing strap thru. My neighbor likes pink--says he's going to get a pink hat to match since he lost his hat last week in 15 knots. Pete
prindle pete
Wear a life vest always.
When you are getting heel, scoot your butt over the outboard edge a bit to keep you on the hull, and hook your harness into your highest point on the trapeze dogbone.
Butt placement will help you stay on the hull and the harness is a backup for when you don't.
To directly answer your question....you shouldn't be on the tramp in those conditions but on the hull. Use hiking straps, EVA foam on deck, etc. to stay off tramp. And instruct crew to do so as well. The sudden weight shift of just one of you sliding down the tramp can be hard to overcome.
There used to be a pertinent article entitled "Butt Cheek Differential" in the On The Wire archives, but I can't seem to readilly locate it.
Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16
Clinton, Mississippi
rattlenhum wrote:
There used to be a pertinent article entitled "Butt Cheek Differential" in the On The Wire archives, but I can't seem to readilly locate it.
Yes, this should clear things up.
http://www.thebeachcats.com/files/Butt-Cheeks/
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Damon Linkous