Sail Boat Tobogganing in the Snow

Using a plywood sailing dinghy as a toboggan when the kids can’t go to school because of snow.

Using a plywood sailing dinghy as a toboggan when the kids can't go to school because of snow.

Kenny tests the speed of his boat down a snowy slope

Winter has been really harsh in North America.

It has even been snowing in Texas – and not just a little bit.

Kenny and family (more north than Texas) are really active on the PDRacer front but like many others are getting cabin fever from being icebound inside their houses.

So during one of the better days … there was boating to be done – but not boating as we know it, Jim.

The PDRacer has a whole bunch of records available to the class – from the highest sailing point, the longest road trip, the biggest fish caught.

But Kenny had different ideas.

Kids are home from school so a boat and a GPS

From Kenny …

After reading the article on “Muy Fragil”, I got to thinking more about starting to build a Oz goose for me.

My kids were off school early, so I had to incorporate them into my afternoon. One of them had a friend over and the other was going to be looking for something to do… I could enlist her to help me measure and mark the sides. Then I started to think about my odds of survival if my wife came home and saw I was building another boat in the living room. Change of plans… much better odds of survival if I attempted a run at the world downhill speed record in a PDR! So I loaded up the kids and sleds in the truck and the ATV and the PDR “Cold Duck” on the trailer.

Off we go to Cemetery Hill, the local sledding spot. We met up with my sister-in-law’s family at the hill and commenced testing.

The first run was 17+ MPH, with just me in the boat, no push off, and a lot of sideways sliding. After a few successful runs solo, I let the 4 kids jump in with me (they had been begging to go). We held a brief safety meeting, basically, if it looks like we are going to hit a tree, lay back and get down. This proved to be valuable information; we ended up in the bushes a couple times.

Speed was better, but not as good as I thought we could do, so we went to the steeper part of the hill. On the last run of the day, we achieved 20.6 MPH and probably a record for longest flight in a PDR (10 feet) after we hit one of the jumps on the hill.

Mischief Managed but took a hit for the team

The kids had a great time (me being the biggest kid). The boat fared well considering its use. I poked a hole in the side of one air box when it slid around on the top of the hill and banged into a sled. It also looks to have taken a hit from a stump of the brush that I sailed over, penetrating the glass and plywood on the bottom of the hull. Oh well, that’s the price I have to pay to hold one of the stranger records in the PDRacer world.

I’ll try to post some pics this weekend. I’ve got one with a nice rooster tail coming off of the back! :)

Kenny

Kenny gets snow every winter so he knows how to choose the location to eliminate the risk of hitting something on the way down.  He is still trying to work out a method of steering, but is not quite sure if it is “sporting” do do so.

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