I named her Venora (scottish for "white wave") In just one and a half summers i have already learned some valuable lessons... Anxious to get my new boat in the water my friend and i rushed to raise the mast and get her in the water while we still had some light... after dropping and denting the mast once i found out that it was much easier to raise the mast with 3 or more people. Lesson learned. I got her in the water, rigged, and ready to go the next day. I left her moored out in the lake at my friend's house. A couple days later the boat was under water.
Apparently she had some leaks. So that ended the season. I didnt even get to sail her. lesson learned: check for leaks BEFORE you leave it moored over a couple days.
This summer gave me the chance to really sail her a lot more. The summer started with quite a few cracks on the head from the boom. Lesson learned: duck when jibing. I also found myself stranded in the middle of the lake with no wind on more than one occasion. lesson learned: bring a paddle (or 2). eventually i decided i was experienced enough to bring her in the ocean.
We decided to go out into Casco Bay, Maine to spend the night on an island about 7 miles out called Jewell Island. There were 5 of us between a small 14 ft dinghy and my cat. There was a small craft advisory that day, so we waited a little while till noon for the waves and wind to subside before we left. We got halfway there and the wind that was once too strong to sail in went away completely. We got to the island around midnight. In the pitch black, with nothing but a weak flashlight, we blindly followed an old GPS track that i had from a trip we made to the island in a motor boat the previous year. surrounded by jagged rocks there was little margin for error. It was so dark we couldnt see the land 10 ft in front of us... but we could certainly hear the waves breaking and crashing on the rocks all around us... it was slightly horrifying. My friend Jeff was so nervous he threw up. We followed the GPS track with unwavering faith, until CRASH we hit some rocks. Luckily the wind was so light we were moving slow enough that no damage occured. We landed 10 ft (approx. the margin of error on a my old gps) from our target. lesson learned: leave earlier in the day (and bring better lights) the tide was pretty low so we lugged the boats up the beach to the high tide mark and tied them off. 
At some point that night i decided to check on the boats, only to find that the tide that night happened to be a "spring tide" -an unusually high tide. the waves were beating the heck out of the boats, the little mooring lines stressed to the max, and the 14 ft boat filling with water as the waves crashed over the transom. We all scrambles to push the boats up another 10-15 ft. What a night. lesson learned: check the tides before going out over night on the ocean! The next day we packed camp and left around 5 pm (admittedly a little late) No wind. No wind at all. we paddled for hours and hours. At one point the tide was pushing us back out to sea faster than we could paddle forward. After 10+ hours we managed to make it back to the mainland, only to find out that the coast guard had been out looking for us for several hours now. Lesson learned: bring a backup motor. We got home, and while de-rigging the boat, found that both shroud wires were broken, and were hanging on by just a strand or 2 of corroded wire... luckily we had no wind in Casco Bay or we would have lost the mast! Lesson learned... ALWAYS inspect your rigging! After this experience we decided to stick to smaller day trips. which is what we did. About a month later we took Venora out again. This time we were going to sail from Rye harbor, NH to Portsmouth harbor, NH. We had a beautiful clear day with a steady breeze and 2 foot seas. We had sailed out of this harbor twice already in the past few weeks, so we were pretty confident. We had 5 people on the boat, which may seem over loaded, but they were all light weights, and besides, the conditions were perfect!
Around noon we made it to our destination: an abandoned coast guard station and light house on Wood Island at the mouth of the harbor. 
We ate lunch, explored the island, and then departed after a couple hours. We quickly accelerated to about 6-7 knots, and as we scooted passed the whaleback lighhouse WHAM! with violent crunching sounds the boat stopped in an instant, as my friend and i went flying off the front into the water. At first i thought we hit a lobster buoy and the crunching i heard was the buoy getting destroyed. I quickly realized my mistake when i climbed back on board and saw massive air bubbles and water gushing up through the starboard dagger board casing. About a minute later the starboard hull was underwater. The five us clung to the port hull, causing it to sit almost under water as well, All the while trying to steer the crippled boat away from a jagged outcropping of rocks. i reached down to feel the damage... my hand went through the hull. There was a gaping hole in my boat! The dagger board was pitched at a very strange angle and was stuck in place. Air continued to gush out and the hull sank deeper. We tried to get under way but the crippled hull was leeward, so whenever we picked up wind it would push the starboard hull 3 ft under water almost to the point of capsize. Getting under way was not an option. So we broke out the paddles and started paddling furiously for the nearest mainland beach, about a half a mile away. Acting now as a sea anchor, the tide and the current from the river pushed us all over, and paddling was futile. We were at the mercy of the currents. The boat seemed to have stopped sinking for the moment... a few weeks earlier we decided it would be wise to add floatation to both hulls by sliding in those colorful pool "noodles" through the porthole. About 40 of them, 20 in each hull. It proved to be just barley enough to keep us afloat, but it worked. Best $20 i ever spent. We also added a home-made mast float while we were at it... luckily i haven't needed it yet... We drifted out into the harbor where there was some heavier boat traffic. Despite our plight several people passed by with nothing but strange looks. Finally a kind man in a motor boat stopped and asked us if we needed help. He then towed us to the nearest beach... New Castle beach. Not wanting to get his boat close to shore he released us slightly off shore from the beach. We all jumped in and swam the boat the rest of the way. Being a beautiful warm day the beach was crowded with sun bathers and swimmers. We got some really interesting looks that's for sure! After beaching the boat, we assessed the damage: the dagger board hit a rock and was forced back tearing through the dagger board casing and tearing a huge hole in the side. We decided we could not go anywhere, so we called my friend's dad who picked us up and gave us a ride to my truck/ trailer.
We then de-rigged the crippled Venora on the beach and walked it over our shoulders about a quarter mile to the parking lot.
What an adventure. I guess not many people can say they got shipwreked and had to swim to shore
Lesson learned: bring/study nautical charts! upon further investigation we found that the whaleback lighthouse is situated on whaleback reef... just a few feet under the water at slack tide. The last inch of the starboard dagger board hit a rock causing all the damage. A week later i finished repairing it and had it back in the water where i flew a hull for the first time! I love this boat and look forward to more adventures next summer! 
Thanks for reading!
-Brian
edited by: Venora, Nov 06, 2009 - 05:00 PM
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70's 18' Sol Cat "Venora"
70's 18' Sol Cat "Bumblebee"
60's 14' Sailstar Tallstar sloop "Arandora"
Heber City, UT
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