OK. Yeah.
So... I guess trying to tow the boat behind the Civic wasn't such a hot idea. Well that sounds worse than it actually is. We were at je2i's and he offered to use his truck to pull the boat out of the driveway and then hook it up to my car. My attitude was that if my car couldn't get the boat up the slight pitch of his driveway then it had no business towing the boat to the lake.
We hooked the boat up to the car and I made a few tries to get it out of the driveway. Now let me be the first to admit that I don't really know how to tow something behind a stick shift car. I know how to drive stick -- I think rather well -- but towing is not my specialty. I tried a few times to start moving in first gear, but the driveway was gravel, so I would just spin the tires or stall out. I was actively trying to avoid melting the clutch by trying NOT to feather it in first. So I decided to try starting in second and feathering it a bit. Well, that got the boat moving, without spinning the tires, but soon the cabin filled with the ominous smell of melting clutch a mere 6 or 8 feet into the journey, and I could tell that there was significant slippage occurring.
At this point, je2i was like "you could probably make it, but why don't you just borrow my truck, and it'll go much smoother." After some convincing, I gave up and conceded that there were hills on 79 that were steeper than his driveway, and while I would have better traction, if traffic stopped and I couldn't start up again with the weight of the boat, I'd have been basically fucked. Could I have made it? Probably. Was it a good idea? Probably not.
On the road in the truck was a little harrowing for me. I'm not experienced towing stuff, and well, between friends, I might not have had exactly ALL of the paperwork sorted out yet. I was a bit nervous and tightly wound on the trip up. We had one sorta close call on the highway with a disabled semi on the side of the road and a bunch of Memorial Day Weekend donkey-drivers, but we made it. We pulled the trailer into my dry-berth at the marina, and continued on to the marina office to pay for the spot and everything else. It went smoothly.
We returned to rig the boat. One of the nicest things about this dry mooring spot is that you can leave your boat rigged. Now I'm sure given a bunch of practice I could rig this boat in under 15 minutes, but it took us about a half hour, and the help of some other people across the lot who were also rigging a Hobie 16. There were a few things that we needed to pick up at the Hobie dealer afterward, but the worst of it would be the rudder cams. When I bought the boat, the guy said "you might wanna replace the rudder cams, they've been popping up in heavy wind." Once we had everything rigged, I went to look at the rudders and a better way to describe it might be "the rudder cams are completely and utterly deformed and mutilated and will need to be replaced immediately, before sailing the boat." The other guys there concurred that my cams are totally fucked. Luckily we have a Hobie dealer 25 miles from the lake. While there we ran into a guy who had driven at least 2.5 hrs each way to get to the dealer. I was beginning to feel lucky.
Another thing we found when we got everything unpacked was that the tiller was decidedly ghetto. It was a stock tiller that had been cut off short and then extended with a wooden broom handle. No, thank you. I don't think I'll be single handing this boat any time soon, so I may not need a super 16 foot tiller, but I needed something more tractable than what this had. At the dealer there were a variety of tillers. I was looking at a modestly priced double extension tiller. They also had the Arriba composite tillers. I wasn't going to splurge for one, but Heather insisted and gave it to me as a birthday present, commenting that she didn't want to be back at the dealer in two weeks buying the better tiller in addition to the one I wanted to buy. I'd say the only hardship there is that I won't be leaving this tiller up there.
Coming back to Pittsburgh, we stopped at West Marine and got life jackets and a wetsuit for redherring and some other sundry items like bungee cord and seasickness meds. We're about to head off to Home Depot to get some chain to lock the boat up when we're not there. I guess for tonight we'll have to just hope for the best. I was talking with the folks we met up there and commented "all any of this does is keep honest people honest." They said "yeah, that's kind of how it works around here. Oh and by the way, if you ever need any parts, feel free to take them off our boat. Just put them back when you're done." That was nice to hear. On the other hand, I expect that we'll get up there and find our drain plugs gone, so I picked up some spares at the dealer.
Anyhow. That's pretty much it for today. I have some pics from the rigging and of the sails. I'll post them when I have time. We're on the clock right now. We're also heading back tomorrow to actually try to get her in the water.
We also still need a name for her. Any suggestions?
We hooked the boat up to the car and I made a few tries to get it out of the driveway. Now let me be the first to admit that I don't really know how to tow something behind a stick shift car. I know how to drive stick -- I think rather well -- but towing is not my specialty. I tried a few times to start moving in first gear, but the driveway was gravel, so I would just spin the tires or stall out. I was actively trying to avoid melting the clutch by trying NOT to feather it in first. So I decided to try starting in second and feathering it a bit. Well, that got the boat moving, without spinning the tires, but soon the cabin filled with the ominous smell of melting clutch a mere 6 or 8 feet into the journey, and I could tell that there was significant slippage occurring.
At this point, je2i was like "you could probably make it, but why don't you just borrow my truck, and it'll go much smoother." After some convincing, I gave up and conceded that there were hills on 79 that were steeper than his driveway, and while I would have better traction, if traffic stopped and I couldn't start up again with the weight of the boat, I'd have been basically fucked. Could I have made it? Probably. Was it a good idea? Probably not.
On the road in the truck was a little harrowing for me. I'm not experienced towing stuff, and well, between friends, I might not have had exactly ALL of the paperwork sorted out yet. I was a bit nervous and tightly wound on the trip up. We had one sorta close call on the highway with a disabled semi on the side of the road and a bunch of Memorial Day Weekend donkey-drivers, but we made it. We pulled the trailer into my dry-berth at the marina, and continued on to the marina office to pay for the spot and everything else. It went smoothly.
We returned to rig the boat. One of the nicest things about this dry mooring spot is that you can leave your boat rigged. Now I'm sure given a bunch of practice I could rig this boat in under 15 minutes, but it took us about a half hour, and the help of some other people across the lot who were also rigging a Hobie 16. There were a few things that we needed to pick up at the Hobie dealer afterward, but the worst of it would be the rudder cams. When I bought the boat, the guy said "you might wanna replace the rudder cams, they've been popping up in heavy wind." Once we had everything rigged, I went to look at the rudders and a better way to describe it might be "the rudder cams are completely and utterly deformed and mutilated and will need to be replaced immediately, before sailing the boat." The other guys there concurred that my cams are totally fucked. Luckily we have a Hobie dealer 25 miles from the lake. While there we ran into a guy who had driven at least 2.5 hrs each way to get to the dealer. I was beginning to feel lucky.
Another thing we found when we got everything unpacked was that the tiller was decidedly ghetto. It was a stock tiller that had been cut off short and then extended with a wooden broom handle. No, thank you. I don't think I'll be single handing this boat any time soon, so I may not need a super 16 foot tiller, but I needed something more tractable than what this had. At the dealer there were a variety of tillers. I was looking at a modestly priced double extension tiller. They also had the Arriba composite tillers. I wasn't going to splurge for one, but Heather insisted and gave it to me as a birthday present, commenting that she didn't want to be back at the dealer in two weeks buying the better tiller in addition to the one I wanted to buy. I'd say the only hardship there is that I won't be leaving this tiller up there.
Coming back to Pittsburgh, we stopped at West Marine and got life jackets and a wetsuit for redherring and some other sundry items like bungee cord and seasickness meds. We're about to head off to Home Depot to get some chain to lock the boat up when we're not there. I guess for tonight we'll have to just hope for the best. I was talking with the folks we met up there and commented "all any of this does is keep honest people honest." They said "yeah, that's kind of how it works around here. Oh and by the way, if you ever need any parts, feel free to take them off our boat. Just put them back when you're done." That was nice to hear. On the other hand, I expect that we'll get up there and find our drain plugs gone, so I picked up some spares at the dealer.
Anyhow. That's pretty much it for today. I have some pics from the rigging and of the sails. I'll post them when I have time. We're on the clock right now. We're also heading back tomorrow to actually try to get her in the water.
We also still need a name for her. Any suggestions?