Halloween Weekend Sail in Charleston SC

[crbakdesign]

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   A sail in Charleston Harbor had been on my mind since I purchased my new '82 CP –19 four months ago.  When I got her she was docked in the local marina without a trailer. Her name was the "Steadfast", which I decided was a good name for a CP-19, so I kept it.   The lake is only 5 miles from the house, but from October to April the Army Corp of Engineers pulls the plug on the dam and the lake becomes a puddle.  Since we are pretty landlocked here in Atlanta, my intention was to find or build a trailer to pull her out of the water and travel to the coast.

 I ran across and had bartered my old outboard motor for a relatively new and strong trailer, made for one of them flat speedboats. I added two more cross braces out of the same steel channel and added two more rollers.  I'm not the best welder, but with a bit of practice the frame came together.  Not ever having seen the hull or a CP-19 trailer up close, I made most of the bunk fittings located temporarily with setscrews and clamps.  In October, with both fingers crossed and a bow to the heathen lake gods (in case there were any lurking around) and with my eyes shut, we pulled her out of the lake with my 4 cylinder Ford Ranger.   Luckily for us, the bunks, cross beams and rollers were just a little high in the back on both sides and there was just enough weight forward of the axel to provide traction so she came out fine.  Once on dry land I jacked up the keel and lowered the bunks so that the weight of the hull would be primarily on the keel. For the next three weeks I adjusted the trailer, sanded and painted the hull and otherwise got her ready for travel.  At the suggestion of our friends, we decided to test the trailer out with a weekend excursion to Charleston SC.  Charleston has a wonderful harbor, great restaurants, and lotsa gift shops, which the crew liked. Beautiful historic Charleston is about 300 miles due East via the highway and the trailer and boat did great behind my sailing buddy's old '89 custom van.

I'd sailed before in Charleston harbor a number of years ago in my old 15 ft. center boarder, an Advance "Demon", from the early 60's.  She was a light planing hull racer, similar to a Flying Dutchman.  Even though I had 4 adults aboard then, the winds were so strong; I had to sail without the jib to keep from getting knocked down. The morning of our sail was cool, even brisk, but the sun was shining and we were ready to go.  We got to the City Harbor marina and my buddy and I began to rig the mast.  The rest of the crew went looking around while we got ready.  I took my time and after an hour was satisfied that everything was shipshape and ready to launch.  I was feeling very impressive standing in the back of the cockpit as we backed slowly to the launch ramp, but that changed when we arrived and I was looking down at the mud at the end of the ramp.  The tide had gone out and there was no way we would ever get Steadfast into the water there.  I felt very stupid way up there with my sails flapping, having ignored the tide and not looking carefully at the depth. My old "Demon" drew only 6 inches loaded so the tide didn't occur to me!

I felt even sillier when I realized the only ones watching me were a bunch of yacht brokers in blue blazers hanging around a nearby dockside bar.  I went over to them and finally one offered to give me some direction.  "Not from around here, aye?   Across the Ashley River turn right and go to the first bridge over the Wappoo Cut and you'll find a deep public boat ramp just right for a sailboat."

After that we were afloat in less than a half hour.  The winds had picked up some as we motored out of the Cut and raised sail.  The winds were blowing strong from the North East, and we raced out towards Fort Sumter.  It was sunny but cool in the 18-20 mph wind, and after a while hats and jackets were donned and hot chocolate passed around.  We sailed upwind on a port tack for the entire leg with a few dolphins splashing in the distance and an occasional sailboat or ferry going in or out of the marina. We were in big company!  Most were 30 to 60' sailboats sailing hard and occasionally very close to us.  In the distance there was a cal 22 which had all three of its crew perched up on the gunnels as the mast nearly dipped in the waves.  Steadfast was sailing hard too, but with very little heel.  Occasionally I would have one or two crew move to the windward side but by and large we did well with an occasional crash down on the backside of a swell.  My GPS was showing 5.2 knots of speed and the wind speed had to be nearly 25 mph.  There was a current running, but I had no idea how fast.

I had intended to stop at Ft. Sumter, but apparently there is no place to tie up and not having a dingy, we decided to continue on.  We sailed past the fort, giving the folks on the ferry a blast of our horn and then headed back on a starboard tack past Shutes Folly Island to Old Town Charleston. We crossed over the wake of a big freighter on the way in and passed all sorts of interesting craft.  A 30' catamaran sailed by in the distance on one hull.  The winds were strong, but our motion was so regular as we cut through the waves that one of the crew actually went down in the cabin and fell asleep!

By four in the afternoon we were sailing before the wind under the battery, wing on wing as people waved to us from the walk. As we turned to head back up the river, we gave the folks watching us a wave and a blast of the horn. The wind was behind us and the sun low as we sailed down wind all the way back to Wappo Creek and up to the dock.  Just inside the cut we sighted a bald eagle perched on a wooded post among the sea grass.  As we sailed under the bridge and up the cut, a powerboat raced up to us and pulled along side. The excited boater exclaimed, "I used to sail a Com-pac 16 and it was a great boat!"

That evening over dinner at the Noisy Oyster, we raised a toast to a great sail and a great boat, the "Steadfast", and look forward to many more trailer voyages ahead.

Clemens

[spaul]

Clemens, what a wonderful post for all of us, especially those of us who've pulled their boats for the WInter here in the North. Boat looks great and crew was having a good time. Nothing better and thanks for sharing with us.

Steve Paul
cp 27/2
IM PAUL SIVE

[steve brown]

What a great sailing adventure. I always wonder how much wind I can sail in. Thanks for the lesson. Steve
1982 CP19 093 Odina-Aurore