What speed is hooning?

Most memorable 'Hooning' was scudding a Pionier 10 with reefed main and twin jibs down a 3-day-gale sea at 11-12 knots with bow waves licking the top guard-rail and a serving MN deck officer reclining on the cockpit seat, his back to the bulkhead, looking astern over my shoulder and muttering ''Oh, my God..!''
More circumspect now: only hit those speeds in Loch Ness!
 
On our last boat a Westerly 33 Ketch we did 114 mls in 13.5 hours so 8.45kts averaged (hull speed nearer 7.4kts) but overall a little help from the tides. However for long periods we were surfing at 10.5kts down huge waves with windspeed up to 45kts apparent on the crests and zilch almost in the troughs. We had a full main, no genoa or mizzen, but would have preferred some foresail and no main, but turning to drop the main in those conditions wasn't an option and still stay right way up.

Our current boat goes upwind at 7kts so we see up to 9kts frequently but the wall to wall grins start proper at 10kts. Our record so far is 19.1kts on a lazy sail back from the Solent in and easterly F6 with big gusts, we had no main and a less than half unrolled genoa. We were approaching Poole Bar which is not good in easterlies and the tide was still ebbing, wind against tide, because we had arrived sooner than expected. We had only just finished lunch and rolled a bit more jib away 'just in case' with SWMBO on the wheel and then swapped places back just as she took off. My first thoughts were keep her straight, second thought was look at the speed and then realised I could have left the wheel and gone for a walk because she was locked on course like an exocet with the bow wave back at the cockpit. I have no doubt with a race crew on board and the dust brushed off the pretty coloured sail we could grin more often but hey they might take our bus passes away!
 
As Jazz put it....Hooning is a state of mind but also, IMHO, a state of body. Once the fundamental orifice is starting to pucker you know you are getting close. The rooster tail behind the boat reflects your own tail!
 
In about 1981 on a 42 ft one off racing yacht ( built at the Elephant Boatyard at Bursledon ) we did 17.6 knots, according to the B&G kit, while coming into the Solent from the West with a full gale behind us. We were carrying a storm trysail ( no main ) and a No 3 jib.

Yes, the keel and the rudder were both singing!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
In the current old fashioned 29 footer it's about 6.5 to 7 knots or perhaps a touch more with the chute up, but by then SHMBO is getting very vocal.
In a 24ft sportsboat that I used to crew it was anything over 15 knots downwind with all four crew perched on the transom to keep the bow out of the water! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
From the Compact Oxford English Dictionary:
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hoon
Austral./NZ informal

• noun a lout.

• verb behave like a lout.

— ORIGIN of unknown origin.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe that's why one G. Hoon was in charge of Defence in Bliar's regime - to behave like a lout in Iraq.
 
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Most memorable 'Hooning' was scudding a Pionier 10 with reefed main and twin jibs down a 3-day-gale sea at 11-12 knots

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Jees... I don't think I ever got my Pioneer over 10 knots and that was seriously scarey - respect!
 
Prout Cat 33

Through the water it starts to feel like Hooning at 10 knots - we will only ever get that downwind with a nice blow - F5+

12 knots seems fine OK but really going for it. When I touched 14 I realised I needed to slow down for fear of burying the bows although we were in quite flat water at the time.

And Prout cats are supposed to be slow. (They are upwind !)
 
Best "hoon" this season was the RTI, clocking 14-15 knots on a 37 foot cruiser racer certainly felt fast!

Other boat I sail regulary is a J105, and have had a number of memorable blasts in that boat. Top speed I saw was 18, then we had to drop the kite. (stupid race comittee setting 0.9m legs in 30kts of wind....) And hooning with 8 identical boats also hooning within spitting distance is really scary, especially when the boat behind nearly joins you in the cockpit then just explodes their kite instead!

What really felt like hooning though was this year on a race to La Trinite, when we were doing between 8 and 9 knots for a period of nearly 8 hours with a true wind speed of between 6 and 7 knots. It really was right in the sweet spot for that boat and that sail.

What was annoying though was watching the 105 come absolutely flying past us on the RTI, recording speeds in the low 20s. Boy did I pick the wrong ride that day!
 
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What really felt like hooning though was this year on a race to La Trinite, when we were doing between 8 and 9 knots for a period of nearly 8 hours with a true wind speed of between 6 and 7 knots. It really was right in the sweet spot for that boat and that sail.


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Just think, if you had that nice easy to use in-mast sail you could have been really MOTORING .... I mean REALLY motoring, g'donk,g'donk,g'donk /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
you can't hoon in a sailboat unless you carve up a fleet of kids in optimists. It's loutish behavior + speed. I felt a bit of a hoon doing 60kts in a ski boat on a fairly quiet river. Never know when a group of kayaks might be around the next corner. Classic hooning...weaving through moored boats at 20knts in a 60' just off the plane to see if your wake can get the sailboat spreaders in the water. Leaving a lunch anchorage under full throttle so that everyone's drinks spill. Slicing through a group of becalmed racing yachts and counting how many do a 360 in your wake. What a laugh.
 
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