Almost paragliding in Hawaii

[Dan T]

I flew to Hawaii for a business trip on Saturday so I could take a little time to see the place and hopefully get in some paragliding. I had previously found a local club on the net and arranged to possibly borrow some gear and get some assistance and advice from the locals. One pilot in particular named Ginny was particularly helpful, but alas strong winds and the absence of a suitable glider kept me on the ground... sort of. While there I met some members of a local catamaran sailing club. They were very friendly, one of them invited me to be his crew member. The winds were strong and the surf was high so he didn't want to sail the boat alone. Naturally I readily volunteered, being the nut that I am. The other members of the club looked at me a little funny. They were saying who is this guy who just shows up and then volunteers the crew a cat in heavy seas without knowing any of us? He must be nuts even if pretty cool," one of them mentioned. One of the others declared that I was one of those guys who flies off a mountain top in a paraglider. The first one responded with "well that explains it."

Anyway it was one wild ride over about 16 miles of open ocean. The boat owner mentioned that I had probably never seen 12 foot swells. I told him I had, but never while being so close to the water. The winds were strong, the swells were big, we were in danger of being tipped over at any time and then, ... and then, one of the two mainstays that hold the mast in place broke loose and was swaying in the wind. When I pointed it out to him his response was "oh shit! This is very dangerous! If this sail goes slack the mast will collapse." We were about 2 miles out to sea with big swells and nothing but reefs and rocks downwind from us.

The mainstays are two wires, one on each side of the mast holding it in place. The wires run from the top of the mast to the right side of the boat. Each wire is under tension as the sail is being pushed away from that side. The stay connects the wire to the boat. We were sitting on the port (i.e. left) side of the boat, so of course the wind was hitting the sail from our side and pushing it towards the starboard (right) side. The stay that broke was on the starboard side, so for the moment we were ok with all the tension on the left. However it meant we couldn't tack the boat and we couldn't even steer it more than a few degrees off the line we were on.

The bay that we were sailing to had reefs on both sides and a channel leading straight in near the center. Normally the boats sail to the channel then turn towards the shore and sail and ride the swells in to a big sand bar in the center of the bay where the water is calm. Unfortunately we couldn't make that turn as it would have certainly demasted the boat. Our only choice was to stay on the course we were on then ride the surf until we got far enough into the bay that we reached water that was calm enough to allow one of us to reconnect the loose part. The problem was that the swells were easily big enough to tip the boat over sideways.

Anyway we slipped into the bay. My crewmate who fortunately was a very experienced sailor gave me the tiller with instructions to hold the boat steady on the course we were on and he managed to jury rig the stay so we could turn the boat. It all ended with us winding up first to the destination sand bar because of the fast but unorthodox route we had to take in. While I didn't get to fly the paraglider I got a pretty good story to tell. You meet the most interesting people in this sport!

Dan T
biwingal but a lousy sailor

[jimrooney]

"well that explains it."

HAHAHA!
Good story

[mcelrah]

Not to be pedantic, but we generally call the items of standing rigging that support the mast fore and aft "stays", and the ones that support it port and starboard "shrouds". In any case, that's a great story and experience you had.

The PG group I met on Oahu generally flew at Kahana and the president of the club (at least used to be) Alex - the same Alex who does the PG accident summary in the USHGA mag.

- Hugh

[Richard Hays]

Hey Dan.....if you're still out there, keep an eye out for my darling wife... Leigh. She's touring the islands with my sister in law from October 2 thru the 13th.

Richard Hays

[Richard Hays]

Well........12 foot swells ain't nothing. Try dodging crab-pots in the Chesapeake! LOL. I just hit a ghost pot out by Pooles Island and it subsequently ended my sailing season early. : (

Back to teaching.... : 0 )

Rich Hays

[mcelrah]

What happened? Were you running the motor? I can drive right over crab pots under sail and they slide ride under the keel. - Hugh

[Richard Hays]

LOL. Well....I thought I could slide right over those bad-boys too but....once under full sail going about 6 knots I was stopped dead in my tracks by hooking a ghost pot on the prop and strut. But this most recent event was while I was motoring. Ended up doing 2,000.00 + worth of damage! ( 500.00 in parts and 1600.00 in labor ).

FYI: I am going to seek out one of those prop-shaft line cutters. I think one of those could have reduced the amount of damage ultimately.

R.