My O’Day 22 Sailboat Blog

It’s been awhile since I posted something so I’ve got quite a bit to catch everyone up on. One of the funniest stories (funny as in so stupid so don’t try it sort of way) was when my friend Elie asked me to go sailing with him on his Hobie 16 one day after work. If you have been browsing my flickr albums lately you would have seen the photos we took of this trip.

Elie called me about going sailing on his Hobie one day after work since I wasn’t doing anything else, I gladly agreed. He has his Hobie dry stored right next to mine in the yard so I helped him get it all rigged up and towed to the ramp. By the time we got out there It was blowing pretty hard. A a matter of fact, the big scrolling LED sign above the parking permit vending machine read big and bright: “Small Craft Advisory”.

Well, it’s not that we don’t have common sense. As a matter of fact, we decided to take more precaution because of it. We were just gonna sail in the harbor anyways an also we got into our wet suits instead of just t-shirts and trunks. We were looking for a bit of excitement anyways but we got more than we bargained for…

Getting the boat launched and ready was quite an ordeal. It was blowing so hard that we had a tough time just getting the boat ready. I had to stand dockside to keep the boat downwind from the dock but also be able to release and jump on board. It took awhile to get it ready and we even joked about me not having time to get on the trampoline as the winds would blow the boat right off the dock the second I untied it. Well, that’s exactly what happened. In fact the boat started to sail away from me as soon as I untied it from the cleat. It was pulling so hard that I had to let go. That means Elie was on his own sailing off into the distance.

The setup at Ventura harbor is that the launch ramp is in a little cove directly down wind from the prevailing northwest. If you don’t have axillary power you will need to sail upwind to get in the open. It is tougher that it sounds because there is not much room to build enough speed to tack around once you get going. Elie ended up getting pretty close the rocks and had to jump off and manually turn the boat into its new tack to get going.

There I was in my wet suit on the dock of the launch ramp watching him sail away into the harbor channel. He was doing fine for a couple of tacks and as he got into his 4th or 5th tack, I saw one of the hulls lift out of the water. Apparently he froze for a second and didn’t ease the main quickly enough to get the hull to come back down. The boat capsizes instantly. He flies off the tramp and ends up in the water. I am of no use and could only watch from the dock. He tries to right the boat but the winds were too strong and he just can’t get enough leverage to get the boat upright again by himself. Worst of all, the tramp begins to act as a sail and it started pushing him towards the rocks again…

The 2 guys on jetskis were just coming in and decided to cruise by to see the “idiot sailor”. At this point I had decided to jump off the dock and started to swim towards the Hobie to see what I can do to help. It took me way longer than I expected to get there. The wind and current made it harder for me to reach the boat. By the time I got there one of the jetski guys had started to try and two him away from the rocks.

When I got on the boat and tried to help him right it the jetski guy lost grip of the line and now we were again drifting into the rocks. Luckly the harbor patrol had been notified and had sent a boat to get us out of the situation. The harbor patrol boat tossed us a line and we tied it to the hull and with a push of the throttle we splashed into the water as the boat rolled back upright once again.

With both of us on board we were able to manage the weight distribution a little better but the winds still had not slowed even with the sun quickly setting. We decided to called it a day and managed to get back to the launch ramp without anymore mishaps.

It was probably more entertaining to me than dangerous but no accidents related to boats should be taken lightly. I think we learn a little lesson and will think twice about sailing in a SCA with the hobie again…

Today my friend Elie (He came by my house and helped me rig the new mast when I first got it.) called me and told me that he had just acquired an older Hobie 16 in the same storage yard as my boat. I had gone to see it with him couple weeks ago and I didn’t think it was worth the asking price of around 300 bucks. Low and behold the owner started to get desperate since it is towards the end of the month soon he will have to pay another month of storage fees. He called Elie back and they made a deal he couldn’t refuse. For $175 he is now the proud new owner of a sailable but project Hobie Cat.

He went to the Ventura Port District who handles the management of my storage yard and happened to get a spot right next to my boat. It is a 25 ft slip so he can bring down his Aquarius 21 from time to time and store it there mast up. He lives in Santa Barbara and works in Ventura so it would be cool to be able to take it out for a quick sail at his lunch break.

Today I met him at the yard as he was getting the Hobie setup with his friend Omri also from Santa Barbara. Since I had the right hitch ball I trailered the hobie out to the ramp and we promptly rigged it up and launched her for a little test sail. The boat is pretty much good for an afternoons sail but the trampoline and the hulls are getting pretty worn. The port side trampoline probably should be replaced as it is holding on by a thread in the front right below the mast base. The decks are soft to the touch and seems to crack with a minimal amount of pressure but you can really expect more from a boat this age and price. The wire main sail halyard had a weird crimp near the connections to the sail that prevents it from being hoisted all the way up. We had to basically reef the main right from the get go until he removes the crimp in the halyard later.

When we did get it in the water though it floated right off the of the fair conditioned trailer. Its suppose to have a hole in one of the hulls but it doesn’t seem to be taking on water. Both of the sails however are in excellent condition. No visible tears or rips nor are there significant stretch marks. We manage to fit all 3 of us on the trampolines and we gave her a little push and off we went in the Ventura Harbor.

It took off with ease under a fair amount of wind and started to accelerate at a closed hauled course towards the harbor entrance. As we got closer to the mouth of the harbor the winds started to pick up and we were now moving probably at nearly 7 or 8 knots. It was pretty awesome to be on a boat that has the potential to really move. Just last Friday I went out on the Capri 13 and today I am making another maiden trip and a Hobie 16. This definitely makes me envious and wanting a little fast and manuverable sailboat myself. Marlene will never go for that and I suppose that’s fine since I will get plenty of chances to sail both of these boats. Back to the Hobie. Now we are crusing towards the harbor entrance and there are just a small amount of swell in the water but the way Ventura harbor is setup you get a fair amount of it head on right at the entrance. Water was starting to splash through the tramps and Omri being on the leeward side was getting drenched. Luckily he was wearing a wetsuit and stayed warm and comfortable through the entire trip.

We did a little loop outside and decided to turn around and go back in. On the way back we decided to make a turn to port so we can check out some of the houses in the Ventura Keys. These are a couple of tracks of custom homes that have direct access to the water in the back of there houses. With the real estate boom of the last 10 years, these are now well into the multiples of millions in price. It was pretty amazing to see some of the boats thats dock directly behind some of these people’s houses. It would really be great to have that kind of access to your boat. Unfortunately some of these boats don’t seem to get a lot of use or attention.

Once we were in one of the narrower channels we had lost wind completely. Being a small boat without a motor we had to drift our way back out to the main channel of the harbor. After a few painfully slow and many more failed tacks we finally made it out. Omri had to go back up to Santa Barbara so we called it quits and made out way back to the ramp.

These little boats I’ve been sailing lately really made me even more excited about sailing in general. There are so many facets of this sport and I am looking forward to taking them out for more extended trips in the future. Tomorrow I’m planning on taking out the Capri for the afternoon and maybe there will be another post about what it is like in a couple days. Ciao….