Jack Hoying brings us step by step illustrated instructions for building your own catamaran trailer and sail storage tube. The Beachcats mailing list always has lots of discussion about these expensive items, and the ongoing debate of cat box vs. storage tube is never ending. This is one sailors solution that he has agreed to share with us.

Bill Mattson, long-time publisher of the On The Wire Ezine for catamaran sailors at Catsail.com, has announced that he will no longer publish the magazine. He has generously donated all the archives and material from On The Wire to TheBeachcats.com.

I would like to formally thank Mr. Mattson for entrusting the results of years of hard work to TheBeachcats.com. I have added a link to a complete mirror of everything that was on Catsail.com to the main menu of this site. If you never had the pleasure of reading Bill's Ezine in the past, I suggest you take a look now.

16 reasons Sailing is better than *****:

1. You don't have to hide your Sailing magazines.
2. It's perfectly acceptable to pay a professional to Sail with you once in a while.
3. The Ten Commandments don't say anything about Sailing.
4. If your partner takes pictures or videotapes of you Sailing your beachcat, you don't have to worry about them showing up on the Internet if you become famous.

This is the story of my trip from Memphis Tennessee, to Navarre Beach Florida to attend "Juana's Good Time Regatta". It's just over 500 miles from Memphis to Navarre. I had never gone that far in just a weekend before, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to sail the Emerald coast one more time this season. My boat, a Hobie 18 Magnum was in good shape for the trip. Although it's an '81 model, pretty much everything on the boat has been replaced or upgraded in the 9 years I've owned it. Everything that is, but the standing rigging. As far as I know, the shrouds, forestay, and bridal wires are original equipment. The original plan was to leave early Friday morning and rendezvous with Lee (aka Capt Teach) with a Hobie 18 and Gill with a Prindle 18-2 and caravan on down to Florida...

A step-by-step illustrated guide
By Bill Mattson
First published in "On The Wire" Ezine.

If you own a Hobie Cat, you may have noticed that if you take on any water, it is virtually impossible to get it out, given the location of the drain plugs. You can raise the bows, but unless you point them straight to the sky, you are going to have some water left in the boat when you are done. Deck ports will accomodate a far more effective and convenient way to remove water.

This month, we install them in a couple of Hobie 16s. If you are even thinking about doing this, or wonder why anyone would, read on. We cover each step in detail, and give you a good idea of what to expect along the way. Let’s face it: If you are going to take a saw to your boat, you want as much information as you can get before you start cutting. This article provides fully illustrated step-by-step procedures to help you do the job right...