First sail woes

[Lost Lake]

I promised I would write of the first time out with CP-19 #22, and here we go----

She really is a regal old gal, rightfully described as being in 'pristine' condition, all original, and well equipped. Having moved up from a Lone Star 13, I was a bit apprehensive about the first time out, however I was told a sloop is a sloop is a sloop, and if you can sail one you can sail them all.... I don't believe that now...

At home on Lost Lake, the winds were moderate at about 15 knots steady. A brisk sail it would have been on the Lone Star, but the CP has a keel! Should be a cake walk I believed! So we loaded the boat with a cooler of drinks, three kids and a first mate and headed out to the much larger lake nearby, Green Lake.

Green Lake is the deepest body of water in Wisconsin, and I must admit I had toyed with the idea that the authorities may have a difficult time finding my body at the bottom if things really went sour, but that was ludicrous! I would be fine. I did not hook up a better system for the extension trailer tongue yet, but I could see how useful it will be just from picking up the boat a week before. I pulled into the loading ramp area and went into the marina to get a chart of Green Lake.

The boys at the marina told me I would have no problems going aground if I stayed 100 feet from shore, and looking at the chart I noted I would be in water between 60 feet and 200 feet deep almost anywhere I went. So back out to the boat I went and began preparing for launch.

Setting the mast was pretty easy, and I put the main on the boom and clipped a jib on the forestay. As the entire package was new to me, I took the jib that I thought was the working jib, but would later find out was more like a 120% jib. Note to any new purchasers: Take out each sail and clearly mark the sail bag for reference!!

Winds were more brisk at Green Lake, blowing from the south toward the north ramp, in other words right at us. I backed the boat in the water and set her free, and there she sat, the keel must have caught on the rear roller. I wiggled her around, I pulled the trailer forward but that just lifted the boat. I probably should have activated the 'Magic Tilt' at this point, but instead I backed up further until the exhaust sounded like an outboard (and this is with my Dodge 3500 with over-sized tires!) I was able to coax the ship from her chariot and parked the trailer.

Now comes the really stupid part, and I should have known better. I will never do this again----

I loaded the family and started the motor and proceeded to back out of the ramp. Heck, it's a 10 horse motor! It will move the boat just fine right? Not really. I was barely making progress, and when the boat cleared the dock, all hell broke loose. The wind was blowing strong, the boat had no rudder authority, and I was struggling with tiller, motor direction of thrust, and just hoping to keep backing out through the docks on one side and the boats on the other. When I was about 150 feet from the ramp, not quite enough to put the motor in forward and effect a turn to go the way the boat was designed, the motor jumped up out of the latch! The prop was in the water yet, by about 6 inches, but had no thrust to speak of. The boat was immediately blown back toward the ramp, at an angle though, away from the pier but toward several other docked boats. We were slowly drifting toward a houseboat and I scrambled to figure out the motor mount latch that held the outboard up. I worked the tiller, instructed my wife to man the bow and brace for impact. I kept the outboard running and was able to just miss the houseboat by a foot, but did collide with a pier. It was our good fortune that this pier was much less substantial than most others and it flexed a good foot as it greeted our new boat. My wife gave a mighty shove at the pier and we bounced away from it by several feet. This was my chance and I knew I'd either take it or get blown into the next boat.

I hung over the stern and yanked the motor up, grabbed and pulled on the mount and the motor fell on my thumb pinching it and drawing blood, but it was down! I grabbed forward gear, gave tiller hard to starboard and full power to the motor. We missed the rest of the pier by several feet, and with the rudder hard over and the motor hard over we came about with room to spare past 270 degrees of wide eyed bewildered looking faces.

I was shaking, my kids were worried about my bleeding, and my wife just sat on the bow catching her breath. We were in the open, the motor was running, and we were making about 2 knots into a heck of a wind. This was the calm part of the lake.

As we got out a bit from the narrow landing area, the wind really had some room to multiply its force. There were whitecaps everywhere, and the 19 would come up on a wave and fall down on the next wave with a boom that shook the boat terribly. After what I just went through, I was not about to raise a sail and learn any more tricks today! Spray would come over the bow and the sides of the boat on almost every wave, the jib was crawling up the forestay even though it was bungied into a ball on the bow, and the kids were yelling and whooping everytime a blast of water hit them. No, today the sails would stay down.

We motored out a half mile and turned around. I waited until the waves were kind of clumped together to execute my turn, the really big swells looked like they would swallow us whole. We motored back and forth getting a feel for the boat, charging the battery and probably looking like idiots. After a good hour of this, we trusted the boat wouldn't sink, I taught my wife how to man the tiller, and I took down the sails. We headed back to port.

While slowly motoring into the docking area we assessed the wind, the way it pushed the boat, the way we couldn't stop on a dime under motor power. We made a test run 100 feet out. We measured the turning radius. We made an approach and decided it was too fast and rounded back out. A speedboat then zipped around us and docked at the only logical place for us to dock so we sat and made circles, again looking like idiots to the locals I'm sure, but we needed that big open space that ran perpendicular to the wind. Finally with other boats crowding us, the boat in our way moved and we moved in for a landing. I brought the boat wide, stayed out 30 feet windward of the pier and the wind drifted us to the pier. A quick poke on the throttle slid us close, and then slowed us against the wind. A nice gent on the dock helped grab a line and we gently bumped the dock with two bumpers on the starboard side.

We got her on the trailer with much wind fighting, and several people commented on their love of sailing and how they liked our boat as we prepared to take down the mast. A young man approached and asked how the sailing was and I admitted I never raised a sail. He told me he sailed in college in the Gulf of Mexico and he wondered how we did because he would not have sailed in such a wind. That made me feel so much better knowing a seasoned sailor wouldn't have gone out in this wind. Before that I thought I was just a big chicken, even though we did not see any other sailboats on the lake, all were moored in the bay on this day.

I hope to get out again this weekend, in calmer 10 - 15 knot winds. I also know which bag has the 80% jib, and I'll be starting with that to get the feel of the boat.  I know if you read this you are shaking your head and wondering if I realize all the mistakes I made, and if I learned everything I could have, and I think I did. I have started reading my third book on sailing now, and coupled with my past years with the Lone Star, I'm more prepared mentally for the next time out. Wish me luck!

[arw-16]

It all sounds familiar.  Education is expensive no matter how we get it.

Best of luck.  There will be better days.

[DOUG142]

LOST LAKE,
WE KEPT LOOKING FOR YOU ON BROWN'S LAKE DOWN HERE IN BURLINGTON, WI.  WE took our CP-16 out for the first time Saturday 7/7/07 with our new FX sails.  Great boat and I love it.  Handles great and rides so much better than our old sailboat a Newport 19.5 Holiday.

Sorry to hear of your misadventures.  Ours amounted to sunburn and feet getting stuck in the mud bottom as we are not used to a shoal draft keel and getting back into the boat after stopping for a break was interesting.  Other than that everything went reallly well and we both love the CP 16.

Hope to see you on one of our wonderful lakes... Lake Delavan is next  this Saturday or Sunday.

Happy sailing,
Doug142
CP16 Number 1994 Name: SUMMER ESCAPE

[Lost Lake]

Hmmm.. Lake Delavan? I'll have to look that one up!

[Craig Weis]

You did fine, Lost Lake. Some of the stories here remind me of the stuff I have been through. I may have sailed with just the head sail once clear of all things to run into. Reef the main. I'll bet that your main has the jiffy reef system, but I'll also bet the main has zero reefing lines through the grommets used to tie the reefed main to the boom. Make these long enough so they can easily be tied around the boom. Glad the day was so enjoyable. Remind the wife that she is not a fender.
Same wind in Sturgeon Bay too. skip.

[Paul]

Lost Lake:

What a story, wow.  Believe me, it's happened to the best of us.   Sure it seems like the onlookers make it worse.

I think Mark Twain is credited with this:  A man who carries a cat by the tail, learns something he can learn in no other way.

[Paul]

All may benefit from a link in the "Article" section of this site.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[Lost Lake]

You know Skip, I don't know how to reef the main! I am just finishing the book by Burgess that Gerry tipped me off to, and he doesn't say how the main reefs either. My little Lone Star did not reef at all, and the 19 has no reef points, so perhaps it roller reefs?

I half-heartedly looked for bearings or something that would allow such a system, but Burgess says to pull on the boom and turn it. I'll look for that system next.

[fafnir]

Hi lost lake,

I remember my first time coming in to the dock during my first sailing lesson.  I took a group lesson on a Catalina 23, it was a very windy day.  The wind was blowing straight into the slip I was told to head for and the motor was running.  This being my first time at the tiller and all I wasn't really sure what to do.  I put the motor to idle a good 40 yards before the entrance of the slip figuring we were certainly moving fast enough that the motor was no longer needed.  I figured we would start slowing down,  that was not the case, the boat kept moving along at 4-6 knots,.  I felt the panic look come across my face, I think the instructor forgot he had a newbie at the helm or wasn't paying attention.  Just as we were entering the slip I remarked... um... aren't we going a little fast??? This shook him to attention and he screamed REVERSE NOW!!! I clicked the motor into reverse but with it idling so low and with how fast the water was going buy the motor it died instantly.  I won't forget for a long time the crashing sound as that sailboat hit the dock and went up and over it mostly and then slid back into the water.  Needless to say the crashing sound and the site of a sailboat coming out of the water certainly attracted quite an audience at this marina.  Fortunately no real damage was done to either the dock or the boat other then some scratches in the gell coat, so don't feel alone when it comes to mishaps either at the dock or the ramp.  We have all been there done that. 

--

[Lost Lake]

Thanks for sharing that sad story fafnir, I'm glad I'm not theonly one to 'screw up' in front of  a crowd, although you were under the direction of the instructor, so technically you were not to blame...

I just hope that was my last big mistake.

[DOUG142]

Lost Lake,
Great story and like everyone has said.....we've been there , done that. 

Glad to hear your thumb is healing okay...you going sailing this coming Sunday?  Summer Escape, my CP16 will be on Lake Delavan, Wi  Sunday...should get there around 8 A.M.  or so... it is just off I-43 down towards Lake Geneva....but I won't go on Lake Geneva because they average 50 or so accidents there a year due to rent a speed boat people that have no idea of rules of the water way.... pretty dangerous, that and add several drinks and beers in these same people...
Anyway, we will be at Lake Delavan Sunday....
Would be great to meet you ..
Glad to hear your boat and you are doing okay.
doug142

[Lost Lake]

Thanks for the offer, but we have plans to sail Beaver Dam Lake this weekend, and I am putting in a new electric service for a friend this weekend. I'll just be able to squeeze some sailing in if I'm lucky!