My O'Day 22 Sailboat Blog

The Post and Courier from Charleston, SC reported today that a Laser sailor was run down by a tour boat in the area. Tillerman at the Proper Course Blog also talked about this today.

Although I don’t do a whole lot of dinghy sailing but the times I have done it, it has happened to me more than once. No being completely run down by a power boat but have come across power boaters who have no regard for right-of-ways when it comes to small sailboats.

I was sailing a Capri 13 out of Santa Barbara harbor one day and was basically on collision course with a powerboat coming out of the harbor.This guy could clearly see me but he had no intention of altering his course. I had to gybe in the last minute just so he wouldn’t run me over.

It was not an honest mistake and he wasn’t even the least bit sorry about what he did. I know that because as he past me going at about 20 knots while churning up a 3 foot wake, he looked at me and threw up his arms like it was my fault for getting in his way.

Last Wednesday I took the Capri for a little ride out of the Santa Barbara harbor. Marlene vlolunteers Wednesdays at the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network so I went along for the ride and picked up the boat along the way.

I have been prepping my utility trailer for use with the sailboat for the last week or so by adding a plywood floorboard and wooden frames. When I got to Andre’s place and loaded the boat up, it seemed to work fairly well. I didn’t want to relegate the trailer to be only a boat trailer but making it too custom so it was not custom fitted to the boat’s hull. It did fine on the freeway and around the neighborhood streets of Santa Barbara on my way to the launch ramp.

Capri 13 atop the utility trailer.

Launch at the ramp was fairly easy. I just slide the back of the boat into the water until it floats and the rest comes down without a fuss. Rigging everything at the dock took maybe 20 minutes and I was ready to roll. Andre met me there and took some photos of the Capri in action.

Rigged and ready

Off I go

With the wind coming directly at the launch ramp, it took me a few tacks to get her out of the harbor.

Trying to tack out of the harbor

Away I go

Once I was out and about, the wind picked up outside of the protected area. The sailing got a lot more exciting. I continually trimmed and ease sheets to prevent capsizing but a couple of times I did. I haven’t capsized in this boat yet so I knew I was in for a wet ride today when I decided to leave the harbor. You can push the boat quiet a bit without any risk of turning it over but its falling off from up to down wind course that gets a little insane. These little dinghys love sailing downwind. It picks up speed extremely quickly and if you are not use to it, a capsizing is almost a guarantee. Luckily it was fairly easy to right her by applying some force and weight against the daggerboard. You have to make sure the mainsheet is uncleated or you will be in for a surprise recapsizing to the other side when she comes back up.

On my way back to the harbor I was confronted was a speeding powerboat coming out of the harbor. We were in a collision course about 1/4 mile away from each other. As all educated mariners should know that a motor boat shall always yield to a sailing vessel under wind power. Unfortunately many power boaters do not find it necessary to educated themselves with the proper right of ways of the sea such as this idiot. As I was moving along on a port tack and this guy was getting closer and closer to colliding with me, I finally had to turn to windward to stop the boat so he wouldn’t run me over. I shook my head as I looked at him drive by with his entire family at the bow. He clearly saw me the entire way but apparently his method of determining right-of-ways is “survivial of the biggest and blackest engine smoke”. As he motored by he threw his arms up as to say that he had done nothing wrong. I just kept shaking my head and thinking what ignorant idiots are allowed out in the water.

There really ought to be a requirement for boating licenses. As much of a hassle as that may sound, it really would make sense. A lot of sailors have at least had some form of formal sailing instructions at one time or another. It’s just the nature of this sport. Sailboats requires more know how and understanding as compared to power boats. I have never encountered another sailboat that was not awared of their right of ways. That also seems more apparent to me that more power boats get boarded by the coast guard for inspections than sailboats for the same reason.

I know there are a lot of you that enjoy all types of boating. Many boaters own or have access to both powerboats as well as sailboats. I am not saying that all powerboaters are one way and all sailors are another. I would like to at least see people take the time to get to know the rules of the water before they get themselves out their and potentially cost someone their life.

For those of you that need a refresher on the proper right-of-ways, here are just the basics:

1. Sailing vessel not under power always have the right of way over another vessel under power (regardless of size or type!)
2. Sailboat on a port tack should give way to another on a starboard tack
3. Windward sailboat should give way to the leeward sailboat on the same tack
4. A boat overtaking another should avoid the boat being overtaken and stay to starboard

General rules of thumb:
1. Boats that have more control should give way to boat with less control. This should explain the right-of-ways of a windward versus leeward sailing vessels as well as the power versus sail.
2. When giving way to another vessel make your course changes early and obvious to the other vessel and stay with you decision
3. Do not change course at the last minute if you are not on a collision course

Feel free to add more right-of-ways to the comments if I missed any.

As mentioned in the last post, Andre acquired a 13 foot sailing dinghy. It is a Capri 13. For only being $260, it is in surprisingly good condition. I finally got copies of some of the photos he took when we first brought it back to his place.

It definitely is not pristine but it is very sailable as is and it has everything needed to go out and have a blast. There are a couple of spots where a previous owner had shoddily repaired with fiberglass but the hull overall is fairly sound. I do hear water sloshing about inside but I don’t think you can really get around that for a boat this type.

The day we brought it back to Andre’s house we were antsy to get her in the water. Even though it was nearly 6 PM when we decided to take her out, we did it anyways. As always, we under estimated how long it would take to launch, sail and retrieve the boat let alone project time for delays and mishaps.

First of all, this thing is way too heavy to carry by hand even by a 2 grown men. It probably weighs well over 200 lbs with the bare hull. The trip from Andre’s house to the nearby beach is only a block or so away and it is downhill. That didn’t seem to help us much as we were sufficiently worn out by the time we dragged it to the beach. We had to take numerous breaks to alleviate the pain in our arms and back. It took us another trip back to the house to bring the rest of the rigging for the boat. In its entirety it probably took 30 minutes just to get her to the water.

Once we were at the beach, the wind was howling at probably 15 to 20 knots. It was not what we expected. There was hardly any wind just a block away at his house. Although his house is pretty sheltered with neighbors’ houses and trees all around. We were a bit hesitant by now about taking this boat out. I haven’t sailed a boat this size since high school. Even then it was on a fresh water lake with much tamer conditions. We are suddenly in a position to have to beach launch the boat and punch through a good deal of wind swell. I did not expect to be taking the boat out that day since the original plan was just to check out a boat for sale. Having no change of clothes or a wetsuit, I had to brave the cold, spring Santa Barbara waters with nothing but trunks and Andre’s kayaking life vest. Since Andre was wearing his wetsuit, I volunteered him to lead the boat by its bow via an attached line to the first few feet of the water. Andre was completely depending on me to give him directions on what to do. I had to keep the boat from capsizing, keep both of us alive as well as get us safely back to shore. I was a little hesitant but the adventure side of me overcame the fear as we dragged the boat towards the breaking whitewash.

The Capri 13 is setup with a daggerboard and a kickup rudder. Once we were in a couple feet of water I climbed into the boat and was able to get the daggerboard down and the rudder attached and lowered. Andre was busy trying to keep the boat lined up against the oncoming waves so we wouldn’t turn parallel to the waves and risk a capsizing. Once I was ready in the boat I started to trim in the mainsheet and the boat began to gain some forward momentum. She was slowly starting to move on her own as Andre started to lose touch of the ocean floor with his neoprene protected feet. I yelled to Andre and help dragged him into the tiny cockpit of the Capri 13. It must have looked hilarious from ashore as two grown men struggled to fit in a small sailing dinghy but we manage to get the boat beach launched without suffering any casualties.

It was starting to come together for me at this time. With one hand holding on the rudder and the other on the mainsheet, the Capri was responding swiftly to my command. Unlike my O’Day 22 where the rudder has a bit of a delay that can lead to over steering, the Capri pretty much responds immediately to any movement of the rudder. By holding on the mainsheet instead of cleating it into the cam, you can pretty much control this little boat’s uprightedness by easing and trimming the sail. Since the tiller extends about halfway up the boat, it made it hard for two people to occupy the space in the cockpit. A couple of times we failed to tack because the other person was in the way of the tiller to get it hard over. Positioning of our weight was also much more important than bigger boats since each one of us weighs nearly as much as the boat itself.

With the winds sustaining at around 20 knots or so, we were trying to figure out the best places for us to sit and who to control what parts of the boat. We started out with Andre manning the tiller and me hand trimming the sail but that turned out to be a pretty inefficient method. For this boat to really shine, the same person needs to run both jobs. The winds were blowing from its usual westerly direction in the Santa Barbara coast so we pretty much ran a starboard tack beam reach to a broad reach for the first 20 minutes or so.

We finally figured out our positioning and Andre pretty much served as rail meat for me in order to keep the boat cruising at a good speed. We actually got going pretty swiftly for awhile which was a blast. We did not have any electronics or speed gauges to tell us how fast we were going but I bet it was upwards or 6 or 7 knots. These Capri sailboats can certainly go much faster than that on a plane but we did not bother to find out for ourselves just yet. After heading east on a downwind course for awhile we knew that we had to tack around to start heading upwind so we can get back to where we started. We were thinking at this point that we may want to try and leave the boat overnight on the beach somewhere so I wouldn’t be late getting home and we don’t have to carry it all the way back up the street.

By now I was pretty much comfortable with the boat and we were cruising along the beach making pretty good speed. I began pitching upwind since I did not want to gybe in such high winds first time out of a boat. I got the boat turned around on an upwind course and found myself in irons pretty much right away. Since the boat is so light, sailing upwind requires more attention to the sail and rudder placement to keep out of irons. Luckily the size of the boat makes it fairly easy to get it out of irons by simply pushing out the boom manually one way or the other will start to turn the boat into a sailable position.

We started sailing towards the Miramar Beach Hotel bungalows at the beach since we were contemplating parking the boat under one of their raised back porches on the beach. The hotel is owned by Ty Warner of the Beanie Babies fame and he is going through some litigation that makes the property out of business for the time being. We figure they wouldn’t mind or really even know that we are leaving it there for the night.

When we got near the area where we wanted to beach the boat, it became obvious that this was not going to be smooth. Wind waves were breaking right on to the sand and we had to lift up the daggerboard and rudder so we would not run them aground a damage them before we got near. That basically means that we will have zero control of the boat at that last few moments. As it happened the boat started to turn parallel to the wave and Andre promptly rolled off the port side into the water and I tried to avoid being run-over of the starboard side. Luckily we all survive with no damages. After dragging the boat further on to the beach we started to de-rig her so we wouldn’t have to leave anything other than the hull on the beach. With Andre pulling on the bow line and me pushing the stern we managed to get her fairly easily up to one of the bungalows. Unfortunately there was a Miramar Beach grounds person water the lawn right where we walked up. We felt obliged to ask permission and obviously it was denied because of the almighty issues of liability. This really sucked. We were looking at once again carrying the 200 lb hull up one block to Andre’s house. To make matters worse, this time we had to do it uphill and we are about 1/8 of a mile down the beach from where we started. To make it a little easier, Andre dragged the hull back towards the water so it would float in the whitewash to make going back down the beach a little easier. From a distance he looked like he was walking a dog on the beach except the dog is a flat-bottomed 13 ft sailboat hull.

When we got back to where we started on the beach Andre had a revelation that ultimately saved us from breaking out backs. As we walked the rigging back to his house he remembered that he has some dolly wheels that he uses for this ocean kayak that may work on the bow end of the sailboat hull. We grabbed it on the way back on the second trip and it ended up working beautifully and we just had to carry the stern end of the boat as we dragged the boat up the street. It still felt heavy even with the assistance of the kayak wheels.

At this point it was nearly 8PM and I just knew my wife Marlene is going to wonder where the hell I was. The maiden voyage was considered a success since we manage to keep the boat afloat and us onboard most of the time. This boat is a welcome and exciting addition to the fleet and Andre and I will learn a ton about dinghy sailing by having access to it. I’m in the process of converting a utility trailer to use for hauling it around town and I am definitely looking forward to taking her out again soon. But the only thing on my mind at that point was that Marlene is not going to be happy to find out that while she is starving waiting for me to come home I was having fun sailing a new boat with Andre…….

My friend Andre and I went to see a used Capri 13 sailboat yesterday in Santa Barbara. Since the 14 footer at the harbor was a bust, we went into this with a little hesitation. People will say anything on cragislist to get people interested in their piles of junk. This boat however, was actually as described.

When we got to this boat it looked like it had been sitting there for at least a few months. The grass under was dead and most of the snails in the neighborhood had made it home. All the equipment though needed for this to sail was there and it includes 2 sails that are in similar and fair condition. At an asking price of $300, it seem like a good deal. Since it didn’t come with a trailer we had to figure out how to get it to Andre’s house 10 miles away.

After some price negotiations we were loading this thing on top of Andre’s Jeep a few hours later. This thing weighs about 200 lbs and it was pretty hairly driving down the street with it. We opted to not take the freeway just in case we had any trouble. Luckily it made we without any problems. We got the seller to come down a few bucks on the price and walk away with a new-used boat for $260. We still need to get the pink slip from her and to try and get it registered so the transaction is not totally complete. Once we got back, we eagerly rigged the boat up on Andre’s lawn and it indeed had all the parts and was ready to go. It looked great and fast just sitting on dry land.

Andre lives just about a block from the beach near Summerland, CA. Once we knew it was all there, he was itching to get it in the water. I was hesitant because I knew what a nightmare it was going to be dragging this thing down to the beach without bare hands plus it was pushing well past 5 PM. On top of that, I haven’t sailed a boat this size and type for over 10 years. In high school I had sailed Laser sailboats on a lake during the summer but most of that knowledge and experience was buried deep inside my brain somewhere. Andre did eventually got me to haul it down to the beach with him and we took her out for a little maiden voyage. That will be another post later as it was quite an adventure in itself.

I will get him to send me some better photos he took of the boat rigged in his yard for the next post. Stay tuned.