Ripping downwind in big breeze in a laser is one of the greatest experiences in all of sailing! The boat surfs wildly down, over, and into the waves, and aggresive yet smooth technique is needed to keep it from capsizing. The paradox is that you are often going the fastest just before you wipe out, so the best technique is to sail the boat on the edge of disaster without actually flipping over. However, in order to make this technique work, you need to go over the edge in practice so that you know exactly where it is while you're racing.
With this in mind, Emery Wager and I set off on Saturday, June 31st to sail downwind in the hardcore conditions of San Francisco Bay from the St Francis YC on the City Front to the Stanford boathouse in Redwood City. At over thirty miles, this is a long sail in a 14 foot laser, so we packed extra energy bars and a cell phone triple-wrapped in plastic as our safety gear, and went for it! Although we stopped for quick breaks every 30 minutes, the sail still took only 3 hours and 15 minutes, meaning we were averaging over 10 knots!
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