Holy Cartwheels

This fine day I found myself back in Keyport, equipped with a brand new power righting setup should I find myself capsized again. The forecast called for relaxed 6mph winds, but it must have been a very fast 6mph - so much so that I had to take down my mainsail to keep the trailer from flipping over in the parking lot. The old man who seems to be a permanent resident of the pier helped me rig and launch, nearly without incident (my mainsheet got tangled on the trailer, and I almost sank the boat when pulling out). The strong wind forced me to launch on jib alone, and I then sailed to a beach where I could raise the main safely (In retrospect, tying off at the pier would have been just as good). Before long, I was sailing faster than ever.

My goal for the trip was to experience fast sailing alone, and to start pushing the catamaran a bit. The wind was strong enough to easily flip me, so the weather complied. After about an hour I gained enough confidence to intentionally fly a hull - a balancing act that's equal parts fun and scary. It didn't take long to get fairly comfortable to keep a hull a foot or two in the air (as a kid I used to ride a wheelchair on two wheels just for fun, and that tipping point experience is handy). The only problem was that my arms were getting abused - my main cam cleat stopped working and I had to hold the mainsail at all times.... this was also a good thing, since it made it much easier to react to wind gusts.

This day I came prepared, complete with sandwiches, but as it turns out, it is impossible to have lunch on a catamaran in high winds - you need your hands at all times. Fortunately, the Prindle 16 is a "beach cat", so I beached it. Even so I had to keep a watchful eye on it as the waves kept turning the boat against the wind.



After lunch, I resumed my journey and my heeling experiements, but this time I shifted my weight forward somewhat to level out the boat. Little did I know that in high winds this is not a great idea. As I approached ludicrous speed on the port hull, I pitchpoled unexpectedly... although I suppose that it's always unexpected. The port hull caught a wave, and suddenly the boat was going end-over, but since it was already angled, it also began to cartwheel - first bows down, then onto starboard hull, and then, to my amazement, onto the stern and back onto the port hull! This was nearly a complete revolution about the mast axis, and I still cannot quite tell how I stayed on the boat and what I was holding onto.

Here is a video that approximates what I experienced (it's the closest thing I found):