Bic o'pen on water
In one of my recent blogs, you saw a photo of the little sail boat I like, called a Bic O'pen. I figured out how to rig it up, and got out on the water last week.
I was worried I had forgotten how to sail, but it came back quickly. I really like the design of this compared to the opti's I learned on. It has an open back that lets the water just run off, and lets you get back on if you fall off.
I got out a bit on the lake, and want to go farther next time.
Tipping it over wasn't a big problem, because you can pull it up easily by climbing out on the dagger board, and then getting back on from the open stern.
Steering was good practice, especially coming in to dock by all the big boats.
Here we are on deck afterwards. It was fun.
Then I got stung by fireants, which wasn't so fun. But I'm OK.
Please blog back to me if you have time.
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OK .. this is pretty feakin cool! It looks like this sailboat was built for you. I've been in slightly different models where tipping over was a huge pain .. it sounds like this model is much better if you're able to get the sail upright without too much effort.
In the 4th photo it looks like you are ducking to prevent getting bumped in the head by the boom .. you know how the boom got it's name right .. by booming into the heads of sailors who get a bit too confident.
About how fast can you get this to sail? for instance -- if you fell off would you be able to swim to catch it, or would it sail away
BTW - you look so tall standing next to your dad in the last photo!! What are you now .. 5'7"?
Prepare to duel, fireant sailor-girl. I may have to "O'pen" the stern drain plug on your boat before we race to have a fighting chance, however.
What do you think of the superfast O'pen speed video (59 seconds) on the Bic website? That guy is wild. It looks like he has his dagger board UP, not down - which I would have expected to be a bad thing. Why do you think they do this?
See you on the water, ASAP. We should rig a Sunfish with Riley, next.
Dad