Sailing my Northeaster Dory in the remnants of Hurricane Harvey

We had some good wind in the Ozarks yesterday as a result of Hurricane Harvey passing just to our southeast. Steady winds were in the 10-15 mph range, with gusts all over the place (topping out between 25 and 30).

I tried to use my new action camera (head-mounted) to document my contention that the Northeaster Dory will rise to a plane in the stronger gusts. Sadly, most of the video footage shows just what I was looking at (the tell-tale on the sail and the on-coming waves), but there may be enough here to give some indication of the boat's speed and performance. The speed topped out at about 13 mph in the strongest gusts. I never shipped water or felt in any real danger of capsizing. The dory is a remarkably fine little sailboat!

Here is a link to my 1-minute YouTube video: The "Susan Lee" in the Remnants of Hurricane Harvey

Next time it comes on to a big blow, I may be able to handle my camera a bit better. :-)


6 replies:

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RE: Sailing my Northeaster Dory in the remnants of Hurricane Harvey

Looking at your video I know where I want to be. Seriously nice.

Next time put the camera on the yardarm looking back down into the boat. You'll be able to see if it planes then.

Laszlo

 

RE: Sailing my Northeaster Dory in the remnants of Hurricane Harvey

   You know, I considered that mounting postion (and wish I had tried it), but I chickened out. The camera is new. I wasn't quite sure how to attach it securely. And I wasn't (completely) confident that I could keep my boom out of the water -- especially when lowering the sail in a high wind.

Next time, I won't chicken out!

RE: Sailing my Northeaster Dory in the remnants of Hurricane Harvey

��Remnants of Harvey made it to upstate SC today. Perfect sailing after 3 months of slick cam.

RE: Sailing my Northeaster Dory in the remnants of Hurricane Harvey

   We had some more big wind on Saturday and I got better video footage. Is the Northeaster Dory capable of planing? You be the judge. Steady winds ranged from 10 - 20. The strongest gusts topped 30 mph, but the 30 seconds of video here are probably from a 20 mph gust; boat speed exceeded 10 mph.

 

RE: Sailing my Northeaster Dory in the remnants of Hurricane Harvey

   Very nice!  The water looks very smooth for that amount of wind.  Seems like we have more chop and wind inconsistency under similar weather conditions.

Hooper

RE: Sailing my Northeaster Dory in the remnants of Hurricane Harvey

   Yes. The lake is very long and sinuous, but narrow. The lake allows whitecaps, but the waves stay low -- which is great for high-speed sailing on those rare occasions when the wind really blows. However, when the squall-line hit, the waves really pitched up. I ran straight downwind to port and had little geysers spouting up past the daggerboard as the waves swept beneath the hull!

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