Took the boat up to the Albermarle Sound, and despite the
sluggish winds, it was still a pretty eventful weekend...My bud and I
got about 2 miles down the shore and a third of a mile out, cruising
along lazily, when we finally ran into a decent patch of wind. Just
as we started picking up speed: SNAP...sail comes flying down and the
other end of the halyard some 15-20ft in the air twisted around the
top of the mast. Well, not to worry, we caught the sail before it
went all the way down and then limped in to shore, which was
completely lined by seawall. Fortunately we found a boat ramp in
someones back yard and headed for it. And we couldn't have asked for
a better place to pull in: in his yard was a sparkling clean Tornado
catamaran. After startling a poor old man with bushy eyebrows and a
little white dog, and then explaining our situation, he gladly lent
us his cordless phone. We had a friend bring us some spare halyard
line I had left at the house.
Next was the task of getting the halyard down....There was no
place to unstep the mast, as the boat ramp had a tree directly over
it (apparently the guy takes his tornado to his buddy's ramp down the
road). We tried taping a rake to a length of PVC pipe and snagging
the little plastic handle swaying in the air, but with the boat
moving around on the water, it was more like some sick carnival game
you'd have no chance of winning. Then his neighbor came out and
suggested simply tipping the boat over...(duh). It was only 3 and a
half feet of water anyway.
In short time, we were back on our way with a shiney new red
main halyard.
Chinese Proverb: If halyard look old, halyard IS old.
Anyway...Earlier that day, I discoverd an annoyance with the
hobie...it is incredibly troublesome to come about. It took us 4
attempts to turn the other way down the shore, the first 3 ending
with us stuck straight into the wind. Is there some sort of trick to
turning? I thought of myself as a fairly accomplished sailor until
right about then. I also have a greater appreciation for the user-
friendliness of my little monohull boat I have.
Anyone wanna shed some light on changing directions smoothly in a cat?
~Steve
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