Learning to Sail
I bought an 18′ Hobie Catamaran a couple of weeks ago. I had never even been on a sailboat, let alone sailed one. Right after I bought it, I took it apart. It’s a nasty habit that I really need to break. I can’t seem to get anything without it turning into a major project. Anyway, I took it apart almost as soon as I got it home. The boat was in fairly good condition. I only paid $1,000 for it and it included sails and a trailer – all in good condition. I replaced the trampoline with a new vinyl mesh one. I had to buy all new running rigging and a few other odds and ends. I also ordered a gallon of yellow gel coat to refinish the hulls where some of the old gel coat has been chipped and scratched. It should look practically new when I’m done. I took the thing completely apart and intended to go ahead and refinish it. I ended up putting it back together without spraying the gel coat in order to take it to the beach for some test runs. Here’s a picture I took with my cellphone after raising the sails in the front yard for the first time:
This past week, I went on a fishing trip to Emerald Isle, NC with the men from my father’s church. I took the catamaran with me. I ended up spending all night the night before the trip putting the boat back together. The neighbors probably thought I was crazy raising the sails under halogen lights in the driveway at 3 am. My father, brother and I had everything loaded up and were on our way by around 8:30 am. We took a two hour detour through Wilmington, NC to pick up some cat trax beach wheels that I won on ebay. We made it to the beach house around 1pm. After unloading our gear, my brother and I sat out to find a public access boat launch ramp to put the catamaran in. We found a NC Wildlife Boating Access Ramp along the intercoastal waterway in Morehead City, NC. We were a bit nervous about taking the boat out for the first time, since neither of us had a clue what we were doing. I read the instructions though, so I thought we could manage. I almost changed my mind sitting there looking at the water. I was pretty confident that we could make it out across the water. I was more concerned about whether we could make it back! We had some trouble rigging the boat. The first problem was with the jib block. The jib halyard wire kept coming off the block and getting stuck. We raised and lowered the mast a couple of times trying to get the wire to stay free, but it kept getting stuck. Let me tell you, it’s pretty nerve-racking raising a 28 ft mast in a parking lot crowded with boats and trucks worth as much as my home. We finally got the catamaran in the water. Then, we had a terrible time pulling it around to dock it and raise the sail. We fought the wind and current the entire time. Rigging and raising the sail that first time on the water was hard work. After an hour of fighting the boat in the hot sun, we ended up begging an incoming boater for some drinks. That was the best Diet Rite I’ve ever had. We finally got the sail up and shoved off. I was surprised at how easy it was after leaving the dock. We sailed with just the main sail since we couldn’t get the jib sail up. We sailed around four miles, passing under the bridge between Morehead and Atlantic Beach. Here’s a map of the area we sailed. We made it back to the dock just as the sun went down. It was a great day and gave me a hunger for more. Here’s the bridge we sailed under (picture snagged from
The next day, we put the catamaran in at the NC Wildlife Boating Access Ramp at Cedar Point, NC. I had hoped to sail out of Cedar Point into Bogue Inlet and out into the Atlantic Ocean around the southern point of Emerald Isle. We were able to fix the jib block and managed to get the jib sail up. It was much easier rigging the boat this time. We coated the main sail with SailKote and it went up without any trouble. I wanted to sail right up to the cottage and land the catamaran on the beach. It didn’t work out. There was virtually no wind blowing and the little wind we had wouldn’t cooperate with our direction. I learned how to tack the boat to sail into the wind, but it was very slow going the distance that I hoped to cover. My brother manned the jib sail, so I didn’t get any experience with it. It appeared to have a bigger learning curve than the main sail. About a mile away from open water, we decided to turn around due to darkening skies. We could see a sizeable storm developing. I really didn’t want to be sitting in the water with a big lighting rod during a storm. The wind direction changed again and fought us all the way in. The wind really whipped up just as we approached the dock. I tried to gently approach the dock, but ended up running both hulls ONTO the dock. The upside was that we didn’t have worry about mooring the boat to the dock. We were mighty glad we came in when we did. It began lightning and rained harder than I’ve seen it rain in a while. It was a good learning experience.
I didn’t get to go back out sailing this week, but I really want to go. We stopped at a couple of NC Wildlife Access Points looking for good places to put the boat in. We found one in Beaufort, which is one of my favorite places to visit at the beach. I’ll save that one for when I have a bit more experience. The prospect of navigating through all of the expensive yachts anchored in Beaufort is not one I want to consider yet.
We also stopped at Union Point Park in New Bern. I’ve stopped by this park on the last couple of trips I’ve made down to the beach. I’m not sure why, but I’m really drawn to this spot. I thought I remembered a boating access there. I was right, there is a pretty good access leading to the convergence of the Neuse and Trent Rivers. There is also a nice section of dock on the other side of the park. I think that this may be one of the most beautiful sections of water in NC. There are sailboats everywhere, so it must be a pretty good spot for sailing. If it hadn’t been raining off and on, we probably would have gone out for a bit. I can’t wait to come back explore. There’s a Comfort Suites adjacent to the park, maybe I can plan a weekend trip soon.
I’m off work this Friday. If the weather’s good, I might try out Jordan Lake in Raleigh. There just might be a sailor inside me.Technorati Tags: Sailing, Catamaran, Hobie Cat, Emerald Isle, Morehead, Beaufort, New Bern, NC Wildlife Boating Access
