The paradox of liberty: we should freely choose
to help one another.

Wildwind 58 – Version 2, originally uploaded by stevenjbaker.

No photos of me today — Beth was busy — but a few good shots of others.

This is a Hobie Tiger, the boat I used to own.

Monohulls can be ruled out. They are either too boring or too unstable. Rule 1.

The Fox – Formula 20 – is too much unless you need it to support crew weight. So rule 2 is don’t overreach yourself. (Never tried a Tornado, but they have the advantage of a broad beam.)

The FX One is a great single-hander, if perhaps a little heavy. The one here has no gennaker, so running is a bit pointless. Rule 3: have a gennaker.

The Pacific is not to be under-rated. Its steering is markedly slower than the Tiger’s and it’s a bit heavy, but as an exciting, large cat with which to take out relative novices, why not? It’s still powerful though: I wouldn’t want to get caught in a breeze picnicing with novices or kids. Rule 4 is perhaps to know your purpose.

The Hobie 16 is a laugh in a strong breeze, and it’s robust, but it breaks rule 3. It also pitches more than the boats with less rocker. Good in a windy location with surf? See rule 4.

So, for the moment, I’m sticking with old news: if your purpose is to race around as fast as possible at all times and you are prepared to be butch about it, the correct answer is Formula 18 (Tiger etc) if you never need to sail single-handed or Formula 16 (FX One, Blade, Stealth, and, marginally, Spitfire) if you do.

Minced about in the morning on an FX One in light winds. Then the promised “cross-shore” breeze kicked in on schedule at 15:15 with a perfect force 4-5.

Absolutely screamed to and fro in the FX One, hull out, trapezing at the very back of the boat. And no pitchpoles: not a capsize of any sort. Bloody marvellous.

Laughed my heart out flogging a Pico on a dare as the breeze built. What a horrible plastic pig. (It is, of course, a boat for novice children and the staff abused me appropriately.) If I just stood horizontally across the boat, it couldn’t capsize. It just brought me to the vertical, dumped the air and flopped back up. Tortured that for a bit then took a break.

Tiger tomorrow, I think, for old times’ sake.

The view from the balcony, where I sit now, is quite acceptable too.