hi there!

I wrote almost two months ago about my old hobie 18 magnum. I discovered that she's from year 1986 and now shes back in the water again after laying three years on dry land. I feel bad about that, but I will put her back in her old shine! I promise. Anyhow, I have few questions for you guys and gals.

First.
Have any of you sailed with a smaller sail. I mean if there is a hard wind have you tryed to use for example hobie 16 main sail? If yes, how was it? If not, why not?

Second.
The shore where I keep the boat is not the most comfortable after few hours sailing. It is a sandy beach, but it is so small and low that I can't keep the boat in there. So I have to lift/drag her on top of this rocky slope. The slope it self is not too steep and to get the boat in to the water is quite ok, but to get it up again...POOH! That's a mission almost impossible!
So far i have used wood which is covered with old carpets underneath her. Every time when i have to move her I make the carpets wet and i put some soap on them. But still it's too much. Have any of you made some cradles/sledges/something to make this thing easyer/safer? And how did you do it? I would appreciate if you guys have some pictures...

Third.
Since the summer, here in Finland is officially started! wohoo (sunny, +15 deg, water temp. +7, wind 0) I want to wish all of you nice winds and a lot of fun on the sea!

For transportation, most sailors use a set of beach wheels. There are many types, but here is one of the better solutions.

http://store.catsailor.com/tek9.asp?pg=products&specific=jscprreqg

If the ground is very lumpy, perhaps you can make a set of ramps to wheel your boat up again.

Putting a Hobie 16 mainsail on your Hobie 18 mast will probably not be a good solution for high-wind sailing. The mast bend characteristics is different, so you will probably end up with a very deep mainsail which is not what you want in high winds. The mast might also be at risk as it is not designed for the new load paths.

Reefing your mainsail can be a solution, but it's not something done often. Gary Friesen (who frequents this forum) have lots of experience on refing and general "survival sailing" under diverse conditions..

Depending on wind strength, a cat have several de-powering techniques that can be used. Of witch lots of downhaul and correct mast rotations are the premier ones. The wise thing to do, is to accumulate your experience on strong-wind sailing gradually. Begin with a check on your mast, be 100% sure that it is waterproof. Then rig a righting line, and practice righting your boat. Also dress according to water temperature.

There have been some nice discussion on high-wind sailing sailing on this forum earlier, doing a search might be worthwhile if you want to read about different techniques and theories.

As you live in Finland, I guess the wind is either "on" or "off" with nothing much in between?

I use PVC pipe to get my N5.2 on and off the beach. Get three 10-footers of 3-4". I can easily move my boat around with these. At low tide, there is quite a step up to the normal beach area where the PVC will hang up in the sand, but the boat will still slide fairly easily on the round surface until I get it to the flatter area. I'm not sure how well this will work in the rocks you talked about. You may need to go with a bigger diameter pipe.

-Rob
Panama City
Nacra 5.2

Thank you for these. It is really true that the wind in here is eather on or off and it changes very rapidly too.

Hi Nicholas:

Good luck with your Magnum! it's one terrific beach boat that can take a lot of abuse. I would try to limit the amount of dragging on the bottoms, though, because doing a bottom job should probably be done at the end of a year, but you really don't want to start seeing it wear through the fiberglass meshing.

If you leave the boat laying on the beach, I woud cover the tramp with a tarp.

The advice about the downhaul and mainsheet is correct in higher winds; you let the traveler out to depower the sail. I use a square top that I had built at Calvert for anything under 9 knots.

Any thoughts to buying a set of cat trax?

Wyatt

thank you!

yes, well the cat trax is a bit problematic. I have to anyhow pull the boat off from water. It wouldn't be a problem if it would be on the beach but after 1,5 meter sand area there comes a slope which is full of stones. Not big ones but big enough that these cattrax tires goes in between them. Since i sail mainly alone i was thinking to build a cradle which I can move for example with winch.

OK, you just reminded me of a story I read by Hobie Gary... he posts on this site and beachcats group at yahoo regularly. He does several Catalina trips a year where he has had to use a winch to pull his Mystere6.0 far enough up the beach so it doesn't wash out with the tide. You could try contacting him or look up some of the past article in the e-zine "On the Wire" about some of his trips.

Gary... you out there? Any ideas?

Nicolas. Why not nail together a pair of planks and lay them over the rocks. Then you have a nice ramp to wheel your boat over. Put them under your boat when you are done, and nobody will notice..

Isn't the 18 a handful to solo? Have you tried to right it solo? If not, you should check the archives of "On the Wire" (available on http://www.thebeachcats.com) and look for Gary's SoloRight. I dont thing he sell them now, shipping was to expensive, but a SoloRight is what you need.

Yes, she's a handful! So far I have take'n her out in light to moderate winds and now when I found me a nice, sporty girlfriend I have a companion for time to time:) But anyway, thank you for the tip of this pole. It will come for need, though I have so far capsized her only ones.
Anyway, the problem with wood under wheels is that the slope is still steep enough in that sence that after three hours sailing my physical condition might be too litle. (yes, have to admit) That's why i was planning to do this lifting system, so that I don't need to use so much power:)

At one time, Gary was using a couple inflatable boat bumpers to roll the boat over the small rocks on Santa Cruz island. I think he used his mainsheet to pull the boat. Larger rock present a different problem. Maybe combine the idea of wood planks, along with some type of rollers and a winch or something similar to pull it with. Either way, it'll ammount to considerable effort to get that 300+ lbs up the rocky hill with one person.
Jack