Awesome Sailing Maneuver (Video)

David Parrott, the captain of Alden 58 Aratinga sailing boat puts 80 foot of mast under a bridge on the Intracoastal Waterway. Quite an accomplishment, given that the fixed bridge heights on the ICW are all around 65 feet.

David ingeniously rigged up a way of tilting his boat over so that she “slides” under the bridges, healed up on an angle. He has two one-ton (yes, 1 ton) thick rubber bags of water hanging midway up his mast. His boat has a slight tilt to starboard anyways and when he wants to tilt Aratinga over to pass under a bridge, he lets the line out on these bags of water so they hang over the side and that increases his starboard list.

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