80+ Foot Sail Boat VS 65 Foot Bridge This is How it’s Done
There’s a detailed technical description of the steps involved in getting this sailboat – complete with it’s 80 foot tall masts – under this bridge that has only 65 feet of vertical clearance, but none of us have done any sailing so the vocabulary is a little over our heads.
However, we can watch the video and make a pretty good assessment of what’s going on. The boat has two huge water balls that hold about a ton of water each. As needed, those balls are filled with water, then hoisted off one side or the other, causing the ship to lean in the chosen direction. The farther the balls are swung out over the water, the lower the top of the massive masts will be. And as you can see in the video, these sailors know just how much is enough, as they’re able to pass under the Intracoastal Waterway bridge with no trouble, despite being 15′ taller than the bridge itself, when the boat is upright.
So there you have it, if you need to make your sailboat shorter, you simply hang some huge water balls over the edge and let your boat lean!
