Okay, where I live, no one has ever sailed, most people here don't know what Hobie Cat is or any beach cat for that matter.
I had my boat off the trailer and set up in the back yard with just the mast up one weekend. A neighbor of mine a couple of houses down asked me if I had put up an antenna, as he had an antenna up for some radio stuff, and I was like, uh no, it's a mast from a Hobie 16. I showed him the boat and then he told me he had grown up in Rhode Island and had sailed before. Then he asked, "where ya gonna sail that thing up here"? I told him, well, there are several lakes up here, besides, it's not that far to the beach. Then he tried to sell me his schoolbus/camper and said it would be perfect for hauling the boat to the beach and I'd have a place to stay with the camper bus thing. I passed on the bus, haven't seen him since. Lol
So share a funny story about neighbors or co-workers who are clueless!! Lol!!
Edited by martyr on Apr 06, 2017 - 03:36 AM.
We went down to a little lake in central Indiana. As we were setting up, Mr. Green Jeans came by and said, "That's a nice coupla boats ya got there".
had a guy walk up to me on the beach a few weeks ago
he asked, "can you get them pontoons in the air?"
I said, "enought tnt - i am sure they would go airborne"
He said, " no, i mean while sailing"
i said "oh, fly a hull? yes in about 8 knots of air - no problem"
He asked "will you take me"
me - "no"
He asked "why not"
me - "your not pretty enough, and i don't take strangers out on my boat"
he asked "what if i pay you $40"
me - "no, i am not a commercial skipper, and if something happened out there - $40 wouldn't even pay my parking at the court house, let alone the 10000's in fines and jail"
He points to an attractive young lady sunbathing close to us "would you take her"
me - "in a fat second" 🙂
Comms breakdown:
A very nice neighbor heard I was into sailing and every once in a while would ask me if I had been "sailing" lately. She regularly hinted that she would like to come with me sometime.
Fast forward a few years... I was getting ready one beautiful Sat morning to head to the dock and I see the nice neighbor and thinking there is enough wind to go 2 up. The nice neighbor stops by and asks "going sailing?" I reply "yes, do you want to go with me"? She spins around and almost runs to her house with a "I will go get my purse" and a huge smile on her face. I am thinking she is more enthusiastic than I thought...
30 seconds later she re-appears and jumps in my car with several pieces of paper she had printed. As we pull away from my house she is chattering away about the best places to go sailing and how she prints up a plan most Saturdays to go sailing most efficiently. At this point I am starting to smell a week old fish but cant get a word in.
We finally get it figured out that she thought I meant garage "sale-ing"... not sailing as in on-a-boat-that-sails. The look on her face when she figured out where we were going was priceless.
No, she did not go sailing with me and I did not go sale-ing with her.
BW
Edited by bradinjax on Apr 06, 2017 - 12:31 PM.
We finally get it figured out that she thought I meant garage "sale-ing"... not sailing as in on-a-boat-that-sails. The look on her face when she figured out where we were going was priceless.
That is funny!
bradinjax wrote: finally get it figured out that she thought I meant garage "sale-ing"... not sailing as in on-a-boat-that-sails. The look on her face when she figured out where we were going was priceless.
No, she did not go sailing with me and I did not go sale-ing with her.
BW
Good one!
Not neighbors so much but a couple of things I run into regularly living in "the land of no lakes" in the midsouth.
If I mention that I have a sailboat and like to go sailing to a woman I have to quickly follow up with the fact that my sailboat has less than the three cabins her charter in the bahamas had, or the 50 footer she saw in a movie.
If I lead by mentioning specifically catamaran sailing, or the fact my boat is a Hobie Cat, I have to explain what both of those are.
While on the road with my Hobie 18 on several occasions while pumping gas I've had some dude in Mississippi saunter up (nobody saunters like a Mississippian) and ask "What kind of trailer is that?". They think that the catamaran itself is the trailer for something else!
I get lots of funny questions while rigging:
"Do the wheels stay under the boat the whole time" (thinking i sail with my beachwheels on)
i had a lady on the beach Saturday ask me if my boat was similar to a sailboat...
i said "not at all" lol
Years ago, I was sailing with a friend on his N 6.0 NA. We decided to stop at a small beach to get some drinks and a snack at the local snackbar.
So, we picked up a mooring-buoy some 50 yards from the beach and my friend hopped of to
get the supplies .
Main-sheet block uncleated, downhaul lose, jib furled, daggerboards and rudders up. Thats how
we leave a beach cat at a mooring.
While waiting for my mate, the wind suddenly turned over 90 degree and picked up violently,
before I knew the mooring buoy snapped of, the cat gybed with the main slamming into the stay
we took of to the beach furiously.
I dived to the rear-beam to get a rudder in the water, which didn’t help putting up the bows and
increasing the speed.
At very high speed the cat beached and hurdled on to a gras-lawn next to the snack-bar.
An elderly couple sitting on a bench enjoying the view was the target.
The cat stopped just 2 yards in front of them, to my relieve and heartbeat at 200+
“ Hello, young man, are you here for a sandwich too?” was there commend… pffff
A
Funny stuff. Damon, the trailer thing is great. When I had the Hobie at our place on the lake (boat was in the water), the neighbor lady next door saw the empty trailer and asked me what it was. I told her it was a trailer for a catamaran. She then replied saying she thought it was some kind of rocket launcher. My trailer has a pvc sail tube in the middle of it so, yeah, I could see how she would think that. Lol!
As I pulled my hobie 18 trailor up to the front of the super market to pick up my wife who had just come out of the door, a small boy said to my wife as she passed him .."GEE lady, you must be RICH, you have TWO canoes!".
This is one of the funniest things I ever read. Should it be stickied, or given a category? If it had its own category, we could say as something hilarious is happening, here is one for the Beach Cat Stories section. (Or what ever it's called) One of the best things is the sense of comraderie finding out you aren't the only one; whose boat sailed off the beach by itself, or been dragged, or have 3 times the number of boats a normal person should own etc.The best part of our club is telling the stories afterwards (that day, and year after year)..A dedicated section would serve to magnify this part of our sport. Just one sailor's opinion!
I agree. Keep it going for sure.
I had taken friends Bill and Jim sailing on my P16, and they loved it so much they bought their own. Jim brought it out to the lake with friend John and wife Mary. The three of them took it out on the lake and we sailed side by side for an hour or more until the wind started blowing white caps. John turned the boat toward shore and let it gybe. Bang! He was now on a near downwind course straight toward a somewhat rocky shore with a dozen onlookers standing around. The force of the gybe and the rapid acceleration of the Prindle slid John off the boat. He tried to hang on to the tiller but it extended to max and allowed him to enter the water. He hung on with a death grip, and the tiller crossbar parted dead center at the pivot bolt, leaving John with the tiller still in hand. Now out of control, the cat neared shore and Jim decided to throw his body between the hull and the rocks. However, he slipped, and fell overboard to lee (luckily). Mary sat quietly on the tramp, riding it up onto the rocks amid many curling swirls of gelcoat carved by the rocks. The cat stopped just shy of the crowd, one of whom said "Cool", and then they calmly dispersed. I was no more than a hundred feet from them, a perfect viewing distance, and it reminded me of a Chevy Chase movie.
A few weeks ago I was telling a young coworker about the Hobie one day and even showed him a picture of the boat sitting on the trailer. Today I was showing him, along with several other people, a picture of the boat when it was in the water, sitting still, and moored without the sail up, and another coworker commented about the mast being tall. The young coworker then said, "oh, you mean it's like a sailboat"? I said uh, yeah, it's like a sailboat. Good grief. He said when he thought of a sailboat, he was thinking it had a cabin. Then the other coworker said "it's a catamaran, those are like the Ferrari's of sailboats"! At least one of them had a clue!!! Lol!!! 😀
This thread is awesome!
So, my wife and I were sailing a Hobie 16 years ago - both out on the wire in a pretty good blow and of course we buried the bows and pitchpoled hard. I got flung free, but my wife ended up hitting trap wires and shrouds on the way down. The right side of her body was basically one giant bruise after that, including her neck where she nearly got beheaded by the shroud! She wasn't badly hurt, but it was one killer set of bruises. Anyway, Monday morning back in the office her boss calls her into her office for a private talk. She looked at the bruising and asked, "is everything OK at home?" My wife just laughs and says, "nah - just a normal weekend sailing. Anyway, do you really think my husband could do this to me?!" My wife rides and train horses professionally - she has a variety of whips and metal attachments for her boots - I wouldn't stand a chance....
I wouldn't stand a chance....
haha! gydyup!
Maybe we should start a bruises on your wife thread. So we were sailing and my wife was out on the wire trimming the main sheet for me as she could do it faster with 2 hands than I. I was steering and not on the wire as the wind was not up high enough. We had just rounded the weather mark on were reaching off and a pretty good clip. Then my wife's trapeze wire broke and dropped her in the water. What I did not know at the time was that the main sheet had wrapped around her upper leg. All I knew was she would not let go of the main sheet. The main sheet went from the blocks to my waist and then back to her in the water who was being dragged by the boat. This resulted in the main being pulled in tighter and us going faster and my gut was acting like a turning block. I as was screaming for her to let go of the sheet so I could stop the boat, and the pain caused by the main sheet around my waist. I looked back and I saw her spinning violently in the water. Apparently she was unwinding from the mainsheet. Finally she was free and I could let out the main and turn into the wind. She said she thought she had lost her leg when she was in the water. When we got back to shore, she had a bruise on her inner thigh that went from her groin to her knee. It was the largest and darkest bruise I had even seen on anyone. Needless to say that bruise was very difficult to explain.
Edited by bruiser on Apr 12, 2017 - 05:30 PM.
Funny story topic that is still relevant. Read through these, and share your own.
Kinda funny story... maybe.
My wife and I had just purchased a previously-owned H18 that was in fairly good condition.
We had previously been sailing a P18 that was fast but just couldn't point with all the other daggered boats in the club and racing scene, so we were looking for something like an H18 for a month or so until I remembered that there was one sitting out in a farm yard near were I previously lived. We made the hour's drive and knocked on the door. Lo and behold, even though they hadn't put in on the market, the owners were willing to sell it to us. It had been sitting out in their yard, somewhat covered by an old tarp that was barely recognizable as a tarp. The sails were nicely stored indoors and in good condition.
Anyway.... with a little elbow grease, she was lookin' good and ready for the water!
So the next weekend was a scheduled race that we had been looking forward to.... which boat? The P18 or the 'new' H18? T'was the first time the H18 got out on the water in many years.... Geneva Sailing Club race (Geneva Ohio, Lake Erie)! Woo Hoo!
This was a short-distance race along the coast sailing East, rounding at a point perpendicular to a large antenna tower on shore, then back to the club's beach. Maybe 12 miles in all.
I think it was John Knight that took a quick look at our new boat and suggested that I replace the trapeze height adjustment lines. I agreed of course, but thought it would be ok for today's sail.
We started well and in the lead group of boats. This H18 handles nice, and it's fast! Both of us (my wife and I) on the wires, romping through the mid-sized whitecaps on a beautiful, windy, sunny day. And steadily creeping up on the lead boat. Life couldn't be much better!
Until.... SNAP!
Splash! WT_?!?
Luckily, I kept hold of the mainsheet while being dragged, that tightened the main, and the tensioned trailing mainsheet hit the windward rudder arm and pushed the tiller to lee. She almost tipped over but not quite; she rounded up more or less. My wife took a bit of a plunge as the boat turned upwind.
I clambered aboard and off we went again, racing after the whole kindle of cats far in front of us.
At least I had a nice, refreshing dunk and cooled off in the cold water.
Whew!
So, my wife and I were sailing a Hobie 16 years ago - both out on the wire in a pretty good blow and of course we buried the bows and pitchpoled hard. I got flung free, but my wife ended up hitting trap wires and shrouds on the way down. The right side of her body was basically one giant bruise after that, including her neck where she nearly got beheaded by the shroud! She wasn't badly hurt, but it was one killer set of bruises. Anyway, Monday morning back in the office her boss calls her into her office for a private talk. She looked at the bruising and asked, "is everything OK at home?" My wife just laughs and says, "nah - just a normal weekend sailing. Anyway, do you really think my husband could do this to me?!" My wife rides and train horses professionally - she has a variety of whips and metal attachments for her boots - I wouldn't stand a chance....
This so mirrors our own experience(s) that I can't believe I didn't catch it the first time around (i.e. in 2017). Not a lot of great lakes in this part of the prairies, but there's some real (and real terrifying) action in the mountains. I've had some of my scariest rides in the Banff and Waterton areas, where any or all of: Wind, weather, and water temperature can be downright dangerous.
Not long after my now-wife and I first got together (40 years ago... it's that old joke, if I'd just murdered her on the first date I'd be a free man now) we took the Mystere 17 up to Spray Lakes, up near Banff. The previous season I'd snapped the boat's mast (it was a jumpin' day, so after I'd been out for a while myself I grabbed a pickup crew from shore for wire meat, so our combined weight was somewhat over 400 lb. and the original mast had no spreaders/diamond wires), and the replacement mast (w/ spreaders/diamond wires) hadn't been properly sealed. So when we dumped it on Spray, it turned mushroom fast, and we had to get it to shore - with the help of a couple in some dumb tin fishing boat who probably should have just stayed clear of us - righted it, drained the mast, were more careful for the rest of the day, and after packing up made our way to a bar in Canmore for one of those hot meals you never, ever forget. Rough day, really cold, banged to shit, both of us covered in bruises, despite the wetsuits.
Suzy also rides (English), as our daughters do now too. Personally, I can't stand the damn things. Anything that big, fast, expensive, dangerously unpredictable, and inherently stupid enough to be able to kill itself by responding to a tummy ache by rolling around until its intestines twist up should be avoided until after the apocalypse when we have to return to them for transportation. A lot of our people bones (collar, arm, wrist) have been broken by those awful things, where boats have claimed none. But, as the saying goes, I digress.
At the time, in addition to her day job, she was doing some part-time at a clothing store in some mall around here for extra bucks. That week, the women she worked with needed a long talking-down from just calling the cops to report me for beating the hell out of her.
All these innocent, woman-bruising stories brought back a bad sailing memory for me.... Oh geez.
Springfield lake, East of Akron, Ohio used to be my go-to sailing place when I didn't have "Rail-Meat" (AKA Tim) lined up to crew, or for a leisurely after-work sail.
One weekend I took out the P18 to my fave little lake (Springfield) for some solo sailing. The pressure was maybe around 8-10 knts with some little gusts, so not too severe for single-handing. This also was a favorite lake for the local sailboarders.
So everyone was there. Me with the P18 and a bunch of sailboarders. All having a good time, racing back and forth.
Then the wind picked up a bit more with slightly heavier gusts. I decided to come in for a rest and some food.
The water started to get whipped up a little more, and the P18 looked anxious as a thoroughbred at the gate, jumping around on the grass.
Man... I gotta get out there! But I need some crew. So I started asking around the group of sailboarders who were resting.
This older woman piped up "I'll go!" she exclaimed. She was very athletic looking, slim, but about 70 yrs old. Others were half-heartedly attempting to change her mind about going out with me, likely they knowing her more than I did.... maybe too fragile.
She said it looked like way too much fun to pass up the opportunity to sail on a fast cat. So I geared her all up with a trap harness and vest, showed her 'the ropes,' and gave her some quick lessons on using the trapeze on dry land. She was stoked.
So off we sail... wind around 12-15 knts with some easy gusts. Pretty fun. We're zipping around the lake passing up sailboarders, some even trying to race with us. She's having an absolute blast hanging out on the trapeze.
So we head on to a broad reach, just absolutely screeching along like a good P18 does, rudders wailing, spray flying.
Weeeee!
BANG!
No time to even think "Oh dang! Here we go!"
Express catapult NOW!
The P18 pitchpoles explosively! I don't remember ever pitchpoling that cat much at all, and certainly not as violently as this pitchpole.
I got whipped forward and splashed far in front of the bows as the mast hurtled towards me.... of course I was oblivious to the mast.... I was well underwater.
Swam back to the boat, I make sure the woman is ok. She's smiling away like it was the coolest thing, but maybe a little apprehensive at the same time. Hey, she's a die-hard sailboarder.... she's had her catapults off her board as well. Just not quite as violent.
We get the cat righted and back to ship-shape, then sail back to shore.
She didn't let on that she had wrapped her upper arm around the shroud somehow as we started going over. Now, back at the beach, her upper arm was swollen and black and blue.
Now, this group of sailboarders were not the most friendly bunch to cat sailors..... you know.... it's THEIR turf, man! Or so their smugness indicated as much.
Anyway, after that group saw the woman's arm, they instantly started to blame me for hurting her. What a fiasco. "Well, we must have hit something, because there's no way that we should have catapulted like that!" yeah, yeah, yeah.... sure. You hurt our friend! Do you know how old she is?!? You should have known!
Next time sailing there with 'the group,' a sailboarding wife of a friend of mine came over and told me that the woman ended up in the hospital for damage to her bicep. Oh wonderful. Nothing like news like that to spoil sailing. I never saw that woman crew again.
Accident analysis: Looking closely at the port bow of the P18, there was very good indications of a heavy impact. A big gelcoat chip on the leading edge of the bow, just below the deck, and spider cracks radiating back. Yup. Hit something. I was thinking maybe a big turtle since we didn't see any drift wood in the water. Who knows?!
Okay, so if it's stories of pitchpoling that don't involve beating chicks up, here's mine.
The cat wasn't the first boat I owned. In my late teens I bought an Arrow, which is a little-known (good thing, really) 12' dinghy, sloop-rigged. Car-topped it on the '64 Rambler Classic for a few years around southern Alberta, BC, Montana, and Idaho. I was visiting a pal in the Okanagan (BC interior) - he was running a bar for his dad in Penticton, which is on Skaha Lake. I'd been messing around on there for a couple of days and eventually made my way to the local sailboat shop, which (like most) was a Hobie dealer. They had a used 18 for sale and didn't have a problem with taking me out for a demo. Three of us onboard - skipper and crew worked in the store, and I was wire meat (previous experience on Fireballs). It was jumpin', and we were having a great time. In retrospect, of course, those guys weren't as good at it as they should have been, because we pitchpoled hard. Boat cartwheeled, I took the trip around the forestay. When it all came to a stop and we righted it, there was blood everywhere. You know how it is out there - scratch your arm on a split ring, add water, and it looks like the French Revolution: The dude crewing had been thrown forward and slammed his face into the mast, so all the blood was from his nose.
That was the moment I decided that This is The Shit. Didn't have the cash at the moment to buy that 18, but for about the same money bought the Mystere new the following summer - just as well, I think the 18 would have been too much for me at that point, and the Mystere was a little too much, but not too too much. And I got an 18 about 20 years later anyway.
And really haven't sailed a unimaran since.
That was a lucky break (having he tiller pushed over)!Luckily, I kept hold of the mainsheet while being dragged, that tightened the main, and the tensioned trailing mainsheet hit the windward rudder arm and pushed the tiller to lee.
I was beam reaching all to hell trapped out solo on the H16 once. Thought I was securely hooked into the dogbone, but no. Heard a 'ping' and was immediately dragging behind the unmanned boat, desperately hanging on the mainsheet as it tightned to it's maximum. An H16 trimmed hard for a beam reach with no crew weight and dragging the skipper has no helm. It does not head up into the wind...it just hauls ass. I was being dragged underwater like a crankbait but managed to come up for a gasp of air and a peek at the boat now and then. Each time up I could see the windward hull was slowly getting higher as I prayed....flip, FLIP, FLIP DAMMIT! Seemed like an eternity before she finally went over.
These stories are reminiscent of Hobie Gary on the old Beachcats Yahoo Group and his Dragging Under My Boat Assisted Sheeting System...also known as DUMBASS!
These stories are reminiscent of Hobie Gary on the old Beachcats Yahoo Group and his Dragging Under My Boat Assisted Sheeting System...also known as DUMBASS!
Here is an old topic from 2005 where Gary mentions his "DUMBASS" system along with some good discussion about tethering to the boat. https://thebeachcats.com/forums/hobie-16-forum/mob-and-sailing-solo/#post-149881
And in case this topic gives the false impression that only women get "boat bruises", I present my arm after a 2012 H18 pitchpole at the Juana Good Time Regatta. Made the mistake of trying to stay on the boat by wrapping my arm around the shroud, ended up hanging by the skyward shroud for a moment.
The only problem I see with securing oneself to a tether is when being catapulted forward during an eventual energetic pitchpole. Typically, when on the trapeze, I get flung far enough forward that I don't hit anything other than water. If tethered, it's gonna hurt. Bad. And with crew on the trap as well, don't want to collide together mid-air.
An idea taken from sailplane/hang-glider reserve parachute systems might be something like a long tether strap that is very long and neatly/compactly flaked in a velcro-sealed soft containment bag so that it runs out without any drag and without snagging. The flaking would be held together with easily-broken rubber bands, stored in a low-profile velcro-closed pouch attached on the backside of the sailor's harness, and a lanyard from the strap to the harness spreader or even a separate (tree/mountain climbing?) harness with an attachment at chest level so that you're not dragged by your midsection....and break in two as you might if dragged by the trapeze spreader bar. The other end of the tether strap could be attached to a hard point in the middle of the tramp, much like a Tornado's mainsheet cleat.
The other problem is the tether(s) being eventually entangled with any other sheet or control line. Especially the crew's tether on a newer F18 where the crew many times transits a tack in front of the mast, and below the main during jibes. Line management would be a little more complicated. Well-designed bungee take-up systems would help.
But of course, we're talking about distance sailing.... not around the buoys, so tacking/jibing intervals would likely be much longer in duration, unless you're threading the needle between sand banks/channel-markers on a long distance race.