I had a good hours sail, all the while thinking this really is too much wind to solo, I need to go on the un diet, or find more sailing buddies.
Was going to head home & decided to make one last run. I'm not quite sure how, but I slid to one side of the tramp & rolled the Cat, in slow motion. Slow enough that I had time to shout every curse word I knew (1st loud noise)as I really did not want to go swimming that day. Man, did that boat drift, I now know how one poster ended up in the middle of the sea, sans Cat. Had I let go there is no way I could have swam fast enough to catch it, though I was only appx 2 km (just over a mile) from shore, & with PFD & wetsuit could have swam to safety.
I got it mast into the wind,but couldn't quite get it to come up. Flipped the righting bag over, filled it, mistake #1, if you are almost able to right it solo, just use a gallon or two of water. Hike out, BAMM, she lept to her feet, so fast in fact that I missed the Tarzan grab, & with nary a pause she kept right on going, over on the downwind side. With the sail acting as a sea anchor it turtled in seconds.
Noise #2, much more loud profanity. Wrestled her back on her side, mast again into the wind, righting line with attached bag now under the boat & a real bytch to pull it out against the drift. Finally got that problem fixed, a gallon of water in & pulled her up. This time I was ready, Tarzaned the V brace, braced a leg over the beam & flipped myself aboard. I'm amazed I stayed up right as the now dragging bag had turned us well off the wind. The mainsheet had tied itself in a knot, & worse the slack lines between the blocks had tangled to where I couldn't release the main. I headed up with the jib & flipped the S hook out of the mainsail clew. I was now down to only 2 problems, first the dragging bag was out between the hulls & kept turning me to a beam reach, whence the jib would pull like mad, & second, I had to get on the very downwind corner of the tramp to get hold of the bag, coming close to flipping again.
I finally released the jib totally & let it flog like mad, got hold of my collapsing line on the bag & hauled it up between the tiller tie bar & rear beam. I drug it as far as I could & secured it with a short piece of line, then started getting the boat sailable.
Finally got things straightened out & headed for home. The sail sounded funny, looked up & one long batten is hanging halfway out of the pocket, allowing the leech to vibrate. Somehow the little plastic gizmo at the end had broken off. I was worried about the batten ripping through so sheeted out right to the shroud, keeping just enough tension so it wouldn't fall out. This made for a rather fast reach home. Man was I glad to round Vic point into the more protected bay. Looking up the readings from the weather buoy it showed 40, gusts to 50 clicks, (24-30 mph) while I was there.
Sailed directly onto my neighbors 20' beach, dropped the rags & got his son-in-law to help drop the mast.
I heard the 3rd noise on the way in, it was a Fat Lady & she was definitely singing! Done like dinner for this season, my traveler is jerry rigged,both rudder bungies now shot, battens need fixing, tramp retightened, mast ball is showing cracks, & sail needs a few stitches.
Of course a few hours later the place was dead calm, you can see a lady in a rowing scull. I grabbed several cold Grolsch, sat on the dock & contemplated my first season of Beachcat sailing. I put in 40 days, all in all it was way more fun than my Invitation ever was. My cat looks sad sitting on the lift sans mast, rigging, rudders. Time for dissasembly & winter storage.
Edited by Edchris177 on Oct 21, 2010 - 01:23 PM.
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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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