Time lapse video of sailing

I had mentioned buying a small sailboat in one of my previous posts, and this summer I had several opportunities to try it out with my girlfriend, as well a few trips with friends and family. Admittedly our first attempt didn't go so well with the boat ending up washed up on a rocky dam and us wet, cold, and miserable. But after a couple of fiberglass patches for the hull and some recuperation time we were ready to try again, and I think we are starting to get the hang of it.

On one of our outings I decided to attach a GoPro camera to the top of the mast, and took this video:

Youtube Link

That ended up being a good trip, although not particularly long. We sailed around the north end of Lake Newell, near Brooks, AB. It started off as a very windy day and we were wondering at first whether we should go out at all, but as we were our on the water it calmed right down to the point where we were drifting from time to time.

Hopefully I'll be able to get one more sail in before the season is completely over. After that I might just start playing around with some land and ice sailing!

Bought a sailboat!

Although I wrote a post about land sailing a short while ago, I haven't had a chance yet to build and test a land yacht. However, since my interest in wind powered propulsion has continued to grow for several years, I decided to finally splurge and buy a sailing dinghy on which I could learn to sail in the spring (once the ice melts).

My criteria for boat selection were fairly straightforward:
1. It had to be small enough for me to be able to sail single-handed at times, including launching and recovering on my own. I also wanted it to be responsive enough to make a good learning boat. This limited my selection to dinghies, as opposed to larger cabin cruisers.
2. It had to be large enough to sail two-up with my significant other, and take along a passenger or two once we got a little more proficient. This eliminated the smallest and lightest dinghies such as Lasers, and slightly larger boats such as the popular Enterprise.
3. I wanted this boat to be relatively cheap since it was to be a learning tool so that necessitated a used purchase or probably an older boat.

What I settled on in the end was a CL-16, made by C&L Boatworks in Ontario, which is a copy of a Wayfarer MkII (more or less). The boat is 16 feet (4.8m) long, has a 6 foot (1.8m) beam, and weighs about 375 lbs. It's a bermudan rigged sloop with a 95 sq ft main sail, and a 29 sq ft roller furling jib. The boat came with a road trailer and all the rigging was in good condition, so it should be ready to sail first thing in the spring. Now the wait begins...

Fuel your car with moving air!

Wind has been a source of energy used by mankind for centuries. In fact, one of the oldest ways to get around is sailing. Before the modern network of roads and railways sprawled out all over the globe the easiest and quickest way to move people and cargo from one place to another was by water, and sailboats were the primary vehicle of choice before steam power took over. Open seas and oceans were ideal since they provided lots of room to maneuver and didn't have any obstacles to slow the air, buy skilled sailors were able to navigate various channels and rivers as well. Wind powered vehicles do not, however, have to be confined to water.