Well the weekend went great.

I got the boat in the water and left it on the mooring for 4 days with a bridle attached to keep it pointed to the wind. It was a pain having to get a ride out there everytime i wanted to sail with the sails but it all ended up good.

I bought some silicone sealant and some other stuff for the mast, and before I went out I checked to see if it was sealed. I saw sealant around all the holes and we shook it to see if there was any water in there (it had been sitting on the ground all winter (Im not sure who moved it)) but it was bone dry and the sealant I had took 10 days to set. So we threw her on.

Note to the real n00bs here: Dont try to mast with the boat on a trailer. WOW its a lot harder. Anyways we got that to work.

So I went out and had everything flowing well. I was out solo since no one else in my family really knows how to sail at all, and I wanted to figure out the baot. I had a great time. The thing is really hard to tack but I think Im getting the hang of it. I learned a lot from the 2002 Hobie U book that I found online.

So the wind was light <5 so I dinked around then It died. I couldnt decided whether or not I should go in so my parents came over (on the pontoon) and aksed me what I was going to do. I told them I might as well stay out but to give me a walkie talkie so I could call them if the wind never came back up or I got in trouble.

Good thing I did!

They stayed out for a while but eventually went back in. I stayed out and the wind started to pick up to probably around 12knots. So I finally got a chance to get the boat up and hauling!

Its so sweet! Wow Its so much fun! Flying a hull is one of the coolest thigns ever.

One thing that I didnt anticipate was that there is not a linear progression of lift on the hull as it pulls out of the water.

As I took the hull out, what I think happened was the wind grabbed the front and back tramps and just lifted the whole boat right up and over without any real warning (at least as I can tell in hindsight). As soon as the boat whent over, the mast started sinking like a rock and within 10 seconds I was underneath the turtled boat. I kept my cool and untangled myslef and swam out to the other side of the boat.

In the process of flipping Id managed to get the walkie talkie out and say "Help help come get me come get me" before Id gone totally underwater (and ruined the walkie talkie).

Id tried to install a righting line, but Didnt know how to do it, but tried a very ghetto rig anyways. What I ended up doing was grabbing the jib line and using that to pull from since one end of it was tied to the hull.

So they came over. Luckly I had left the main halyard tucked into the tramp so I just pulled that out and got on the pontoon boat and pulled the boat up to sidways. Then my dad just walked up the mast as I pulled on the jib line, and It came right back upright no problem.

I sailed it a few more times. It was very very sweet. I didnt flip it again. I have a q im going to ask in a different threat.

Overall Im very suprised by how fast it flipped and by how easy it was to get upright again. I need to figure out the righting line thing, for sure.

Im very glad I kept my cool and didnt freak out and drown or anything.

Comments? Thoughts?