[quote=Edchris177][quote]- no other sailors, few people out - big wind and building waves - had to pass on sailing in big air with no support cats around [/quote]
Exactly my conditions today, not even any other boats midweek, except...Season is ending here, so I didn't pass.
Figured I'd take the Girly Cat & just stay in Home Bay. Turned into the WORST sailing day of my life. Breaking my ankle on the 6.0XL a few years ago, (but getting all summer off), was better.
The Baby Dart is a stable, quick responding little Cat. However, out on the wire seems much more precarious than my bigger rides. Anyway, I Peter Panned myself, dumped it, & got hung up for a bit causing it to turtle.
No Problemo with this little Cat right? WRONG. Lake is only 19' off the point, & I stuck the stick firmly in the bottom. Of course the damned wind died & wouldn't rotate the boat. No matter what I tried, I could not get it loose.
No joy on the radio. Figuring it might be a long wait for anyone to come by, I decided to swim a half mile to the point & walk home. I get within 200 metres of shore & a lone boat comes close enough to see the Cat & goes over to investigate. I blow Taps on my trusty whistle, they come & pick me up, & are keen to help me out. Decide to join two lines so there is enough room that if the boat flips right over it won't hit his nice SeaDoo jetboat. Long story short, jet drives don't maneuver on a dime, he sucks the tow line into the drive.
Now we are 2 dead in the water.
No one around, so I swim to shore a second time, & walk home. Drag stinkpot off lift & tow him to a pullout ramp near my house. I figure I'll drive him 20 miles to get his truck & trailer, load his boat & leave mine stuck in the mud overnight. He's keen to rescue my Cat, so we motor back, get a line over the hull, & pull the stick out of the mud. Unfortunately what I thought was a water tight mast, is not. despite towing, & me hanging on the towline we can't get it upright. as soon as we stop towing the masthead imitates Jacques Cousteau. I don't want to drag it close to shore as the bottom gets pretty rocky. Eventually we pop a shroud, pull the mast up, remove the sail, (which is very clean now), & get the mast onto the upside down Cat. By this time I've been in the water the better part of 3 hours & fingers are looking pretty pruny. However, we don't have sharks!
Finally we get some luck. A young fellow from the next lake up happens to be on a week off from U, got bored & thought he'd take the jetski down to the big lake & see if anyone from the waterski club is doing there usual Tue night runs. He kindly offers to tow the wreckage to my dock, a slow process. Turns out he's dating the daughter of one of my buddies from flight school, way back when. Small World. Near sunset I get all the extra parts off, mast on lawn, stinkpot put away, hulls tied alongside the N5.0, still upside down, awaiting some muscle tomorrow.
Anyone have any good tips on how to flip it 180*?
Small hatsize, large shirtsize problem?[/quote]
