My O'Day 22 Sailboat Blog

Since I am no longer a boat owner I am having to share other people’s boats or use boats through charter companies. Part of that equation is having to show the boat owners, or at least the ones entrusted by the boat owner, that you are capable of handling their vessel. The various organization such as ASA, US Sailing and US Power Squadron have developed certification programs that set standards to make that process more or less universal.

Everyone who has been sailing for a long time will know that you are always learning new skills and techniques. Regardless how advanced you certifications say you might be, there will be circumstances that you have not come across, new harbors you have not been in and new crew whom you have not sailed with. Part of being a good sailor is to adapt and react in any circumstance you come across.

My sailing club has a somewhat unorthodox system of completing each training and checkout of each boat in the fleet. As it is an all volunteer group of instructors and members, you often train and checkout with different people for different boats. It seems that the more sailing experience you have as a sailing instructor, the more you want to improve and change the methods set by your predecessors. This is the kind of stuff you hear sailing instructors banter about in the club house, on the docks or over their favorite bottle of chardonnay.

Since I am not a racer I will not even pretend to be any kind of an expert on sail trim. As long as I am moving forward at a reasonable speed given the condition, I am a happy sailor. I have heard it all from racers who talk about how much racing has improved their cruising and I really don’t doubt that. I am just not in that big of a hurry. Let’s face it, if I was, I wouldn’t be sailing. It’s the techniques like Man over board, close quarter maneuvering, throttle control, heaving to, reefing, anchoring and such that I have a little bit of a problem with from the perspective of having been a student with many instructors in the past.

I have picked up a little bit of insight on pretty much every aspect of sailing from all the sailing instructors I have ever worked with. The only thing that I can gleam from it all is that I will ultimately be developing my own set of skills based on my observations. Sure I will need to do what is required to get the certifications that I need at the time; even if it means changing my preferred methods temporarily to accommodate the instructor at hand; I will most likely go back to doing what I am most comfortable with.

Let’s take the Man Over Board maneuver as an example. This might be the single most discussed topic that instructor like to talk about when it comes to what is best. It is one of the most complex maneuvers for a novice sailor. It involves performing under pressure, staying calm, sail trim, tacking, speed control, helm control and giving directions to your crew. Every one of those affect the outcome of the job at hand. ASA officially endorses the Figure 8 and has been for many years. I have heard differing opinion from different ASA certified instructors of their own version of this procedure. Best points of sail, distance before tacking, may day or no may day call, release the jib or back-wind the jib, everyone has been trying to get me to buy in to their ideals. I feel like at some point, too much instruction starts to negatively effect your growth as a sailor.

Maybe it is just human nature to try to improve on what’s already in place. I am certainly one to always find a better way to skin the cat (sorry Yoda), but I am seeing a good number of beginning sailors in this club who are caught in the middle of these ambiguities. They get frustrated because every instructor teach every technique just different enough so they end up confused and not learning anything at all. The fact that everyone is a volunteer in this club often produce the kind if instructors who might be out there pushing their own brand of sailing certification.

I know I have been complaining a bit in the last couple of posts about some of the problems with my new sailing arrangement. It is actually much better than how I am making it seem. I have been sailing a lot more than this past year before I sold the O’Day and also meeting a lot of local sailors whom I would not have met otherwise. I am really not looking to change anything about the club as they have gotten most things right where others have not. After all, what is the blog if you don’t get to complain and voice your opinion at least a little bit…

Now get out there and practice some MOB maneuvers.

I believe that stereotypes are wrong. They are based on a small portion of the population and usually is not true for the majority. But sometimes the stereotype holds true when you come across that small cross section. This is what I have found about certain members of the sailing community. Especially within people who run sailing clubs. Having been a member of Marina Sailing for nearly 2 months I have chartered twice and taking one overnight ASA lesson to the Channel Islands. Everyone from my local Marina Sailing office (Channel Islands Harbor) have been very nice but there is one guy who runs the Long Beach office that I’ve talked to a couple of times has been the stereotypical, arrogant sailing A-hole.

I have only met him once before I decided to join the club while looking at their fleet in Long Beach. I don’t even know his name because he doesn’t introduce himself when you meet him in person or when he answers the phone. Every time I talk to him on the phone he speaks in a very condescending tone regardless what we are talking about. He assumes that you don’t know shit and/or are lying unless proven otherwise. If I had not gone to the Channel Islands Office I probably have chosen another club to join because of this guy.

I sort of understand where he comes from since he is constantly dealing with people who are new to sailing. It can be frustrating to do day after day dealing with members and students who are difficult to teach. I have heard many, if not all, sailing instructors go into a rant or two about hard-headed sailing students and their frustrating failures. This guy however is clearly jaded in the business and thinks everyone is stupid and unteachable. He should not be the person in charge of the club in such a busy marina. Maybe that’s just it, he doesn’t have to treat people nicely since there are plenty of business there to go around.

You may now be wondering what exactly has this guy done for me to have such disdain for him. Well, let me tell you a couple things. First time I’ve ever met him, I was in the Long Beach club office inquiring about becoming a member. I wandered about and read literature for close to 10 minutes before he decided to drop what he’s doing to acknowledge my visit. He clearly did not think I fit into the primary club member demographic as I was dressed casually and probably 20 years younger than the average member age. He responded to my questions with just enough info and enthusiasm to where it felt like getting your teeth pulled stone cold sober.

After I joined the club I made numerous phone calls to his office inquiring about the ASA 104 class schedule and it was more of the same. He makes you feel like he’s always got something better he needs to be doing and you are just wasting his time. I am guessing that Marina Sailing would probably do quite a bit more business if this guy was not there. Are there anyone else that have felt this about this man? Does anyone know what his name is what why he is allowed to run this portion of Marina Sailing’s business? As an active member who plan on chartering boats out of the Long Beach area for trips to Catalina Island, it would certainly make my life a lot easier if someone more personable was left in charge instead.

I am currently planning a trip to Catalina out of Long Beach so I have to continue to deal with this A-hole. We’ll see if he eventually warms up or if he just stays a douche bag forever…

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.

These guys that work at this boat store really do not have their act together. I had to call the unlisted number for the retail store again because no one answers or responds to the number listed on the site. The idiot I talked to on the phone seems to selectively remember that I wanted to cancel my order last time I called. He seems to think the he had an option to either ship the order or cancel and refund my money. I suggest NO ONE ever does business with these idiots. I asked him why the online/mail order guys don't answer calls and he pretty much just gave me the run around… "Well, there is only one guy there and you must have called when he was on the phone with someone else…", or "If you leave him a message he will call you back.." Well, neither of which is true. I called and called about 30 times in the same day. Either I'm really unlucky, or he doesn't answer calls. I also left 3 voicemails and none of which was returned. So while I had the retail guy on the phone, I told him. "Tell your guy to call me. Here is my phone number.." Guess what? No calls. At this point I just wanted to make his life miserable. I basically knew that I was going through my credit card company for a charge back and anything they did would not rectify the situation. I proceeded to rip him a new one on the phone. I also called the listed Website number just another time to make sure I was in the clear when I called my credit card company. I hope no one ever orders from these idiots. I hope no one ever buys anything from their retail store either. I hope people searching for them online finds this post and it deters them from wasting their time and money with these idiots at Boats Unlimited NY. By the way, this is the information of the company I've been ranting about. Feel free to give them an ear full if you’re so inclined…

Boats Unlimited
408 First Street
Utica, NY 13501

Phone: 866-868-7151
Phone: 315-798-9817
Fax: 315-735-2167
sales@boatsunlimitedny.com

Oh yeah, you won't get through with the number above. Try calling the retail store…

Phone: 315-735-1777

DO NOT ORDER FROM THESE FRAUDS! BUYERS BEWARE!