We have an east/west channel that connects Lake Erie with Presque Isle Bay, Tom Young calls it a "cut". This one is about 100 yards wide and lined with concrete, maybe 500-600 yards long. Even though there are no official tides, the wind on the lake cause the water to pile up on one end or the other so the current through the channel can be tricky and there are not charts to help predict direction or force. In addition, the channel acts as a wind funnel. We watched a shiny flag blue 42' Beneteau on a beam reach, full main and genoa, in conditions that were shaky at best on the lake, winds were blowing hard from the west, he almost had the rail in the water. The captain was obviously trying to impress someone (think Costa Concordia) by making a pass close to shore at a right angle to the channel. The blast of wind from the channel knocked the boat over, put the mast and sails right into the water. Dumb ass.

The channel is also a favorite place for a few sailors to prove to other sailors that they can sail, prove to the powerboaters that sailboats are the hazards to navigation they think they are and generally show lack of respect for everyone else on the water. Tacking back and forth through incoming and outgoing traffic to say that they sailed, not motored through the channel. Not impressed, dumb ass.

Last weekend we had small craft warnings, 20-25+ knot winds straight out of the north and whitecaps on the bay and our basin. One of my dock neighbors thought that these were ideal conditions to come in under sail to show off his sailing skills to guests on board. The entrance to the club basin was no problem, the 90* turn to starboard past the breakwall was not a big problem but the darn sailboat did not have brakes. The 90* turn to port down the fairway was a sail flogging, yelling series of "oh shit" maneuvers where he got the sails down, engine started, reversed and the boat slowed enough to make the 90* turn to port turn into his slip where he nicely broadsided his neighbor's SeaRay, his finger pier is on the north side of the boat. In this case it was not the first time or the tenth time he has proven to be a dumb ass.