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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
href="mailto:gord@transatmarine.com" title=gord@transatmarine.com>Gord Laco</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A href="mailto:alberg30@egroups.com"
title=alberg30@egroups.com>alberg30@egroups.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, September 10, 2001 12:55 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Handling observation</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi folks,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yesterday as we were poking along home up Severn
Sound we were overtaked by a real blow-the-dog-off-the-chain squall.
Ton of rain and 50kts+ wind for about 1/2 hour.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>As we were close to home and in enclosed waters we
chose to deal with it under power. I found much to my delight that with
the Atomic bomb ticking over at about 800 rpm and the helm hard down the
boat hove to perfectly. We made about 1 to 1 1/2 knot ahead with a pile of
leeway, but snug as hell. The boat heeled a lot (under bare pole) but was
never uncomfortable. As we were sharing our patch of Sound with a large
commercial vessel also stooging around and rarely visible in the hail &
rain, I "tacked" periodically to allow him privacy on his side of the Sound by
increasing the power to swing around, then idling back and reversing the
helm.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Interesting to note that our friends, also with A4
inboards had a much rougher time. One, in a C&C Corvette (31' and same
vintage as our Alberg 30, and with furler on genny same as ours) could not hold
her head up to the wind even at full power. The other in a 27' heavy disp
wooden boat & no furler had same problem.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I've got the standard two blade prop - both of them
have three blade props.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>At the end of the squall we were about where we
started (geographically) while both of them had been blown away to leeward out
of control and had been terrified of being driven ashore.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Interesting, no?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Gord Laco</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>#426 Surprise</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>