Going Sailing
I met an old school friend on Facebook last week, turns out he’s a professional sailer now. (Not a bad life, if you can get it!)
Last Saturday I ended up helping crew on a brand new yacht he’s helping sail - a Flying Tiger 10m sports boat called Tigger. It’s been more than 10 years since I last sailed regularly so I was looking forward to getting out there.
Wow! Boats have moved along a little in the last decade. These boats are 30 foot long, designed only for racing and they scream. There’s no fitout below decks (no toilet, seats, bunks, anything except a radio and one chart table), they have a rig that really belongs on a 40 foot yacht instead of a 30 footer, a huuuuuge asymetric spinnaker that hangs off an 8 foot bow extension pole… and they are a wild, twitchy, high performance ride!
There’s a video below this post that give some footage - even in light air these boats scream along. We were posting 8 knots boat speed in 12 knots of wind - that’s a very fast boat!
It seems I’ve got a regular crew position on her, so I’ll post updates as I get back into the sailing groove over the next few months. This week was a practice sail, next week is the first race in the 08/09 season. Let the games commence!
