Re: Suitable first boat? was..Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal 33-2(Jeff)
I am still amazed at how far away from the slip I can put our 19,000lb Cal
39 in neutral and coast up to and past our slip when I was only going 3 kts
to begin with. I actually put it in reverse once I get to the slip, point
the bow as if I were going to enter a slip 5 slips down from ours and
start giving it more throttle. By the time I get enough way on to steer, the
prop walk has us parallel to the fairway again then I throttle down and back
into neutral, back into the slip (with everyone fending/grabbing docklines
as necessary) and then put her in fwd to stop any unneeded progress to the
dock.
In a cross breeze its more of a controlled crash with crew. Without crew
we just muscle her in and take our time.
Paul West
Adventure Kwest
In a message dated 5/3/2010 9:22:08 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
tm… [at] yahoo.com writes:
Jeff,
I have had those same experiences. You can crew for someone else and
think you are experienced, but when you are the captain it's different. I too,
was outboard challanged, had three different ones and they never seemed to
like me, refusing to start when needed, etc. Good excuse to move up to a
Cal 29, powered by trusty A-4. Starts every time. Well, I installed
electronic ignition, new carb and fuel pump, change the impeller every other
year. But If necessary I could sail to a dock. The thing to remember
motoring or sailing is "GO SLOW!" We've all seen idiots heading for a slip
making a wake, then throwing it into reverse at full power to stop. Not smart,
or safe. Dumb. And yes they were sailboaters.
Shoutout to Charlie Husar, I know of a flat top 25 for sale in Chicago,
ready to sail, probably cheep!
Regards,
David Dobbs Cal 29 411, from NJ?(Makes sense,1972, boat was delivered to
Detroit)
--- On Sun, 5/2/10, jeff theall <jeffreytheall@jeffreyth> wrote:
From: jeff theall <jeffreytheall@jeffreyth>
Subject: Re: Suitable first boat? was..Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal 33-2
To: Cal_Boats@yahoogrouTo:
Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010, 6:20 PM
I"m so glad I piped in on this one, even if my advise was not as
helpful as I'd liked. Last year, at 42, I bought my first sailboat. I grew up
in south Louisiana so being on the water was natural, but I had no
experience with sailing. After taking my first cruise in a coworkers boat though
I knew I had to have one. I'm sure for all the same reasons everyone else
does. The first trip out was a disaster. My sailing mentor (USCG
certified captain, sailing for 20 yrs) decided we could sail her out of the marina
even though the outboard was flooded. After all "it's a sailboat." We
got stuck on the rocks after the wind shifted while coming out of a channel
with two rock jetties to either side. Luckily a bent rudder shaft was the
only physical damage done. My wife still remembers it vividly. Since then
we have yet to have an incident free sailing day. The ever problematic
outboard accounts for most of the drama. Just this past week I had my crew
(wife and two teenage boys) practicing leaving and returning to the slip. We
did it over and over until satisfied we learned some valuable lessons.
With the tension and shouting at times I'm not sure if this will bring the
family together more or not. At the end of a long weekend though everyone was
in agreement we were better than when we started. The OB is running much
better now (new carb, new fuel filter, etc) and I've learned if I think
I'm going to slow I'm probably going to fast.
Reading all of these narratives though has only increased my desire to
keep going. As I told someone recruiting me to race the other day (yacht club
gets points for participating) , I'm in hurry to learn, but not in a hurry
to be reckless. I appreciate all the time other sailors take to write in
this group.
Jeff
--- On Sun, 5/2/10, Gerald Sobel <sobel_solar@ yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Gerald Sobel <sobel_solar@ yahoo.com>
Subject: Suitable first boat? was..Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal 33-2
To: Cal_Boats@yahoogrou ps.com
Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010, 7:01 PM
I guess we are all different. I had a lot of experience before I
bought my Cal 24. My experience included owning a home built cat for a dozen
years, which are notorious for lousy handling, failure to come about, getting
into irons etc. Usually to come about you stall and go backwards, so you
have to reverse your rudders to do that...sorta like a K turn. Reversing
your rudder when going backwards when you get in irons and start to go
backwards on my Cal won't do S@#T...so prepare to possibly T bone the boats on
end ties (boats on end ties should have huge floating protection booms like
they have around the aircraft carriers I've seen in San Diego). I've found
recently that at slow speeeds the sails will overpower anything you do with
the rudder in my Cal, and heading off to gain speed helps rudder power
when your tacking with main alone. And if you are undersail in tight quarters
don't expect your engine to save your butt if your about to hit a boat, as
throwing it in reverse will mostly give you flying spray, foam, noise,
and only slightly reduce your speed on impact. Of course, most people don't
try docking under sail unless they really know what they are doing...or
THINK they know what they are doing. I'm always docking undersail, but my boat
only weighs as much as a small car, 3000 lbs. much unlike a Cal33, which
weighs as much as a medium size truck, what, about five tons? Anyway, I
almost forgot, yeah, I had alot of experience with smaller boats when I got my
Cal 24 but still got into a lot of scarey situations. My favorite first
one was slowly motoring into the travel lift dock at Annacappa Marine just
after buying the boat, for thier advertised low cost pressure wash, no sails
up, when the outboard quit and I was coasting at about 2-3 knots squarely
at a solid concrete bulkhead, with no escape possible. Luckily they had a
1' by 2' bumper in front of the wall, and aimed for it, and bounced off it
with my bow. Whew!
When I briefly owned a Cal 25 three years ago, I tried sailing it into the
dock, which was 180 degrees to the wind, under mains'l, with my main's
boom all the way out, but I still had enough momentum going that I gave the
dock a good smack with that 4000 lb boat.
Anyway, it's do able to own a 33' boat as a first boat, but I'd get a fair
amount of instruction first, and a lot of docking training before I took
off with it solo. Maybe that's why 98% of the boats in Marina del Rey are
dock queens. People buy a boat thinking it's like driving a car, take the
boat out, get scared shitless, and don't do it again because they have post
traumatic stress disorder.
But it is fun when you see out of control boats, and go to the rescue,
and save them. Recently one of my dockmates took his Catalina 25 out, to
motor tour the marina, and his just overhauled OB crapped out and siezed mid
channel 15 seconds after clearing the docks, and he couldn't restart it. We
were able to catch him as he floated helplessly down wind in the basin, as
he side swiped a big ketch. While my crew buddy held on to his boat, I
proceeded to rig his mainsail up through a tangle of rotted mis-attached
lines. I was able to tack the boat back and get it into it's slip, but sadly,
though he is a liveaboard, he still hasn't sailed the boat since, just as he
hadn't tried sailing the boat for the previous 6 or seven years.
Jerry
--- On Sun, 5/2/10, jeff theall <jeffreytheall@ yahoo.com> wrote:
From: jeff theall <jeffreytheall@ yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal 33-2
To: Cal_Boats@yahoogrou ps.com
Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010, 1:44 PM
I agree with Helen, 33ft is big for first boat. i've started with a
Cal 27 PT and the sailing is the easy part. getting it back into the slip
and such is the scary part. it's a lot of boat to get moving backward in
a hurry if you weren't going in the right direction forward. I'm afraid
when I'm ready to move to something larger there won't be much left of the
one I have. Actually she's pretty tough.
--- On Sun, 5/2/10, Helen Horn <helenhorn@sbcglobal .net> wrote:
From: Helen Horn <helenhorn@sbcglobal .net>
Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal 33-2
To: Cal_Boats@yahoogrou ps.com
Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010, 3:48 PM
33 ft is a big boat for 1st boat ! How much sailing Time do you have? All
Cals are Great boats but
we prefer the ones made in Costa Mesa. Deck Crazing comes from deck
failuer ...with crazing
you get water into deck then delamition begins...
see if you can "look at" 3 or 4 other cals ...sometimes
some boat get "Beat up" and these boat have more
crazing . Stuff happens and after, (mini disaster)
crazing shows-up.. on our cal 29 (1974) has six hair line marks on the
whole boat all from "disaster" docking.. the 33 is still a Great boat even
with crazing
there' a Cal 36 in Ventura C L for $9000 diesel + more ... we have cals
in North Calif. (SF Bay)
and so-cal(Newport) if you would like to look
ed&helen
From: "coachkb13@sbcgloba l.net" <coachkb13@sbcglobal .net>
To: Cal_Boats@yahoogrou ps.com
Sent: Sun, April 25, 2010 5:13:02 PM
Subject: [Cal_Boats] Cal 33-2
My wife and I are looking to purchase our first sailboat and have come
accoss a 1989 Cal33-2, which is in our price range. The boat has crazing on
the deck but is otherwise clean with many updates. I'm looking for opinions
as to this boat. We are loking to mostly day sail in Long Island Sound
with the potential to make longer trips.
Any general comments about the Cal 33-2 are appreciated. Thanks in
advance.