We Crashed the Hobie 16 and the Laser!! Ep 286 - Lady K Sailing

Hey guys, what's up? This week we pitch polled this Hobie Cat and I'm going to show you and I dumped the laser over and over and over again and I learned a lot and I'm going to tell you what I learned. So a couple videos ago you guys saw that I bought a Hobie Cat for $500 and I fixed all the little foibles and stuff that were wrong with it just to make it good enough to work and then I called my friend Jay. He was in early Lady K videos and we wanted to go out and push it hard to see what it would do and to really push ourselves really hard. So we waited for the right day. It was 20 to 25 knots, thunderstorms rolling overhead. We couldn't possibly go out in either one of the lakes that we live near. We have Lake St. Clair over there and Lake Erie right there because it would have been way too rough but we have Rondo Bay which is a little bay right beside Lake Erie that's usually pretty protected. You get the 25 knots of wind but you don't get the 8 foot spiky waves that Lake Erie is famous for. So we took the Hobie Cat out to the dock, rigged it all up and got set to go and we put on our life jackets and you'll notice I have a GoPro strapped to my face and then there's a GoPro on the bow that we're recording. Well, I'm not going to show you any footage from the GoPro on my face because we no longer have it. We lost the GoPro and all that awesome footage and I even went back with a rake and tried to get the GoPro. We just can't find it. It's gone. Anyway, so we head out and the storm's really weird. The wind was out of the west and then as we headed and left the dock, the wind was out of the north and it dropped to like 10 knots and then it came back from the west afterwards. So we took the Hobie Cat out, first time for either one of us to really be sailing one of these things in any amount of wind and we scooted across Rondeau Bay and we were having a great time. We hit just over 10 knots. We hit double digits and then we started to go and try to get out into Lake Erie. We had no intention of sailing in Lake Erie. We just wanted to go out of the cut just to see what it was like and we were hit on the nose with, I don't know, probably five foot rolling waves coming out of the cut and the bowels of the Hobie kept digging in and kept smashing up and down and it was a pretty crazy experience just trying to get out. Okay, Lake Erie. I'll give you a little power. Oh, she's bumpy. So, if we get freaked out, I'll follow you. Alright, whatever you say, I'll dive. Woo! Let's do this as much as we can. Probably the biggest one. Maybe I'll spill. I don't know. I just don't want to plow the waves. Plowing at 7 knots. Ah! Woo! Come left. Come left? Yeah. Come left. Don't look back. I come on more of a beam to the waves. But what it proved to me was that the rigging on this boat is pretty good. Nothing broke. Nothing went wrong. While the boat, like, bounced up and down violently. So, it was a lot of fun. We were having a great time. Jay took the helm and we clipped 13 knots of speed and probably, you know, 20 knots of wind. But it was very gusty. The wind was up, down, up, down, up, down with the storm systems kind of passing over our heads. I want to talk to you about this app that I have running on the side too. I found this. They don't sponsor me or anything. This is called Water Speed. It's a really cool app because, for me particularly, I have an Apple Watch. And if this app is running, it runs on the Apple Watch or your phone or both. But if it's running, your Apple Watch will give you your speed, your GPS speed 100% of the time. It never goes off. You just look at your wrist and you know exactly how fast you're going. And it tracks your entire track for the day. This is the free version and it does all this amazing stuff. So if you want something cool like this, it's called Water Speed. Again, I don't make any money off of it, so buy it, don't buy it, don't care. But it's really cool. So that's what we tracked everything with. We were out there for hours having a great time. So what happened is we pitch-pulled this catamaran, which is where the front end digs in and the thing basically does a back-to-front sort of cartwheel thing and throws everybody on it flying. Now, we didn't have any trapezes because we don't have harnesses. The boat has two trapezes, but we don't have harnesses yet. I'm looking for a couple. So anyway, we're clipping along in double digits, having a great time. And as you can see, the lower side hull is actually digging into the water way too much, which in hindsight means I had way too much traveler on. We were overpowered. We should have dumped the traveler a little bit and played the main a little bit better. So that's a big lesson in and of itself. Now here's the problem with the GoPros. The one strapped to the bow, the battery died. So we stopped having any footage. The one on my head, we lost. So I don't have the footage. So I don't have the footage of the incident at all of us pitch-pulling the catamaran. But I did find some on JoyriderTV. He's a Hobie guy that does a whole bunch of Hobie stuff. So I'm going to show you what we did before I explain it. Watch this. So that's what happened. We're flying along and we're just over eight knots when we had our weight too far forward. We're both on the high side, but a little bit too far forward. And the front of the bow dipped into the water a little bit, just enough to catch enough water to flip the boat. And the boat came over violently. And we just went upside down and we both fell in the water. And I bashed my face off the mast on my way past it. So I was in the back corner of the boat and I went past the mast, bashed my face. The GoPro got ripped off my face. And the microphone, because this is a GoPro creator's edition, the microphone went flying. And Jay actually found the microphone floating in the water, but the camera was gone. So another lesson, tie a string to the camera and tie it to your wrist or something. I don't know, tie it to your life jacket. Anyway, we were in the water for, the app says it was like 20 something minutes, where we're trying to right this boat and we're standing on the lower hull, trying to pull on the top hull with the righting lines. But as we stood on the lower hull, it was so windy, we couldn't get the wind to catch the boat right to get it righted. And the one we were standing on went underwater and started taking on water. So as the hull filled up with water, we were aware of that. So we would go to one end of that hull and get the boat to rotate hull over hull and put the hull that was taking on water up above our heads and the hull that had no water in it below our feet. But as we stood on it, it would start taking on water. So we were in a bad situation and we couldn't get this boat to right. The wind was just crazy with these puffs well above 20 knots. We couldn't manage to get the boat to point into the wind enough to get any lift to get the boat flipped up. So we called for help and we called the shore where Jay's spouse was on shore and she sent the kids in the Coast Guard boat. There's a couple of kids there that work at the Coast Guard station. They came out in the rib. But before they got there, worried about the boat sinking, we rotated it again. We both went to the front of the hull and the boat flipped over and the hull full of water went up above our heads and Jay walked back and took the plug out and drained that hull. And then we threw the main sheet up over the top and we were able to actually lean back on it like a climbing style with the rope behind my back. And we got the boat to actually right itself. So as it started to come down, we're both yelling at each other, like, don't be under it. So it came down. I was under the trampoline and Jay was at the front. And as soon as it landed, I got up on the back and took control of the tiller. The problem then was Jay wasn't near the back of the boat anymore and the mainsail caught wind and the boat took off and just started careening away from Jay. So in the fluster of everything, lines everywhere and seaweed all over everything, I jibed the boat over really hard, crossed the main, trying not to roll the boat again. And I came back and I grabbed Jay. And then the Coast Guard showed up as we were sailing back to the boat ramp with one hull full of water. So we sailed back to the boat ramp under our own power. Everything's okay. The boat's fine. I mean, there's still seaweed all over the mast. So it's still a big mess, but a lot of experience gained and definitely a very, very good time. I don't think we were ever really in danger. We're in a protected bay and with the Coast Guard nearby and we ended up getting it right. Even if the hulls had filled with water and the boat had sank, we had life jackets on and we probably would have been fine. Hey guys. Well, since we pitch pulled the Hobie Cat the last time I was out, I know you got to get right back on the horse. So we are headed to the boat ramp in Lake St. Clair with the laser in tow. I figured if we're going to have all these problems with the Hobie Cat, might as well take out a much simpler boat this time with one sail and a lot less rigging to worry about. So this is going to be a peaceful sail. The windmills are spinning. They were saying like 12 to 15 knots of wind, so should be at a very nice day to go sail a laser. So let's go have some fun. Okay, so I got to the boat ramp and started setting up the laser and as you can see, it's not going 10 to 15 knots. It is definitely blowing a lot more than that right at the mouth of the river. You can see the way the sail is just going absolutely crazy. I started to have second thoughts, but I was like, no, I'm going for it. So this is my second time out. I got the app tracking everything. I think I broke six knots a few times, but it's super wavy and it was really slow in the boat down. But you see the outhaul right in the middle of the picture there that I just touched. That started sliding and powering up the sail. So when the sail is flat, it's less powerful like it is now. But if it starts sliding, the sail starts to get way overpowered and that snatch block that it's in doesn't work. I think this is where I fall the first time. I just tacked and I lost the rudder. As I tacked through, I lost the rudder with my left hand and the boat started going back onto its original tack and it flipped. See, I lost the rudder. Bang, into the water. This is hilarious. I love watching this. Watching this live with you guys. This is the first time I've watched it. Anyway, climb on the keel, right the boat, get in before it sails away. Get in quick, Tim. Oh man, this was rough. Okay, back in. I was laughing hysterically though. Anyway, get back under power, see how the outhaul is sliding. It's starting to get real rough. I wish I had a GoPro on my head, but I probably won't. They've made that mistake again. So the outhaul looks good right here. Everything's fine. It's wrapped around the boom once, but watch, it'll let all the way out. I think it's like right here. There's so much wind. It just pulls that outhaul straight through. Yeah, I see it flip over. Now it's all the way out. The sail just went way powered up. What are we doing? Over five knots yet? Yeah. Bash, bash, bash into these huge waves. And then I think the mainsheet lets go. Hang the main out as far as I can. And now it's gone, so I try to wrestle it back in. And as soon as I start fighting it, everything goes wrong. This is so awesome. I had such a great time. So this is where the boat kind of got stuck. I get up on the keel. This is like double speed, too. So I get up on the keel, and the boat won't right itself because there's so much water on the sail. So I grab the mainsheet, thinking I'll pull the boom, and right back in the water I go. It was so hilarious. Climbing back up. I notice I'm beating onto a leash or two, so I've got to get some control of the boat here. Finally get it to pop back up. There we go. Back into the boat. No mainsheet at all. And I'm like, oh man, I'm blowing right toward those rocks right there. I have to get this boat moving and under control in some fashion. So I just grabbed what's left of the mainsheet and just sailed like a parachute downwind so that I would have steering and control of the boat. And it just takes off like a rocket downwind. This was so much fun. Yeah, away from the leash or riding the waves back in. No problem. Back to safety. And then I called it quits because it was blowing way too strong out there. So in the laser, obviously that outhaul slipping through the snatch block is a big problem. It creates a way overpowered situation in that boat. It's fine in light wind because you want the sail cupped out anyway. You want lots of draft in the sail. But in that super high wind, no bueno. So I'm probably going to get a new snatch block if I can get one and then replace that line as well so that it's all new. And I'll make sure that that sail never overpowers me again when it's not supposed to. That's it for this week, guys. I hope you learned something as I learned something. I hope you guys have happy sailing. Until next week, guys. Keep the heavy side down, but not too far down. We'll see you.