Added location to my profile for you. "home base" is Clinton Lake, Lawrence KS, and Wyandotte County puddle near my house.. The first time I had the AI on the water EVER was in a very remote part of Canada facing a 7 mile sail in cold rough conditions to camp.. It was awesome...
"Not worth it"???? HA!
I could have gotten to weather in those conditions shown in your video at a satisfactorily pace.... Not easily.. but still That might have been gusting to 25 and 'flat' water
You were reaching... and had lots of places to go besides the seat.. Yet loaded with gear in much colder conditions with more on your mind than trying to break something on a inland lake having fun..
I won't forget the camera next time... I was constantly punching right through waves... putting me nearly underwater...
Keep in mind I am pretty much a nutcase on the water. The ONLY reason I was on the AI that afternoon is because I couldn't find anymore victims to take out on my H16.. (my first love
) So I figured "what the hell! This should be hilarious!".... and by God it was!
I had trouble when reaching deep like you were in the video with the bow diving... So I simply jumped up and basically took a knee in the storage area behind the seat doing my best to reach forward and steer... Watching the mast bend off was pretty frustrating and amusing all at the same time. This is the problem though... I figured out blasting downwind, and it was such a riot I 'needed' to get back up to take another ride.. I would bet I topped 12mph or better several times pretty easy... Between surfing the waves and damn near what felt like trying to plane... Good grief it was funny...
Going back up when closer to shore I could see the leeway... It really was quite interesting.. It was darn near going sideways faster than it was going forwards. You can 'see' that on almost any sailboat if you look close enough.. but with the AI you couldn't miss it..
I am thinking if I stayed in the storage area behind the seat... but had some kind of hiking stick/tiller extension so I could be at that back and hiked over the ama's I could make some ground.. Slowly... but at least without peddle assist.. using the weight to load the rudder better and maybe having to steer a slightly shallower angle to keep it headed on a proper course, giving up less speed..
Or maybe I will sew up a "storm sail"...