[Rhodes22-list] Salt Water Sailing (was Outer Banks...)

[Steve Alm]

Richard,

I sympathize.  No sailor wants or intends to scare the bejeezers out of
first-timers and give them a bad impression of sailing.  Last summer I had a
first-timer out in some rough conditions--washing the rails and so on, and I
was getting ready to reduce sail when I noticed my guest had intuitively
perched herself up on the windward rail and was fearlessly grinning from ear
to ear.  But I think that's the exception, not the rule.  Most of the
first-timers I've had on the boat were pretty nervous about all that heeling
over, so I tend to sail very conservatively with newbies onboard.  But if
the weather picks up, whacha gonna do?  When we start rockin' and rollin'
the first thing I think about is keeping my voice low and calm.  I think
that helps a lot.  

You said it was a CD 25.  Cape Dory?  Full keel and built like a Mack truck?
Good thing you weren't in a more tender R22!

Slim

On 4/27/05 12:55 PM, "Richard Smith" <sailnut at worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> 
> 
>> It is a challenge, and I think what most folks are saying is that you
>> must prepare for the challenge before hand, and not take it too
>> lightly.  It is a very different experience from drifting on a pond. >
> 
> Here is a true story which in retrospect always saddens me.
> 
> About 25 years ago we owned a CD-25 which was docked at the Barren Island
> (later Gateway Marina.)  My in-laws (non sailers) had a very dear friend who
> sailed a small daysailer on some mid size Jersey Lake.  They pressed us to
> take him for a sail.
> 
> This guy always dreamed of salt water sailing.  After all he regularly read
> the boating press which did and still makes much of the mysticism of the
> sea.  Needless to say Fantasy was strongly in play.
> 
> So... one day our hero and the in-laws showed up.  They wanted to sail
> around the Statue of Liberty, maybe 12 miles away.
> 
> We left the slip around 10:00AM.  A light sea breeze was blowing.  A bad
> sign if it starts that early.
> 
> Of course sailing to the Statue was easy enough (broad reach and then a run)
> 
> As we all know the experience became very different when I reversed course
> for home.  Now it was a matter of beating against a steadily increasing sea
> breeze and attendant building wave conditions.  Fortunately the tide was
> flooding so I only had to contend with a smallish 1 foot sea but still the
> boat was heeled over so that the lee rail was awash (ordinary behavior for a
> CD-25) and with everything trimmed in tight the experience was anything but
> relaxing.  At one point we took a smallish sea over the bow which deposited
> an inch or so of water on the cockpit deck.  Really nothing unusual and
> actually rather common for Gravesend Bay.
> 
> After a couple of hours of this we rounded the point and took off on a
> reach... hull speed...  exhilarating!!  To late for my passengers they were
> ashen with fear.
> 
> When we got back to the slip our guests abandoned the boat with unseemly
> haste and fled to the parking lot and home.
> 
> I later learned that the guy with the freshwater boat never sailed it again
> and the in-laws could not be lured to near the marina let alone "risk" them
> selves by going for a sail.
> 
> Fantasy vs reality....
> 
> Richard Smith
> 
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