BayCruiser 20 on Lake Superior

[Jim Levang]

I haven't posted here lately but thought you might enjoy a short video of our BayCruiser 20 sailing on western Lake Superior:

https://youtu.be/mpPwEeRstRE

It really doesn't get any better than it was today.

Jim

[Jonathan Stuart]

Very nice!

[David Hudson]

Hi Jim

Brings back memories of the summer of '76 and Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

David H

[Jim Levang]

David:

I try hard to be a fair weather sailor, none of those gales of November for me. One needs to be most respectful of this lake even on a nice day. Even now in mid-July I passed over areas of water temperature  as low as 44F (7C). I put another short video up:

https://youtu.be/zjqbicbmb2E

Jim

[Peter Taylor]

Hi Jim, thanks for the videos!  Apart from seeing the sailing, a video often gives more glimpses of how a boats rigged and equipped than still photos!  And, BC20's remain a select group!
Peter

[SFbaysailor]

Good friend and very good sailor!!! Amazing story of great lakes sailing.
http://racineyachtclub.org/News/goombay_cheated_death.htm

Do not under estimate the value of sealed floatation tanks!!! And make sure any hatches are strong enough to stay intact under pressure. This same storm killed several sailors on a 38ft racing boat in the Mac Race.

I rigged tie downs on all my hatch boards and covers after this happened to my good friend Gregg.

If his hatch board had been on a leash, hes pretty confident they could have bailed out the boat after putting the hatch board back in place and finished the race. But when they were rolled they lost the hatch board and could not bail enough to over come the wave wash finding its way into the cabin in the swamped hull. He thinks with the hatch board put in place they could have bailed enough to make progress and recover.

They were rolled three times. The forward flotation tank had a bond fail and it slowly filled over 2hours. The rear under cockpit locker had a propper locking ocean rated hatch which retained floatation boyancy, the boat was located bow down stern up still at the surface, the recovery caused more damage than the three rolls and half sunk drifting about.