So I got this crazy idea...
 

Without boring you with my navigational skills or about the 14' boat I have designed... How would you feel about riding a hurricane out in the gulf and riding it into shore... of course I would narrate the video:)

-1

OK... To do this you would have to build a fully enclosed capsule.

Sounds like fun. I'm in. :D

Just don't risk any Coast Guard lives when the flotsam and jetsam, the storms detritus, interrupts your crazy idea with a dose of reality.

I live on the Potomac, the widest part, have been through three hurricanes and can tell you the power of the storm surge is not for the faint of heart. The crap that has been deposited on my shoreline is as odd as it is bountiful.

I am thinking that it would be aluminum framed, filled with foam.. self bailing, and I would sit on the back of it in a Kirky racing seat... would have MRE's, sat phone & gps...

Yeah Paul I hear ya... I know how rough it can get out there... I would be mentally prepared to follow it through...

You'd need an inboard engine with a self sealing snorkel. An out board would be to risky...
Designed so it would keep running no matter what angle it's at.

It's doable but you'd have to build it super strong but light.

There is a reason people don't do that.

I can only support this plan if RWEBB went along as a navigator, as he is an expert in everything.

Do you?

Unless you're ex navy, IMO, you probably have no concept whatsoever of how rough it can get out there, just like i don't either.

All i know is the pix i've seen are enough to make me say "No fking way" ;)

http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/...as_again_1.jpg

http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/wp...ightmare-3.jpg

If a tornado has enough wind force to stick a straw into a tree, and hurricane force winds are just as high--sound suicidal. Best case, incredibly nausiating. Imagine putting yourself in a paint can, and having Home Depot put you in one of those power shakers. That's probably about what it would be like--for 24 + hours.

Interesting thought though, but No thanks:)

Why don't you just grab a cow and fly in a tornado? Or buy a house trailer in FL and stay there during hurricane season? Hey, contact balloon boy's dad in CO. I read he got his balloon back from the police.

Some medications may be able to help you with these ideas....if not, Darwin awards are made posthumously.SmileWavy

BEST answer yet!

Why not do the Niagra falls in a barrel thing instead?

I am with you Bill. And no, not you Snipe.

I'd love to sit in a super strong building like a parking garage. Still be protected and exposed at the same time. I'd get a Hurricane high out of that.

You old guys with kids just don't understand. ;)

That's funny, I had the exact thought before I got down to your comment :D

Yep ex Navy here, navigated pretty much everywhere.. master helmsman etc... been in some seas that made me wonder exactly how long I had to live...lol I am serious about this though... it has always been one of those weird dreams of mine... I would build this very small super strong sail boat and ride a tropical storm into a hurricane and then ride with it into shore... I think I could really do this... I know it would not be fun after a while but I am willing to do it... just saying...

Do you?

Unless you're ex navy, IMO, you probably have no concept whatsoever of how rough it can get out there, just like i don't either.

All i know is the pix i've seen are enough to make me say "No fking way" ;)

http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/...as_again_1.jpg

http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/wp...ightmare-3.jpg[/QUOTE]



Dude, I have been in seas where one second you're on top of a mountain looking down... and then next you are down in a valley looking up surrounded 360 degs by mountains of water.... I was on a large ship once and we were catching freaking air when we would break the waves... we would slam back down in the water and I could swear that the keel was about to break... God I miss it so.....

Bill, I think it's a fun idea. My only concern outside of the obvious would be if you had to be rescued, being charged for said rescue. Wouldn't be cheap.

some 15 years ago two coxswains and I took a 14ft coaches launch out onto Lake Michigan for 4th of July fireworks. We left the safety of the lagoon which was still, we head out and it's still fairly good water. 10 minutes out of low speed travel, a chop picks up, wind comes in and I decide to turn around. Squall came in out of nowhere and it took all 20 years of my being on the water taught by my Dad, a Navy man, to get us back safely, and there were a few times when the hand of God kept us safe riding the swells in, times when you could here the prop of the 9.9 out of the water, scary. Closest I've ever come to dying. Amazing bonding experience with the cox's.

You may want to get one of those padded suits and attack a grizzly bear, might be a little safer.

I volunteer to help man the camera. When are we going?

Hell, who wants to live forever, I'm in:cool:

I would think hurricane force winds would break the mast of a sail boat. Definitely have some sort of shock and water proof camera. Make out your will.

What would happen anyway? Would you possibly get stuck in the eye, or would you bounce off the storm? As long as you were in the middle of the ocean I guess you would probably be okay, as long as your capsule does not get crushed.

My car lived through the last 'cane in a parking structure, and barely got wet.




OK, it got wet, but it didn't really move around...much.


Actually, studies have shown that something like an open sided parking garage is safer when a hurricane or tornado hits, as compared to a close sides, but wooden structure. The wind shear in the middle of a garage isn't that bad, and no vacuum vortices form.

Crazy, I know... When I was a kid, I used to sneak out of the house to "play" in the hurricane... my fondest memory was me swimming waist deep in the street and having to get out long enough for a big white 70's model Cadillac to float by... really, the only thing that put any fear in me at the time, was all the lightning that was popping all around me.... :)

Don't know if I can get'er done by this season, but I am definitely gonna try by next season... The only issue I havent resolved is how to get the boat out to where the storm is... i will need the high winds to move the boat... unless I use a conventional sail to get me there and then discard it....

Well, since you're so set on doing it, if you die, can i have your stuff? :-P

Future Darwin Award in the making. You should strap rockets to your boat.

Surprisingly, I discussed this with my family and they are giving me their full support if it is what I feel that I need to do.... So I am gonna build this thing!!! I am gonna call it THE PELICAN.... you guys have your choice of a Guards red paint job or a Gulf Blue/orange theme... I am an asking all that can afford to help sponsor this build to do so... I will do it myself no matter what, but it will take some time if I have to go it alone... I would really like to see some of you business types pitch in for sponsorship and get your names on the boat... I intend to put individual donors names on the main sail and corporate sponsors logos on the boat. I will also ask around locally for sponsorship...

I think I can build the boat for about $4000.
Then I will need a aluminum kirkey racing seat
a mid priced hand held GPS unit w/chart upgrades
actual charts that have been laminated
2 gel cell car batteries
solar panel
two interior led lights
led navigational running lights
e-perb
$250 for Mre's
life jacket
wet suit
water proof video camera
marine radio
sat phone
lap top with sat cap if you expect video downloads daily..
and various other odds and ends...

Surprisingly, I discussed this with my family and they are giving me their full support if it is what I feel that I need to do

Oh honey, sign this paper from the insurance company before you go on your little boat trip, now you have fun, OK.SmileWavy

kirky racing seat
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...l-you-will.jpg

"life" jacket
http://achristian.files.wordpress.co...added_cell.jpg

Steve, that is a perfect design, looks like his sponsor will be the state asylum.

I have friends who were caught in the middle of the Un-named storm of 1991. The same storm the book and movie "The Perfect Storm" was based on. In their case they were among the very lucky as they survived. A husband and wife sailing around the world and close to returning home. They ended their trip being utterly thrashed in the middle of the storm. To hear them talk about their experience is riveting. Imagine being on a 38 foot sailboat in the storm of the century strapped in below deck in the pitch black, bleeding, broken and getting pummeled by parts of the boats interior that have failed due to severe hull flexing. Now imagine the boat being flipped over and over every time it goes over a wave for 48 hours straight. The storm and crushing waves stripped the entire mast assembly, all rigging, all handrails, rudder, etc. right off the boat. These two people also suffered chemical burns from the fuel, oil, and sanitary fluids that they were marinated in not to mention lung trauma. They were spotted by a search plane and then rescued by helicopter. I cant even do the story justice as it has to be told by the two that lived through it.

That said You are one crazy dude to want to put yourself in that situation. Think highly unpredictable and dangerous in a way that cant be imagined. Make sure you get an engineer involved unless you are one yourself. Also consider that if things really go wrong and you need to be rescued that you are directly responsible for putting your rescuers lives at risk.

However I do understand the thrill junkie aspect of your idea quite well as I am afflicted with the same illness and it would be one hell of a ride.

We don't get hurricanes here in the Pacific Northwest but we get breezes from time to time and we have a wooded, rocky coastline. I have watched the sea play with driftwood logs averaging 3-4 feet in diameter, 50 feet long or better, and it's pretty impressive how Neptune can casually flick one of those things in the air. Just sayin'.......

Crazy idea - reminds me of the guy who attempted to across between Australia and New Zealand in a kayak. National Geographic did a special on it. Spoiler: he didn't make it.

Hmm - maybe after that you can snowboard down a lava flow of an active volcano. If you use the proper wax, your board won't burn...

...immediately.

Consider your family...

-Z-man.

and frickin laser beams!

Dude, I have been windsurfing in a 40mph Nor'easter on an 8' board, 2.7 meter sail, in swells the size of a greyhound bus.


I crashed, snapped a carbon mast.

I dumped my rig and used the bouyancy in my wet suit to help me swim back to shore, It took almost two hours. I wasn't more than 200 yards off shore but came in 3 miles downwind.

No way would I put myself in a capsule in high seas. You'd get smacked by a lip that could toss you into the next zip code.

I'll help the man thats helping the man, man the camera. :>)

Take up kite surfing..........its a proven form of Kaos on the water