>>>This might not be a factor in your area, but where I live there is no way to Ocean launch from the beach because of Sea Turtle protection. If you can carry it down to the waters edge everything is fine…but there is no way to move a 400 lb assembled boat from the parking lot to the water (unless you are going to bring six people to carry it in the soft sand…no cat trax...and if you could find a place wide enough for it to pass thru.) The alternative is to sail it out the inlet which was fine years ago (like I did with my h-14)…but now when the fishing tournaments have as many as 400 boats (plus at least that many in normal traffic) it is hard to thread the needle with a power boat let alone a un-powered sailboat. Add to the mix trying to tack into the predominately on-shore wind, and tacking against a 5 mph tide when it is comming in. You soon come to the reality that there is no where to go in this constricted waterway.

>>>Regards,
>>>Bob [/quote]

We certainly don't go out by choice in 30kt conditions but we have been caught a couple of times. Definatly not fun but it can and does happen. We usually don't go out if the wind is above 20 kts (dry sand starting to lift off the beach).

We don't have the turtle problem here. The boats are stored in the yard and we only have to put up a jib & main and roll it down the beach (less than 50m) and we go sailing.

I guess it is all about why one goes sailing. For me, it is racing - we race, and when we are not racing, we are working on improving our skills and doing things better for when we do race. Just sailing about bores me to tears <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />. I can see that for some people it is totally the opposite. Bottom line is - enjoy what you are sailing and respect that your boat doesn't necessarily suit everybody!

Tiger Mike