"My 1st sail in the Capri 14.2 and near mishap"

woodbark

Member
I feel I must share this experience, basically uneventful except for one embarrassing incident:eek: .... This was Monday 24th, as previously mentioned it took 40 noisy mins to get out of the river. I had a crew of 3, my brother, his son and daughter-in-law; all theorietical sailors.

The air was very calm so stepping the mast and hoisting the sails went flawless. In a few mins a light breeze came along and off we went, it was a great feeling and despite the load we were clipping along quite well, the wind was not steady so it took us some time to cross the lake. Everyone loved the high boom, no bruised heads.

Our destination was a public park with a nice sandy beach, we raised the keel, let the sheets out and landed softly on the beach and tied up to piece of driftwood. The young people went off to get ice-cream my brother went to the washroom which was about 500ft away. I chose to sit on a park bench and keep an eye on the boat.

My attention was drawn away towards two young fellas having fun in their kayaks nearby. Then I look back in the direction of the boat and to my amazement it had managed to untie itself and had turned around now facing out towards the water. So I got up and started heading towards it. ... To my further amazement, the boat caught a gust and shot off like a live thing and kept heading out.

By the time I hit the water it was already about 50 feet out, I wish I could have seen the expression on my face. Now the young fellas in their kayaks realized what was happening and so did their mother. She yells to them; "go get the boat" in the mean time this crazy boat is going full steam ahead. Fortunately the wind died completely and it stopped as if caught in the act and decided to throw in the towel. The kids retrieved it and towed it back to shore.

My lesson learnt:
- never leave the sails up, this boat will sail itself even if the sheets are let out completely.
- never leave this boat partially beached, it floats too easily especially if there is nothing secure to tie it to. .....Incidentally it would have been doing a "beam reach" since the wind was coming straight across the port side. We all had a good laugh when the others came back, but it really was not funny at the time.

Please feel free to have a good laugh on me. Cheers!
______________
George - near mishap.
 
Ha! Ha! That's really funny! I guess the previous owner never told you these little sailboats have a mind of their own. It seems they're always chomping at the bit to get out and go sailing. It's one of the things we love about C-14s but requires constant diligence! ;)

Jim
 
Woodbark, congrats on the overall success! Sounds like a great day out on the boat.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of knot did you use to tie up? Nothing like the little lessons that the boat itself teaches you.
 
Woodbark, congrats on the overall success! Sounds like a great day out on the boat.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of knot did you use to tie up? Nothing like the little lessons that the boat itself teaches you.

:D Thanks Aaron, how very kind of you:p ......and yes, it certainly was a success ........except! there was one other incident I neglected to mention.

"We ran out of gas" on the way back after about 5 mins on the river. :eek: ......we started paddling and were'nt getting anywhere fast so we phoned the wives at the cottage and had to wait another 5mins for them to stop laughing (they didn't even know about the run-away boat yet)

Anyway, a friendly cottager/sailor spotted our dilemma and offered to tow us the rest of the way without any hesitation .....Wow! we will definitely visit them ...bearing gifts!

So there it is folks ....10 hours of fun and anxiety, would'nt have it any other way:)
Best regards!
 
I swam after my Catalina 22 once, I beached it with my son on a Georgia red clay bank. I thought it was on enough, it's a heavy boat and there was not much boat traffic, and I had my sails down. I guess there was just enough boat traffic to have a couple of waves lift the boat and start it drifting. Thankfully, there wasn't very much wind and I'm a good swimmer, so I caught it pretty quickly. But, there is always that sinking feeling in your stomach of oops... this could be bad.

-Robert
 
My lesson learnt:
- never leave the sails up, this boat will sail itself even if the sheets are let out completely.
- never leave this boat partially beached, it floats too easily especially if there is nothing secure to tie it to.______________
George - near mishap.

I have never been in a boat small enough beach. Good lessons I will remember.
 

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