Blow Hard

There was a thread the other day in the forum about sailing a J/24 in km/h winds, and in response to that reader Igor Sicherl sent us a real story about some real breeze from his town Izola in Slovenia, Europe (on the Adriatic sea, a few km from the Italian border). That doesn't look like so much fun. Enjoy.

We had a 120km/h blow this Sunday. Came out of nowhere, surprised a lot of boats on the water. A lot of big boats with problems, couldn't get their sails down fast enough, demolished sails, masts falling, some boats even thrown onto the beach. Lasers and optimists being blown over the surface like plastic bags with the kids abandoning them and swimming ashore. Saw a J24 snap their rudder, capsize and sink in minutes just in front of the breakwater. I wonder what it would be like at 200 km/h ...

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09/10/2003