I am vacationing in Duck, NC in a few weeks. I am going to sail on the sound but wanted to see if there was any near by beach access to launch my H14. I will have my cattrax to move some distance but did not see that there was a place to do this. Does anyone have any experience ocean sailing in Duck/Corolla that can pass on some tips?

Hey there,

Check in with Jon Britt at the Nor'Banks Sailing
Center right there in Duck (soundside) - he'll
know where if any place is accessable.

Or you may want to call him ahead of time...

(252) 261-2900
or 261-7100

Norbanks is definitely the place to go in Duck.

If you're brave enough to go oceanside, you could always drag your trailer up to the end of the highway and launch off the beach.

Here is their website
http://norbanks.com

Woohooo, some company! Cat sailing is starting to get lonely out here on the OBX. Definitely talk to Jon, he may even let you keep your boat at the Nor'banks sound access for the week.

Thanks - hopefully I will have some winds during the summer duldrums this year. I plan to be back in the fall if I can get some beach access figured out next week.

The town of Duck has no public beach access. Check out Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, or Nags Head beaches for access. Or you can look into what Tad said about launching north of the paved road in Corolla.

I miss sailing at the OBX <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

This real-world-life crap needs to end so I can get back to more important things like flipping my boats over on the beach and breaking their masts :P

MauganH17 - snapping the mast and all sorts of nefarious things make me reluctant to sail ocean side on OBX. I am leaving the Tiger at home and bringing the beater H14Turbo... The lack of any type of sailing rig out in the ocean in Duck raised my concern - not just beach access in my many trips down there. I am hoping for a good shore breeze to knock down some waves and give me a good day of ocean sailing without totally scrapping the 14. Am I missing some important concern? I have launched the H14 in the ocean in FL and SC without incident in the past.

I think Maugan left the boat unsecured on the beach and the wind blew it over.

Maugan and I had our boats beached on the soundside for a night. We came back the next day and his had blown over, snapping the comptip.

Too bad you didn't have the H14 out yesterday. The little breeze we got from the tropical storm brushing us would have been fun. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Derek speaks the truth. Sad part was that I couldn't get her out on the water the day I set her up. The hook just wouldn't engage on the halyard ring. It was divine intervention though, because as soon as I gave up trying, a huge dark and stormy rolled over the horizon and blew in some 40+ knot gusts. Derek, who was out with his friend in the sound at the time, comes blazing into the beach, and runs all the way up to the marsh grass bank, where the boat stops, but his mast kept going :P

Luckily for him it was only a shroud. So we are scrambling around in this thunderstorm trying to get the boats unrigged and not get struck by lightning at the same time. The beach we were keeping it at was in Nags head, and I was staying in Currituck, about a 45 minute drive away. So I left the boat on the marsh grass bank thinking it would be ok, but little did I know that there were nasty T-storms blowing through that night as well, with a suspected tornado touchdown in the area. Came back and the boat was on its side (on its wing no-less) and the crap-tip had broken off where it met the extrusion.

Bad karma day all around because my truck lost its brakes later that day and I spent the rest of my week's vacation in the driveway of the rental house replacing my brake master cylinder.

Thanks for the postings. I will be out next week in the H14 with sail #007. I am leaving the Aston Martin at home <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />