Sailing at Watauga

I had a crazy fun time sailing with the Topaz Uno Plus at Watauga Lake in East Tennessee in 15-20 mph winds on this beautiful fall Sunday.


Watauga Lake offers one of the most scenic locations for sailing. The lake was busy with sailboats and poweboats all enjoying the beautiful sunny day. Wind picked up in the afternoon and even more sailboats came out. 

I set sail early in the morning in the Topaz Uno, aside a friend who set out a pantoon boat. We sailed across the lake in light winds. We anchored the pantoon boat in a shallow cove, and had ourselves a little picnic while waiting on the wind to pick up.


With winds picking up to a 15 mph constant breeze around 1pm, we both got on the sailboat. Our thrill on the sailboat was relatively short lived ss we noticed the pantoon start to move from its original anchored point. The winds had picked up even more, and we rushed back to the pantoon in record time. 


After resting a while, we decided to race to the far end of the lake. With the wind blowing out of the west, we sailed downwind arlind the island, all the way to the bridge.


And then the fun began…


Going back upwind meant tacking multiple times in 20 mph wibds. As my friend was on the pantoon, and I had to balance the boat with 155lbs. This proved to be quite a challenge. It was also extremely fun.

I love the way the Topaz Uno handles. It is one fast boat, and I plan to race the bigger boats with it next spring. My only concern with the Topaz Uno is the difficulty to keep the boat going straight in close tack in heavy winds. It has a tendency to turn into the wind when overpowered. Maybe that means my mass alone is not enough to balance it right in heavy winds, or maybe because I have the smaller rudder (the race version comes with a heftier rudder). Perhaps the best option is taking a friend along in heavy winds.. Two is more fun than one, and the boat is plenty big enough 🙂

Trouble with my 2015 Corvette Z06

7/14/2017

I took my 2015 Corvette C7 Z06 on the track this past June. I was at the Virginia International Raceway (VIR) on the National Corvette Museum High Performance Driving Event (HPDE) on June 26th and 27th.

I experienced loss off power multiple times on the track without any kind of warning signs or sounds on the dash or elsewhere in the car. It was an unnerving experience, as I got stuck without power in heavy traffic on the track. It was so bad that I swore to never track the car again until the issue is fixed. I also asked to be bumped down in experience level form the Orange to the Green group as the car was unsafe on the track with this unexplained and unexpected power cutoff issue.

I would be on full throttle and there would be no engine sound. Power cutoff would not be limited to the supercharger, as my speed literally decreased while I was on full throttle at many instances. Norbert Watt was my instructor riding in the passenger seat, and he experienced the unexplained losses in power as well as the disturbingly nonlinear throttle response. He commented that power felt low overall as well, and stated that his C5 Z06 will easily do 150 mph on the back straight. He was surprised my latest generation Z06 was being passed by older generation, less powerful cars when on full out throttle on the back and front straights.

I sincerely hope that GM and my dealership will address the issue. The sole reason I picked the Z06 over the C7 Stingray and other vehicles was the level of power and ability to attend high performance driving events without any modifications. Given that a full 5 year, 100,000 mile powertrain warranty, which covers track use, is included with the vehicle, I am confident that GM will address the issue and fix my Corvette. I will update this post as the issue is remedied.

Link to video of power loss issue–note that the green bar at the top right indicates throttle application:

Kaan Gunes

June is here! 

We had a very busy week after our Charleston vacation! I am glad week started from Tuesday 💕😊….

Atila and we went to YMCA 2 days, Atila moved the toddler class and was so happy to play with different toys…

Kaan was traveling to Texas and he was working very hard lately until midnight!

Yesterday we had a great tennis match , we lost but with a great scores…Huri and I had lots of fun.. 

finally it is already Friday evening I am at city nails for a pedicure Yay!!

This weekend if te weather permits we will be going to sailing with Kaan’s new toy 💕… yes he bought a brand new ⛵️ sailboat and very excited about it… Sunday we have kid birthday party to join and I will be flying to Düsseldorf for a business 😊💕