Hi everyone. I?m one of those guys that has taken more from this site then I have been able to contribute. I?m a newbie and bought my first cat in November after financially having to sell my ski boat. I couldn?t imagine not being on the water so I bought a ?78 Sol Cat for $600 back in November and have been restoring it since. Well I finished it up 3 weeks ago and I think it came out great. I remember reading on the forum that it was a good idea to replace the rigging but in an effort to save some cash I just inspected them and they looked fine. On the maiden voyage we had hours of fun until one of the shroud lines snapped and down came mast. My wife and I were very lucky we didn?t get hurt. I felt so stupid. Got new rigging for it and on our second time there was no wind and a temperature of 103 it was just miserable. So the wife isn?t to fond of going out any more. What do you guys think???

Before




After

Looks good.

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Rob
OKC
Pile of Nacra parts..
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[quote=kcampers] So the wife isn?t to fond of going out any more. What do you guys think???

I understand where she is coming from. Nearly getting hit my a mast isn't fun nor is bobbing around on a beach cat. All you need to do is plan it so that the winds are 10-15 kts and don't break anything and she will be hooked.

The first couple times I took my girlfriend out she was terrified but once we got back she wanted to go out again.

I would recommend finding a place you can beach and have lunch and relax. I would show her the places you can go on a catamaran that you can't get to by most other modes of transport.

Once you get the bug there is no cure for it!

Mine is the same way. She doesnt really like sailing a whole lot and would rather the winds be low if she did go out. She likes it nice and calm...I like beach launches and SPEED! She has been out on the wire and flown the hull but she just doesnt like it like i do. She mentioned that she really wanted a kayak for her birthday so i went out and got her one and another for a friend to paddle with her. Now when i go sailing she can kayak around and hang out at the beach spot. We normally take alot of people with us so there are always people on the beach she can hang out with so it all works out. Last weekend we tied a ski rope to the rear bar of the cat and i pulled her around behind us. She loved it!

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What do you guys think???

I think you should have changed your rigging! :)

Timing is everything... i would try again (when she is ready) and make sure the weather is on your side...

As TurboCat said, not everyone is made to be a cat sailor, so if she doesn't love it.. maybe there is a kayak solution so you both can enjoy the water..

OK I'm an expert here so listen closely:

I have hung my wife trussed upside down on the wire with numerous pitch poles, had her drop off when the wire snapped on a club hobie down in Key West at her dads sailing club, fallen on her during a few capzizes and we've had some spectacular arguments over the merits of flying a hull (and sand on the tramp last weekend). She grew up hating sailing because her dad was so into it dragging family around Sunfish circuit and she got sick on his Tartan 30. She does not buy into my assertion that if your not bleeding and bruised at days end you have not been sailing hard enough.

She however is a trapeze addict. She says its like flying.

So go down to your dealer and get her fitted with a comfortable harness, wetsuit and boots.

Then check your rig carefully, fix any more bad parts and get her out there on a nice steady 10-15 day. She'll be hooked..literally.

I have had a similar problem. My first real outing was with 2 of my kids and it was a fun casual race up the lake to a famous local food joint. you have to eat and sail back. Well we had great fun at first.

Then my oldest kept wanting to play with the paddle when the wind wasn't much or if tacking didn't go well(we were pretty new, still are)and he lost the paddle overboard. It was pretty light at the time and it was a $25 paddle so I sent him after it. He's 15 pretty athletic with very little body fat so of course he was cold after that.

Then we had technical difficulties in that in adjusting the crossbar between the rudders I must have unknowingly unscrewed it to far because the connection case undone. No way to fix it right on the boat would have to have tools to undo the bolts holding the adjustment end to the rudder arm. So I used the bit of line I had tied there to tie down the hiking stick when not in use and lashed it together. this actually worked pretty well but I did have re do it like 3-4 times.

Finally we called the wife who was to meet us at the beach by the restaurant and discovered that we really were not even halfway there. With our technical difficulties we decided to head into the public beach that was close to direction we were headed and she would go get the trailer.

When we were getting close to were we needed to beach the wind had picked up a lot but it was coming from right were we needed to go. being very new we were having a hard time getting an angle on the wind and were veining into the wind badley. I really didn't know what to do but was trying to get an angle to move us forward. We were frantically trying to keep the boat balanced as each attempt to get wind threatened to push us over(we thought anyway). Eventually we got lucky and a gust caught us and rocketed us into beach with a hull 2 feet out of the water. My youngest had to steer as this happened while we were trying to adjust and the stick was out of my reach. My oldest and I were hanging our upper bodies off the side holding onto the trap handles to hold the boat down. My youngest was still on the opposite side of the boat holding the cross bar trying to steer for the little spot were my wife had convinced the public beach hounds to move to side so could beach. I was grateful the shore is very shallow there so we could jump off and get the sails down.

We then had to step the mast and trailer the boat in a sandstorm on the beach.

The next regatta type event we did was just a few weeks ago and everthing was great with the boat but we had a late start and were way behind everyone. This was with my youngest and my other middle son this time. We had a great time till the first bouy. We had watched everyone else round the bouy then shoot across the lake in a good beam reach(I think). But by the time we rounded the bouy the wind had died to nothing and we were drifting. we finally were about to take a nap when the guys from our group that were in the motor boat came to see where we were. We ended up taking a tow. They had fun but they get board easily to.

Later that day when I got the wife on the boat for the first time we had great time. Just enough wind get the boat ripping along. one hull just lifting a bit but not out of the water. At least not with my 400+ lbs of balast on it. It was a quick trip because I was all ready wore out and we had to get ready for a group dinner soon. but went quite a ways out beam reach out and beam reach in. It was only about 20 min but she loved here first trip out.

It's sometime hard to convince my kids that their not gonna get stuck drifting which they hate though.



edited by: Quarath, Jul 15, 2009 - 10:31 AM

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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
Member: Utah Sailing Association
1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
1982 Prindle 16
1980 Prindle 16(mostly)
1976 Prindle 16(mostly)
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook.
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I have hung my wife trussed upside down on the wire with numerous pitch poles, had her drop off when the wire snapped on a club hobie down in Key West at her dads sailing club, fallen on her during a few capzizes and we've had some spectacular arguments over the merits of flying a hull (and sand on the tramp last weekend).

sand on a tramp can be very painful. my cat sits very high (doesnt get wet / clean easly) and i ALWATYS take a towel (before i launch, but after i am done stepping on the tramp to rig) and beat the crud out of my tramp. this is a good way to get all the sand off your trampa (and avoid grating it into your knees)

Thanks for the advice and great first time experiences. I like the towing the kayak idea. This weekend should be better and a little cooler.

Hello JP, NIce looking SC. I am in the process of getting one on the water as well.

The age old wife/sailing scenario. I am sure all of us have been in your spot at one point, myself included. I found out very quickly that though my wife enjoyed the idea of sailing,but she did not like the realities associated with changing wind & sea conditions; and it sometimes frightened her how the attitude of the boat changed as a result. The fact is sailboats break, sometimes catastrophically, and we as sailors accpet that and prepare for it. When the boat heeled more than she was comfortable with, she complained. Too fast (4ksb),she complained. Too hot & slow, she complained. It just became unenjoyable for me to do single hand the boat and listen to her at the same time.

The last time she and I were on our sailboat (monohull) together I ended up pulling into a very remote harbor so she could be picked up and taken home because getting to our destination was taking far too long for her; and it was +90 degrees and 2 knots of breeze. Believe it or not there were no bad feelings about it. I happen to believe that a motor on a sialboat is only used for docking, navigating narrow channels, and emergencies, not for motoring 20 miles to the next destination; she doesn't. It is just not her thing, and we have both accepted the fact and we are better for it. The point is it is ok to have something for yourself without feeling guilty because the admiral is not into it. Have you ever considered the only reason she is interested in sailing is because you are pushing her too hard? Let your wife know that it is ok if she does not want to go, but also advise her that you are not going to stop going either.



edited by: thekahuna, Jul 15, 2009 - 03:48 PM

Point is guys, that despite initially hating sailing and despite our mishaps, the wife has our laundry room stacked with cans of beach pop, tracks accuweather and NOA religiously, rails against any lost summer weekends, gets us out the door to make sure we are set and ready to go when the wind comes up and has to be convinced to call it a day. Usually I'm soaked and my teeth are chattering and she's going.."Just one more reach!" Its all because of the Trap. She does draw the line at anything above 15 and from the west, but that is self preservation!