Early Saturday morning I awoke to find a decent morning breeze (7-10 mph). I grabbed the only crew I could find who incidentally had never set foot on a sailboat before and set sail. Shortly there after I achieved a first for my mew boat. I got her to fly a hull. I was immediately addicted! After a short time sailing with what appeared to be ever decreasing wind we decided to return home. When we arrived the breeze freshened and instead of beaching the boat I simply exchanged crews for one equally as green and departed again just to sail in the cove in front of the house. All went fine until when as I went to come about my crew decided to join me accidental in the aft corner just as the tack was completed and the sails filled. Just an FYI with almost 550 pounds on the downwind aft corner of the tramp your catamaran will overturn. I managed to get the sails uncleated and was able to roll the boat by myself. Unfortunately my main sheet was fouled with my hiking stick and as soon as the boat righted it capsized again with the opposite hull down much to the amusement of the audience on the beach. We managed to get the lines unfouled and got the boat righted. made a few more tacks and took her in. Out of habit I pulled the plugs when we beached and had what appeared to be a couple of gallons of water drain from the port hull which had been submerged during the capsize and had a seal that wasn't seated properly in the inspection port. Replaced the seal and the plugs and returned to the water with the third different green crew.
This new crew informed me that they just wanted to ride so I attempted to oblige them and discovered that I was able to solo my new rig under all her sail in relatively light conditions. We broke out of the home cove and onto the main lake and and the wind shifted on us immediately. It went from 3-5 mph to a reported 12-15 but it seemed a lot faster than that at the time. We made several beam reach runs across the lake and back and were able to fly each of the hulls several times. On one starbord beam reach we managed to dig the port hull into a set of large wakes and nearly pitchpoled the boat but were able to recover by climbing up and back. We made two more trips across the lake and back (small lake
) and then just after coming about onto a port tacking beam reach we heard a very loud bang from the aft section of the port hull. I immediately depowered and checked on the rudder (still locked down) and felt along the hulls to see if we had hit something submerged loud enough to bang but not hard enough to feel. we completed this reach across the lake and deciding to go in for food began a starboard tacked close reach. Nearing the shore line we prepared to come about to get a better angle into the cove and when we went to shift to the port side of the tramp it sank like a lead balloon. We immediately attempted to tack back to starboard in order to reach the nearest shore but to no avail. We had taken on to much water and were going nowhere fast. We flagged down a passing party barge and sent them to the house to alert the rest of our party to bring the ski boat and tow us back in. When we reached the beach we were able to heave the boat up onto the sea wall and pull the plugs. The Port hull was draining so much water so fast we had to put the plug back in in order to reduce the suction so we could remove the inspection port cover. After she had drained the source of the problem was found. The bang we heard earlier was apparently the starboard aft portion of the port hull deck cracking from the hull. Damage is visible for at least 4 feet starting at the aft face moving forward. I will post pictures of the damage later if possible.I am still trying to figure out what caused this damage to the upwind hull in relatively light conditions. Any thoughts or ideas?
So after just getting a taste of what this is all about I have been put out of commission for the rest of the year. I just hope the Christmas bonus is enough to pay for the repairs or hull replacement.
If anyone out there has a set of solid P 18 hulls they are willing to part with cheap I will gladly take them off your hands. Otherwise I am looking for a good fiberglass shop in Arkansas or nearby adjacent states so please let me know if anyone has any recommendations.
