My O’Day 22 Sailboat Blog

Tillerman at Proper Course is a competitive Laser sailor and he recently blogged about the larger and keeled big brother of the original laser, the SB3. Although the O’Day 22 is not a performance oriented boat and my modest sailing goals are mainly cruising the California coast, I must admit that a light yet stable keelboat with such a huge sail plan that planes in relatively light air makes my saliva flow and pupils dilate just a little.

Even since I played Virtual Skipper 4 during my sailing hiatus and piloted the digital rocket sled, I’ve been dreaming about sailing a planing, keeled sloop. The SB3 is similar to the Melges 24 but a couple of feet shorter and a little less expensive (relatively). The big problem is that it is not that readily available in the US.

Here is a little video of rigging the SB3

Sailing the SB3

One day I will own a fast keelboat. One day.

Mark Hammett of Ham-It-Up posted a video of the action on his boat during one of the downwind legs of the race. If you have never been in a broached keel boat, this video will give you an idea of what it can be like.

I have no experience in sailboat racing but it seems to me that they have more crew than is needed for a 25 ft boat. I had 5 people a few weeks ago on the O’Day 22 and with that much weight on board, distribution of bodies became really important. Of course it can obviously help you if weight is distributed properly but in this video it definitely seems to hold them down after the broach due to all the bodies on the leeward side of the boat.

Sailing accidents are like train wrecks where you just can’t take your eyes off and you hope it never happens to you. Luckily no one seemed to be hurt in this video.

I just recently stumbled upon an online video series made by some hilariously funny people from LA. The name of the series is called ‘Yacht Rock‘ so it seem fitting to discuss it on my personal yachting weblog.

It is a comical perspective into the transition of music between the 70’s and 80’s. The stories they tell are absolutely brilliant and it sometimes make you think if it actually happened the way they have depicted it. There are only 10 episides of it so far and each are only about 5 minutes.

If you have an hour to spare and you enjoy really smooth music, this is a must see. Enjoy.

Last Wednesday through Friday Marlene and I visited the windy city for a little mini vacation. The primary reason for the trip was for a little event our friend Carrie put together called the Bird Carnival. I was an event she and some of her friends dreamed up where musicans and artists came together from all over the country to display and perform their art in support of our feather friends. The Illinois Raptor Center showed up as well and brought a slew of birds of prey with them.

As fun as the event was, it had nothing to do with sailing. You might have noticed on this blog that I am a bit of a fan of wind-powered vessels. However, while we were there the city was hosting another event called Tall Ships Chicago. I didn’t have time to make it to Navy Pier to see the event but it looked like a lot of fun. Daily tours were given on the docks as well as some cruises around Lake Michigan. Only if I had more time on my hands… We did however make it to Gino’s East twice for some lip smacking good dish dish Chicago pizza. It made the trip all worth while despite the heat wave.

When I go back late Friday night I was jonesing to get out on the O’Day to go sailing and Andre and I did just that Saturday. That shall be another post as we encountered some interesting events on our trip…

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….