Parking your Catamaran on the WaterBy Sonny BarberThe Basics: Sheet in the jib to fall off the wind. Sheet in the main to head up. You can sail a Hobie all day with the rudders up, steering with sails alone, unless you want to tack. You can even tack, if you do it just right. You can gybe without rudders easily ;) If you want to park the boat, you leave the jib free and sheet in the main hard. The boat will stay in irons forever. But... If you pull the rudders up, the windage of the boat will cause it to back up until the transoms hit the beach, or some other relatively immovable object to it's rear. To prevent this, leave the rudders down and pull all the way to one side and bungee in place. As the windage causes the boat to back up, the boat tries to fall off the wind. As soon as it does, the main will develop enough drive to move the boat forward, and the rudders will turn it into the wind. It will sit and oscillate all day. It will drift a little downwind, but in yards, not miles. Sonny Barber |
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