Little Wing wrote:
Skipshot wrote:
In another thread folks have bemoaned the large amount of time it takes to trailer a boat to a local lake or beach, rig, sail, then de-rig, and drive home, which discourages day sailing. Some of the lucky ones are able to store their boat mast up on a local beach (Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara are well known in California for this), which makes getting on the water much easier and faster, thus more time is devoted to the sport and more people can be attracted to it.
I contacted the local authority who handles a popular beach in Alameda, CA (site of the 2007 16 & 20 Hobie North Americans) and the woman was interested in exploring the idea of mast up storage in the park, but she had a caveat - vandalism - which made me think twice about the idea.
It would be helpful to the Hobie community, as well as other forms of water recreation, to learn from those who have been successful (or not) in establishing beach or lake boat storage, so that perhaps others could learn how to do it.
Let's hear some ideas.
One very important thing to remember, get all of your fleet members,and beachcat owners on the same page when you get together with the parks dept. Have a spot that will work for EVERYBODY, then pitch it to the guy with the highest pay grade.
If you're shooting for a lee shore location, take the windsurfers and kite boarders with you. The less it looks like a finite group/club the easier the "sell" for the local authorities to their higher ups. One major thing they want to thwart is someone else coming in and wanting a piece of their action with your group as the excuse. "You gave the cat sailors their own special place, so why cant we have ours!?!" Trust me, you're not the first group that's proposed something to them. Be prepared with some sketches, a plan (short and long term if necessary) be concise and to the point.
I don't know, maybe you want kayakers with you as well. The more close it seems to be "open to anyone", and non-discriminitory, the better.
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