The Punta Gorda Journey Continues

[Vectordirector]

Thanks Ron, looking forward to meeting you.  Good to hear storage is available if necessary.  I'll give Ron Parr a call when I arrive and look at the lift, two recommendations is pretty good.  I've got to get a permit for the POD too.  No big deal, the property manager sent me the contact information for the city to do so.

Are you bringing your Compac down?  I was driving to Lake Geneva a couple of weeks ago and saw what looked to be a brand new shrinkwrapped Horizon Cat in the yard of one of the storage places up there.  Blue hull, beautiful.  I hadn't seen it before or  since then.  Closest dealer is in Madison, so I'm not sure what it was doing there.  Looked just like this one.  http://www.madisonboathouse.com/Page.aspx/diid/7362699/list/InventoryList/pageId/70212/view/Details/2013-Com-Pac-Yachts-Sailboat-Horizon-Cat.aspx.  Maybe it was. 

Definitely need to check out your Telstar if I decide I want something bigger than the Eclipse.  I know they are pretty rare although there is one for sale in Green Bay that looks pretty good.  I noticed you run the Telstar owner's web site.  Are you familiar with the boat in Wisconsin?  Names CathyAlan.  Cathyalan.com.   Been for sale for a while. 

See ya soon.  Let me know when you are in town and we'll get together. 


Bryan
aka
Vectordirector

[CaptRon28]

I'm not sure if they'll give you 2 permits at one time, but they could exclude the POD if they wanted. After Charley, we had a number of them all over town and the code enforcers just ignored them.

I bought the 1 year old Horizon in Pensacola about 4 or 5 years ago, brought it to PGI for about a for a month or two, and then permanently moved it to Jersey. My wife got tired of trailering boats around and ordered me to buy another one. The Horizon was the perfect choice for a trailer sailor - easiest 20 footer to launch and rig that I've ever owned or seen. And it sails just about as good as it looks.

I've owned much bigger boats and had to downsize for the skinny water in SW Florida. I figured if I had to go smaller, I have to go a lot faster. A Tri is the perfect boat for the area. With the board and some of the rudder up, it draws around 2 feet. The 17+ knots that I've done several times is just a bonus. The Telstar was the best all round choice for me 8 years ago. But if I win the lottery I'd spring for the new Gunboat G4. Why do 17 knots when you can break 35? Only thing on the water with sails that can catch it is an AC72 (the big America's Cup catamarans!).

I know of the boat CathyAlan. Forgot that it was for sale. Looks interesting, but I've never seen it.

[CaptRon28]

This what Ron Parr and I did to my 15,000 pound sailboat lift about 7 years ago. The 4x4 wood beams support the two curved cradles designed to hold the boat where two interior bulkheads are. The 4 outside supports just keep the folded ama's steady. Very little weight on them. Many sailboats would need the dropped beams that you see in the photo. You've got to put most of the weight on the keel.

[Vectordirector]

Thanks for the pic.  I've never seen a lift in action and am trying to wrap my head around how they function.  I'm sure the Eclipse won't need anything as elaborate as a folding tri would.  Something equivalent to what the trailer has would work, I would guess.  How much does the water rise/fall in the canal with the tides?  Does the water stay flat when the wind picks up?  I"m new to all this coastal boating thing.  All my sailing has been in inland lakes except for a Hobie at a resort in Cancun.  What a great time that was, except they had the boat powered way down.  Still a lot of fun and my wife loved it.

I may look to go back to a multi hull at some point.  Wondering if the bigger ones sail well though.  There is a 32' PDQ for sale in Marco that looks interesting.  I did "fast" when I was much younger and it was great fun, but I was in much better shape then and 25 years younger.  Now I keep telling myself I want a relaxing sail, but the call of 15+ knots is still there.  I've had the Eclipse out 20 times or so and I'm maybe getting bored with it.  It is perfect for singlehanding in Charlotte Harbour though.  Sounds like you have looked at and sailed a lot of different boats.  Interesting that you picked the Telstar.  It seems a good pick for the area.  Do you just daysail it or do you overnight on it? What other boats did you consider for Punta Gorda?

Bryan

[CaptRon28]

Bigger can be a problem is SW Florida. Either draws too much water or the mast is too high. Ponce Inlet can get down to about 4 1/2 feet of water (or less) on a bad day. A 4 foot 7 inch deep keel could be very stuck in the sand. Note that you're going to go thru Ponce. The average tide range is about 18 inches, but the average includes days where it's 1 foot and days where its over 2. And it's nothing like the tide you've got on most coast lines. The Gulf is smaller and you wind up with days where you've got 1 high and 1 low, and days where you have 2 of each, and days where it's somewhere in the middle.

The lift is simple. Throw the switch and it goes up. Throw it the other way and it goes down. It's up to you to get the boat in the right place. Any keel based sailboat would be better off with a lift that supports the keel. The long bunks that power boat lifts have will not do that, and (in theory) could distort the hull shape. My Horizon was built with extra stringers in the middle so it could be fork-lifted in and out of the water. Not my idea, the original owner was planning on storing in on a rack in Pensacola. He used the boat maybe 5 times. This setup would allow safer use of long bunks because of the extra support on the inside of the hull.

With an east or west wind, the harbor stays reasonably flat. The narrower width  dimension of the harbor is part of the reason, and the tidal current is the other. Get something blowing heavier out of the north or south and it will produce chop and whitecaps.

Mostly daysail, but we've done maybe a dozen 2 or 3 day overnighters. I prefer to pick my days - don't like to motor. At the time I bought it, the Telstar was the best choice for me. It might still be if they kept on making them. Very good performance with reasonable accommodations. Much more room inside than the 24 thru 28 foot Corsairs, and it can be easily rigged by one person.

[Vectordirector]

Thanks Ron, great information for the newbie.  Corsairs look fun but maybe a little too extreme for me.  The next boat (if there is one) will have a stand up real head with a shower.  The girls seem to like those.  By the way, that PDQ is a 36' and looks mighty sweet.  http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/46435. Little over 3' draft. 18ft. beam might be tricky though I see that they have it on a lift.    Seem to have a good reputation for build quality.  Why do we always seem to be looking for our next boat?  I know, rhetorical question.

Thanks again,

Bryan

[Vectordirector]

Update:  I made it down to Punta Gorda after a long 3+ day road trip.  1400 miles @ 58mph.  You do the math.  No big problems on the way down other than a loose light wire I was able to fix.  I-65 was pretty rough going through Birmingham and Nashville.  I slowed down and it was still pretty bouncy in the Jeep, my wife hated it.  Went through Louisville the first night at 2am, stopping about a half hour past the airport and  spent the night there.  Late start Tuesday and got to Dothan around midnight.  Left there noonish and made it to Punta Gorda around 10:30 pm Wednesday night.  Exhausted.  Slept like a rock on my inflatable Queen size mattress.  POD arrived Friday afternoon and hired movers had it emptied a couple of hours later.  Spent the weekend unpacking.  Still exhausted.  Boat is still in the driveway, POD taken away this afternoon. 

The house was ready except the lift needs to be replaced.  It is rusted out pretty bad and I had Steve Parr over this morning to look at it.  After contacting the property manager, they had already contacted Parr to fix it, they just hadn't gotten to it yet.  Ron Parr was the contact with the property manager and apparently Steve didn't know anything about it being already scheduled.  Whatever.  Hope they can get to it soon. 

I'm going to rest up and enjoy the pool for the next couple of days.  Maybe put the boat in the water and leave it there until they come to get the lift fixed.  Boat is really dirty from the trip and being outside all summer.  I saw a truck in the neighbourhood with a boat detailing service.  I'm thinking of letting them detail it first, then launching it.  The trailer is too long to fit in the garage, so I'll need to find somewhere to store it. 

So all is preceeding slowly, but moving forward.  Can't wait to get out in the harbour.

Vectordirector

[Vectordirector]

Another update:  Still no lift.  Hope they show up next week.  I had the boat cleaned up, all of $30, they did a great job.  Probably saved me a half day of work, well worth it.  I had gone grocery shopping and when I returned, the boat had been cleaned up and guess who was parked out in front of my house?  The one and only Capt'n Nemo!  He had called earlier and introduced himself and wanted to come by and say HI.  I welcomed him and we talked for a good hour.  Great information as always.  Don graciously offered a tour of the harbor in his power boat the following day.  How could I say no to an offer like that?  We set up a contact the following morning. 

I towed the boat to Ponce and rigged and launched it.  Not the most solo launch friendly ramp, but with some help from the powerboaters, I got it in and motored over to the house in about 10 minutes.  I tied it off and proceeded to walk back to the ramp to fetch my car.  It was dark by the time I got back to the ramp and I gotta say, that was quite a hike for this out of shape 51 year old.  Didn't seem that far on Google Maps, but I bet it was close to a mile.  It took about 25 minutes and I was feeling it in my legs later that night.   

The next morning, I towed the trailer down to Burnt Store Trailer Storage.  Nice people and only $32/month.   Don called and set up a time to meet at my dock for the tour of the harbor.  It was a perfect day for powerboating and we had a nice 3 hour cruise down to Burnt Store Marina, over to Boca, and up to the river into a quiet hidden cove and then to Laishley, then west to the western PGI canal and back to my house.  This was really a great way to get a feel for the water and the scale of the harbor.  It is a whole lot bigger than I imagined.  Wow.  I managed to lose one of Don's charts over the side.  I guess I was too engrossed in the scenery to remember to hold on to it.  I'll be getting a new one for him.  Thanks again for the tour Don.  It never ceases to amaze me, the nicest people you ever meet are fellow sailors.  A couple of the neighbor sailors have come by and introduced themselves as well.  Super friendly people with way more experience sailing than I have. 

So, the boat is at the dock, waiting for the lift to get repaired. I need to go get a real pfd as all i have are cheapie ones to meet the regs.  I'm thinking about one of the inflatables from West.  They are having a sale this weekend.  I'm thinking the $109 one as I'm not planning on venturing off shore any time soon.  No wind yesterday anyway or I might have gone out and bought one and taken the boat out. 

I have one dilemma with the boat, but I'll post that on the Eclipse section. 

Thanks for your support to all the locals and all the posters here.  Can't wait to get the boat out in the harbor.  Anyone want to join me for my virgin sail?


Vectordirector

[Vectordirector]

Another update:  Ron Parr and company finished the lift yesterday.  It works great and the boat was up on it last night.  My neighbour down the canal Arthur, who sails a Corsair 24 at the ripe young age of 83 came by the other day, introduced himself and wondered if I would enjoy sailing with him, his boat or mine.  Absolutely, I said.  He has sailed all over the world on a vast list of boats.  He's lived here since 1986 and is the perfect guy to learn from.  Anyway, we set up an outing for this morning and he is really interested in the Eclipse so he wanted to take my boat.  Sure, I said.  After I got the boat ready to go, we motored out into light winds and put up the sails.  He took the tiller and I enjoyed being a passenger on my boat for the first time.  the jib had unfurled fine except of the last half turn and I couldn't figure out why.  Arthur made his way up to the bow and had a look.  He tried to get it to unfurl further, but each time it came back in a half turn.  We gave up on it and continued.  We sailed down the harbor then back up and the winds basically died around 1:30.  We decided to head in and as I rolled the jib in the furler exploded into pieces.  UH OH.  The bottom separated from the case and the metal bearing went flying, fortunately resting on the bow.  I retrieved it and looked things over.  This furler was still attached to the bowsprit and Arthur was worried that the rig was going to come down.  I explained the pin system and pinned the front of the mast hinge.  We motored in and docked where I tried to reassemble the furler.  No such luck.  I'd had it apart before and maybe I didn't get it back together correctly.  Anyway it is lashed to the mast while I find someone to come take a look.  Help!  I'm guessing it is something simple.  Hopefully it can be fixed without pulling the boat out of the water.  NEMO, you out there?

[Vectordirector]

Wow, I see it has been a while since I updated this thread.  I've been living the life in paradise.  Fixed the furler in a couple of hours and have been sailing when the weather is good solo and with Arthur on the Corsair 24 and my boat.  One amazing boat, that Corsair.  Too much for me I think.  He has had Corsairs since 1986 and this is his second one after losing the first during Charley.  It wound up upside down impaled on a piling.  Half in the canal.  Total loss.  So he bought this one, a 1996, and has is rigged for daysailing.  He raced them extensively down here and was one of the locals to get 24 class racing going in Charlotte Harbor.  Anyway he's getting old enough that I don't think his wife will let him singlehand the boat anymore.  He has it for sale and wants to get something like an Eclipse that is a bit easier to sail and a bit calmer.  I think he would love to trade.  I don't think the Corsair, as cool and fast as it is,  is the right boat for me.

Otherwise, had a nice Thanksgiving with retired controller friends in Cape Coral.  Hanging out, enjoying not having to shovel snow, relaxing, decompressing still.  30 years of ATC, 23 at ORD, winds one up pretty tight.  Some people don't get out at the right time, stay to long, and burn out pretty bad.  I'm sure a lot of jobs are like that.  Luckily, I was able to escape.  No small thanks to my extremely hard-working wife.  She continues to work long hours at a job she loves.  She's not fond of Florida, so we will see how that plays out.   

Vectordirector

[Bob23]

Vec:
  Don't forget to visit the Celtic Ray. My daughter knows the owner- Kevin is his name, I think. A great place for a Guiness. I sure wish it was in NJ!
Bob23

[capt_nemo]

Bob23,

Why not hop in your vehicle with that talkative "friend" you took sailing recently, and come on back down here - the weather AND the sailing are both great!

capt_nemo

[Vectordirector]

I'll put it on my list. 


thanks

Vectordirector

[Bob23]

Capt:
  It's very tempting as the temperatures up here are going in the wrong direction. If I could do as you say, I would.
Bob23

[Vectordirector]

12/20 Update:  Heading back to Chicago for the holidays today.  Return 1/8.  It has been great so far.  Catch up with the locals when I get beck.  I"ll  be checking in occasionally.  Can't wait to get back to the frozen north, NOT!

Happy Holidays All,

Warm and Fair Winds,

Vectordirector