Secure your cats!

I am almost too embarrassed to tell this story, but here goes.

I had the 16 at the lake yesterday with several family members. We had a nice day of sailing in winds gusting to 30. Really a little scary for me being the novice that I am. At any rate after a while on the water, we headed to shore. Once on shore, I turned the boat into the wind and drug it up on to the sandy beach. I uncleated the sheets and added slack.

After a picnic and catching up with other family members, we all decided to take a walk and burn off lunch. We walked for a while and returned to the boat ramp when my wife looked up and yelled, "THERE GOES THE BOAT"! I looked up and saw the cat literally hauling butt across the water! I ran and noticed it heading straight for a dock which I ran out to. My first thought was it would crash into the dock and ding one or both bows. It straddled a piling and hit on the bridle wire which softened the blow. It then bounced back and was readying itself for another blow when I jumped in retrieved it and pulled it back to shore.

Of course all I heard after that from the wife was how stupid I was for not securing it with a painter. Anyway, it made for a good laugh and lesson learned.

In hindsight I suppose I did not pull it far enough on shore and wave action caused it work its way further into the water where a nice gust gave it the fuel it needed for its departure. I thought a cat would turn into the wind if not held off by the rudders. Had it not hit the dock, I really do not know how far it would have gone. The rudders were up and it was sailing straight as an arrow. So, the best advice I can give at this point is to keep your cats secured at all times.

A cat with two sails luffing will basically sail straight. The main will still catch some air and so will the jib.

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Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

Well, you are not the first one to do to this !

Back ~19 yrs ago when I had my first cat (14T), I took my little sis out for a ride, (her first one that is ) and we landed on the opposite side of the lake to go and visit a friend. It was quite breezy, w/ wind on the beach. I pulled the rudders up, backed it up, seemingly quite high on the beach without dragging it alot. Not wanting to bother dropping the sail (I did furl the jib but I can't remember if I uncleated the main ) I pointed it into the wind much like you did. Seemed pretty secure.

So we went for our walk up the road, and on our way back, peering in between the trees, I watched in disbelief as my cat scooted along just as straight as you could imagine, into the sunset. It was moving at quite a clip too! Fortunately some cottage owner watched this thing unfold (I am sure with much amusement), and decided to offer me a ride in his powerboat to catch my runaway. We cought up with it quite a ways out. I was lucky, it was pointing out and stayed on that heading, not back towards shore with loads of docks amd moored boats, and the lake was huge and had almost no boat traffic.

So I learned my lesson that day Now I secure it or drop sail.

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Jim

2007 Hobie Wave

I'll chime in on this one too. Although I did not actually see the boat move from the point I beached it I have a similar story. A couple of years ago I was at the lake sailing with my girlfriend. We beached the boat to run to the lake house where we were going to grab some lunch. When we beached the boat it was on the right side of the boat ramp. I thought I had pulled it up plenty to keep it from getting away. When we finished lunch and headed back to sail, the boat was beached on the other side of the ramp. We were gone for like 20 minutes tops. I asked everyone I saw if they knew what had happened and nobody knew. Someone had obviously pulled it back to the beach for me. Kudos to whoever they were, I wish I could have thanked them. We were just totally stumped by the whole thing, and had a good laugh.

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James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909

I can understand this happening in the ocean with rising and falling tides, but in a lake! This seems almost impossible to me for a boat to get away while beached unless the main and jib are cleated, flipped over yes but sailing away!

Our Sailing Club is a co-operative club. We share in the maintenance, training, catering, etc and in this way, we achieve two goals: we keep costs down, and we have a lot of fun doing stuff together.

On a busy sailing day, it is very common for the early birds to rig a cat, sail for a while, then return to the beach, park the boat, and relax on the deck with an oat soda. Whoever next wants to sail grabs a life jacket, signs out in the Club log book, and takes over the Hobie. At end of day, last one out sailing takes down the sails, puts them in the Sail Shack, and parks the boat for the evening. There is a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing.

We usually park the cats on old car tires, facing into the wind, in 10" of water, loosen the jib (or furl it), dis-connect the mainblocks or uncleat the mainsail, lock the rudders 'up', and life is good. Sometimes, with a northerly wind, we drag the stern of the boats up onto the beach, and place old tires under the bows (in the water.) Again, life is good.

A couple of years ago, a bunch of us were out having a hoot, and we returned to the Club for a burger call. Sitting quietly on the deck of the Clubhouse, I felt a slight change in the wind. Mmmmm, I said to myself, Is the Hobie okay? With that, I trotted down to the beach, only to see the H18 beginning to sail, furled jib, rudders up, uncleated main and all. My jog turned into a sprint, sort of like one of those bad dreams where the legs are mired in jello. I crashed through the water and with an almight heave, threw myself at the rapidly departing boat. At the last second, my hand caught the tip of the rudder, and I hung on with all my might as the Hobie continued to sail. Somehow, I dragged myself aboard, lowered the rudders, and got the errant cat back to shore.

With much chuckling from the brigade on the deck, I drew the Hobie 6 feet higher up on the beach. They had even saved another beer for me as I dripped my way back to the deck. What a good bunch! Yeah, stuff will happen.

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2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

Well, I guess you could say I did not have the cat far enough upon shore. Probably 6 feet of the bows were in water and the wind was really blowing making the wave action a little stronger than normal. I was really fortunate it hit the dock because with the wind and cooler weather there was almost no one on the lake that could have offered a ride to retrieve my cat. I'll certainly do a better job next time securing it.

Point the boat into the wind on the beach.

Release the downhaul and pop the swivel out of the sail track.

Disconnect the main sheet top block from the boom. I used a Schaeffer stamped shackel with a fast pin for years with no failures.

Slack off the jib sheets.

When your ready to back out it'll take less than three minutes to hook everything back up.

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Your definately right Hobie1616. I always point it into the wind and I also use a snap shackle for the upper block. I think in my case since the boat was so close to the dock it was the wake from motor boats and waverunners that ended up floating her. It is suprising how little water it takes to float a 16 without any crew weight.

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James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909

At one of the regatta's this year the crew of a H20 somehow managed to seperate themselves from their boat going downwind. A H20 will not round up when both of its rudders are out of the water. It was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. The boat was hauling ass towards a jetty around a marina. It sailed on it's own for a minute or better in close to 20mph winds before it finally pitchpoled. The owners totalled a boat the year before, I don't think the insurance company would be too happy with them.

Ha! I bet that was one time they were extremely happy to see a pitchpole!