Anyway, they divorced when I was a teenager and he moved out to Salt Lake, UT and bought himself another cat. A Nacra 5.2 - pre 1985, not sure what year. My first memory of that boat was going out to visit him one hot summer in the mid 90s and spending a really fun day in the blazing sun at a marina on the Great Salt Lake scavenging a destroyed 5.2 he ALSO bought or all the spare parts that were in working order. If I remember correctly, a microburst yanked that 5.2 off its trailer and threw it across the marina into a Miata.
I got to go out in his Nacra about 3 times, if I recall. He'd have me run jib. We were always a crew of 3, and he always got a hull flying at least a little. The last time I was out in it was 2005. I was a newlywed and he took my bride and me out for a sail at Rockport Lake. We were flying a hull good down the lake when a gust hit, the fiddleblock stuck, and we buried a hull. My dad fell of the back. I was sitting low side, saw the sails coming down at me, and bailed off the side. My dear sweet wife was determined not to let me get buried under sails, and started jumping up and down on the high hull. Somehow she countered the motion of the boat and it came back down on it's hulls, right side up.
And that was the last time my dad took the boat out. He moved back to VA in 2008 or so, and parked the boat out at his house in the woods. And there it sat. For 9 years.
Last fall I expressed interest in it, and he said I could have it if I wanted. So I got the trailer tires filled up, and towed it across town to my place. And now I own a catamaran. A Nacra 5.2 with an extra mainsail and a toolbox full of extra stainless steel hardware bits.
I work for an architecture firm where both of my business partners are sailors. One sails competitively most weekends during the season. The other is a hobby sailor that doesn't get out as often. I thought this was an excellent opportunity for me to learn. My goals are to get the boat seaworthy, and start learning. I'm a handy guy - I do home improvement and work on vintage cars, so I'm confident I can do most of the minor stuff.
I'm about to post in the repairs forum, where I'll put up photos of the boat and start asking questions. It's great to be here!
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Erik
1979 Nacra 5.2
Central Virginia
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