[Paddlewise] Fwd: another fabulous day on the water - if you like wind.

Resending an email from when paddlewise was down...

Since then a video was added:  http://vimeo.com/30933075  Lynch Park to
Manchester Harbor

----- Original message -----
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:11:19 -0400
Subject: another fabulous day on the water - if you like wind.

Saturday at about noon 11 of us got together for a downwind jaunt from
Lynch Park in Beverly Massachusetts to the harbor in
Manchester-by-the-Sea.

This course is roughly due east.  The wind was out of the south west, or
south south west.   Winds were brisk in the 20 to 30 mph range.

I noticed Ken wasn't suiting up and asked what he was doing  "The little
voice in my head said this is a bad idea".  Ken hasn't been paddling
much this year so I wasn't surprised that 'the voice' had spoken to him
and that he was listening.   Jim also wasn't interested in joining, he
hasn't gotten comfortable on his Huki s1-x special and wasn't interested
in an energetic day.  He was interested in watching so Ken and Jim
played spotter, a lot of the route we paddled is visible from route 127.

Since the wind was primarily onshore we headed across the harbor to the
Salem Willows, this would give us a better wind angle to be pushed
toward Manchester.   After a bit of a slog into the wind we looped and
headed for Manchester.  Rod on his Scorpion outrigger canoe picked a
wide line, heading down the middle of the harbor - this would pay off
later with some fabulous rides on the wind waves as he came in by Misery
island.   Ed, Gramme, Mike and I took a middle line about a half mile
offshore.   The other 4 took a line closer to shore.

The wind/waves were entertaining.  If following Rod's line they were
beam waves, for the first 2 or 3 miles, I chose a zig zag course
alternating between beam and something rideable.  The conditions were
not clean, with waves from at least 2 directions most of the time.

I got a couple good rides between salem willows and Endicott college. 
Just past Endicott college I noticed Mike had gone in.  I don't recall
the last time I saw Mike in the water.   He was in a stretch with multi
directional slop, most of the waves shoulder height, from a seated
perspective.  I turned more shoreward and rode some waves toward him. 

As I got closer, to the still swimming, Mike, I noticed the harbor
master hanging out, closer to shore.   The harbor master appeared to be
there pulling a sailboat off of the beach - it may have broken a
mooring, or been a trio of sailors who were overwhelmed by the breeze.  
The harbor master looped back toward the beached sailboat after seeing
Mike remount and resume the trip. 

It took Mike 4 tries to remount, more than he was happy with, he got
twisted up in his leg leash on one of the remounts and tipped over when
trying to get unsnarled.  

During this stretch I realized why they have a footwell cover for the
Epic V12.   The cockpit filled on multiple occasions when I got caught
between waves travelling in different directions.   The boat got so
sluggish that at one point I turned around to see if the boat was
sinking - the stern was above water so everything was good...   

After Mike remounted, Graeme, Mike and I headed out to join Rod.  Rod
was near Misery island headed upwind.  We wondered if he was headed back
to assist someone (no one else was on his line so that was unlikely). 
He was simply headed back upwind to get some more rides on the nicely
formed clean waves.

During this stretch I understood a second problem with my new boat.  The
stock rudder isn't big enough when surfing.   I broached multiple times,
I found sweep strokes to be more effective at correcting a pending
broach than a low brace.   A reverse sweep would pull be off the wave.

The final stretch into Manchester harbor was fabulous, nice clean
rideable waves all the way to the rotunda/gazebo.

Bill, in the stern of the Fenn XT tandem said on one of their 'cockpit
filling' waves got enough water in stern paddler area to get floated up
out of the seat, but relanded in the seat when the wave moved on.

Overall a terrific day.  3 different people swam, all with safe
remounts.

Lots of smiling in the parking lot at the end.

It's good to have the fall breezes.

Kirk

followup:

http://vimeo.com/30975507 is a video from a different boat on the
following weekend Lynch Park to Gloucester MA, in calmer conditions.


-- 
  Kirk Olsen



-- 
  Kirk Olsen
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