Sailing

This fine day I found myself back in Keyport, equipped with a brand new power righting setup should I find myself capsized again. The forecast called for relaxed 6mph winds, but it must have been a very fast 6mph - so much so that I had to take down my mainsail to keep the trailer from flipping over in the parking lot. The old man who seems to be a permanent resident of the pier helped me rig and launch, nearly without incident (my mainsheet got tangled on the trailer, and I almost sank the boat when pulling out). The strong wind forced me to launch on jib alone, and I then sailed to a beach where I could raise the main safely (In retrospect, tying off at the pier would have been just as good). Before long, I was sailing faster than ever.

My goal for the trip was to experience fast sailing alone, and to start pushing the catamaran a bit. The wind was strong enough to easily flip me, so the weather complied. After about an hour I gained enough confidence to intentionally fly a hull - a balancing act that's equal parts fun and scary. It didn't take long to get fairly comfortable to keep a hull a foot or two in the air (as a kid I used to ride a wheelchair on two wheels just for fun, and that tipping point experience is handy). The only problem was that my arms were getting abused - my main cam cleat stopped working and I had to hold the mainsail at all times.... this was also a good thing, since it made it much easier to react to wind gusts.

This day I came prepared, complete with sandwiches, but as it turns out, it is impossible to have lunch on a catamaran in high winds - you need your hands at all times. Fortunately, the Prindle 16 is a "beach cat", so I beached it. Even so I had to keep a watchful eye on it as the waves kept turning the boat against the wind.



After lunch, I resumed my journey and my heeling experiements, but this time I shifted my weight forward somewhat to level out the boat. Little did I know that in high winds this is not a great idea. As I approached ludicrous speed on the port hull, I pitchpoled unexpectedly... although I suppose that it's always unexpected. The port hull caught a wave, and suddenly the boat was going end-over, but since it was already angled, it also began to cartwheel - first bows down, then onto starboard hull, and then, to my amazement, onto the stern and back onto the port hull! This was nearly a complete revolution about the mast axis, and I still cannot quite tell how I stayed on the boat and what I was holding onto.

Here is a video that approximates what I experienced (it's the closest thing I found):

The very first time I got my Prindle on into the Raritan Bay I managed to hit 16.7 mph (14.5 knots). The water was warm and it was all fun and games... well, mostly - as long as you keep your head away from the boom. I met Bill who lives right by the boat ramp and he took me for a ride on his Hobie 16.

I learned that launching is best done with the bows away from shore, and that it's not so easy to come about without a steering oar.



The following week I found myself in the same location, but with significantly less wind. There was only a single gust of wind while I was out, and that one happened when the main was cleated and I wasn't paying attention... and me and my sister suddenly found ourselves being slowly dumped into the water. Capsizing wasn't the problem, as we soon discovered - it's getting it back up that's tricky. I brought a righting line complete with knots, and the boat didn't even turtle, yet our combined weight did not contribute significantly to changing the boat's orientation. The tip of the mast never lifted from its position about 20 inches under water.

Fortunately we were shortly rescued by a pair of wave-runner operators. The men had not planned for a high seas rescue, instead they came by to figure out what the odd shape sticking out of the water was all about. One of them simply grabbed the righting line and put his craft in gear - our boat came right up. Here we learned another important lesson: do not position yourself where the boat will land on you. In fact, it's probably best to hold on to the boat and go down with it.

I plan on adding a power righting pole since I'd like to sail alone.

After my gradual disappointment with inflatable sailing, I started to monitor craigslist for catamarans. Hobie 16's were at the top of the list but I eventually expanded my search to include Nacra 5.2 and Prindle 16. After some research I decided that a Prindle would actually be better as it is more novice friendly, and after some failed transactions (people who didn't have valid titles) I suddenly found myself parking a Prindle 16 on my driveway.



The boat sat unused for something close to 10 years, changing owners but never seeing much use. The trailer and hulls were sound (although dirty), but the wear items were trash - trampoline, lines, rigging were not in great shape. Before long my $600 investment turned in $2000.... some of the expense could probably have been avoided, but I wanted new parts on a boat I wasn't very familiar with.

Trampoline came from Slo Sail and Canvas (made to order), Lines and rigging from Salty Dog Marine, Sail repair from SailRite, and a bunch of little things from Murrays. On top of that, I wound up buying LED lights and new wheels for the trailer, regalvanizing the frame and rewiring the whole thing (it didn't even come with wiring).