John & I loaded up for Tradewinds yesterday:




The best part about loading up when it's only 25 degrees?
Your beer never gets warm.

Thats a LONG drive from Detroit! I am impressed.

It will take you three weeks to get down here?

Yeah, we're driving them down behind a lawn mower

John's driving down between the holidays and leaving the rig at Gilbert's. (He works for GM and has that whole week off.) He'll fly back after New Years. We'll both fly in for the regatta and he'll drive the rig back on MLK day.

Just make its a John Deer, I heard they are great on gas mileage.

PTP and Robi...
Even though I'd rather go to CA over the holidays, FL is the next best thing and it's less than 1/2 the drive. Beer is slushy when it's below 32 but still goes down smooth. Looking forward to getting warm, racing and curing my SAD

John Bauldry
Hobie Tiger #1704
Clarkston, MI

I am going to do Rick's cat course in april in Key Largo and from where I am in Fl, it will still be an almost 12 hr drive.

John: You look like your dressed for the Madcatter.
You and Matt missed a good party Saturday night.

Pat...

I thought you needed to be dressed in a drysuit, full gloves, full booties and thermal hood for MC? Ah...but rum doesn't get slushy or freeze. I'll be there for the XXXth.

JB

Just the you native California boys and Puerto Ricans dress like that.

That's a very good movie by the way

Wouter

OK... I give, I can't remember the name of the film... but I seem to remember that it was somewhat out of the director's style (wanted to say Kubrick... but I checked and I don't think so)..
GOT IT... It was "The Straight Story" and it was done my David Lynch- and as I said... somewhat "normal" movie from a guy that gave us Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive

Indeed it was the "Straight story" and it is definately out of character for mr Lynch and it is better for it.

Wouter

Hey Johnny E,

I know your no stranger to road trips, just for fun, here is a photo of Erika & I driving down in 02.

She was 7 at the time!!!! The only time she would drive was on the long straight roads of SC, GA, FL

see you there bro!!!

T

Srtill looking for an F18 to borrow, steal or charter

while we are on the subject- what do you do to your boat for such a long trip? Do you take off the tramp (seems like a large pain in the butt)? Any hints?

I found this old thread- anyone want to add anything?
http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...amp;Main=27405&Search=true#Post27725

TK - we would have triple stacked, but JB's trailer wouldn't handle the load. Even with just the two boats, the sailbox is jammed - you know John likes to bring spares of everything (3 jibs?!!).

All we did to the boats was strip all the running / standing rigging off them. My boat has the original trampoline (slides into slots in the hulls) that's a pain to undo/redo. John could have taken his tramp off, since he's got the new system, but then again, there was no room left in the sailbox for it.

The boats / masts will be filthy dirty when they get to FL, but it's nothing a little soap, a hose and some elbow grease can't take care of. Covers are a no-no because they flutter.

TK - Nice pic. Where was it taken?

PTP - I've hauled single, double and triple stacks from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from Canada to Mexico and have shipped boats overseas to Australia and Singapore. I can tell you one thing...neccessity is the mother of invention. I've seen penta-stacks (5 boats) and one trailer that had seven Hobie 17's on it. We've done everything from removing tramps, wrapping hulls/crossbars in pallet wrap to full on disassembly. Road trips are fun and full of adventure. We've been called crazy for being road warriors but it's part of being dedicated to a sport and lifestyle. FL is a short drive in the scheme of things. The boats will just need a bath when we get down there. A clean boat = a happy boat = a fast boat.

MPB - Granted, sailbox is FULL but I still have plenty of storage in the back of the truck.

You guys are stirring up memories - granted your sailing history is deeper than mine, but I remember fondly my first trip down to Tradewinds. Christy Newkirk was two weeks old. We had a triple-stack behind an RV (the same one I subsequently drove for a Worrell 1000 campaign) and I was wide-eyed at all the cool people... I've gotten to know some of you a lot better since then.

Looking forward to heading down again in a few weeks. I need to get ANYTHING other than a red flag this year - that is my mission. I'm not complaining, really - I just need a BLUE flag for some variety! Always a bridesmaid and whatnot.

Glad you guys are coming south - I live near I-95, now, so if you need to sleep some, stop on in. We're pulling out early Friday morning.

no pressure...yikes. We'll do what we can John! I'm working on the boat (but you're not going to like my spinnaker halyard...Why can't there be standards on the diameter of a 3/16" and a 1/4" line?)

See, Jake - you could learn a lot from the people that have had me as crew before. Instead of saying something like, "you're not going to like this halyard..." they would say something like, "I have a new halyard set up that is the latest-greatest. NOBODY else is going to have this, John. You can deal with it, right?"

When I sailed with Mark Smith on the 6.0 some time ago, he told me about this awesome line he was using for the downhual - absolutely ZERO stretch stuff. What he MEANT was that he still had his original line off a Prindle 19 from 1984. Anyone who's sailed with Mark remembers that line, which we affectionately came to call, "The Saw."