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.

--
Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
--

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.

Quote

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

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!

--
Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

How To Create Your Signature

How To Create Your Own Cool Avatar

How To Display Pictures In The Forums.
--

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

--
Tornado (80's Reg White)
Prindle 18-2 (sold)
Dart 16 (hired and hooked)
13 mtr steel cutter (sold)
Etap 22, unsinkable sailing pocket cruiser.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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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!

--
Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
--

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!

--
John

Nacra 5.0
CT
--

I agree. Keep it going for sure.

--
Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
--

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.

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Sheet In!
Bob
_/)_____/)_/)____/)____/)_____/)/)__________/)__
Prindle 18-2 #244 "Wakizashi"
Prindle 16 #3690 "Pegasus" Sold (sigh)
AZ Multihull Fleet 42 member
(Way) Past Commodore of Prindle Fleet 14
Arizona, USA
--

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!!!

--
Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
--

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....

--
H16 back in the day
SC17 right now
Bradenton, FL
--

Quote

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.