The journey (almost) begins

I have always had a desire to be on the water, any water.

When I was younger, much younger, I would satisfy the yearning on the pond in our back yard or the creek that flowed through the village where we lived. Rafts constructed of anything that would float and held together with whatever would hold were plied through the water with limited success. I got wet often, but I was on the water.

I even recall a hunk of plywood with a small gas engine attached on the back. "The Sea Pig". This was not my creation, although I would have, at the time, liked to have layed claim to the design. It was fun to try to keep the "bow" just above the water to get the plywood up on plane only to have it dip or catch a wave and head for the bottom, dragging the poor tired engine with it.

Those were the days.

Lately an old canoe does the trick but taking the time to get out has been difficult. Between weather and life commitments...and sometimes just laziness... the water is still a little elusive.

We moved in the last few years to a house that is within a stones throw of a boat launch that provides access to the Big Rideau Lake. Sadly, we have not been able to really take advantage of that close proximity. We even had a boat given to us a while back only to find that the engine and drive was totally toasted and un-fixable. Money got in the road as there was always something else that needed fixing, replaced or just purchased.

I have always been enamoured with the idea of sailing. Travelling across the water powered by the wind. About ten years ago I decided to take the first step in attaining this dream and started researching boats, sailing and got to know a lot of theory about sailing, priced some boats... and life determined that it was not to be.

Now I consider that the timing was just off as, had I taken the next few steps I would have bought the wrong boat. The Rideau System is not the deepest everywhere, it is not big water, so this raises the concern of draft. Most boats I looked at were single hulled with some sort of cabin, if only large enough to get out of the weather. Even so the draft was approaching depths that would restrict the boat to the main channels and would cut off access to a lot of water in this system.

Lately, in the last month or so, I have had my interest piqued yet again. I am not even sure what the first trigger was... it has led me to research sailing again in a different light. Seeing as Kate, my wife, is not a fan of things that move too much (thinking wave action here) but likes to be on the water I decided to stay with something smaller. The small single hulled boats just didn't do it for me though, narrow beamed, tippy looking and restricted space.

Then I stumbled upon the catamaran. Twin hulled sailboats that had a wide stance to them, capable of faster speeds than a single hull, easily handled by one yet room for four and has the technical complexity that I always enjoy dealing with.

I decided that the one design that best suited my idea was the Hobie 16' catamaran. Draft of only 10" due to it's keelless design, no dagger boards. Capacity of about 600 pounds. The only drawback is that there is no cabin... but even any small single hulls would not have that capability anyway.

The search began.

There is very little available in Ontario and there was nothing close by, I was disappointed but resigned to a winter search in hopes that something closer would show up.

Right place at the right time.

I always ask around, or at least generate conversation around my interests as I am always surprised by some that have the same interests or even just have related stories. It's always nice to find common interests with people where you may least expect it.

True to form I asked a friend who I knew lived on the Rideau if he had a sailboat. The intention was to see if he knew of anyone around that might have a Hobie 16 that they may want to part with. Perhaps someone who was considering sailing in unused boat but just never got around to advertising it.

To my surprise he happened to have just the boat I was looking at... the best part is that he was, just the week prior, out looking at it and considering selling it as it gets almost no use. So he has decided to sell it and just has to come up with a price.

While I am not in a hurry I must admit that I am a little excited. I expect it to need some work, hopefully no hull work but just replace some rigging and maybe give the hulls a nice buff job. I'll be off to have a look at it next weekend I anticipate. I will wait for him to come up with a price first, look later.

A post on a sailing site that asked about naming boats came to mind this morning. I hadn't seen any Hobie's named, for whatever reason, but I thought I would like to put a name to my future boat.

Trade Winds came to mind as I anticipate funding this adventure through he trading that I am starting to wind into... see other blog...the name has no real reference to the winds of the namesake.

I look forward to getting back out on the water next year on a boat that is mine and learning the ropes...or is that the sheets?

I plan on keeping this blog as a diary of my adventure...something that I had planned to do with my cycling as a log but never got around to. Hopefully I can get some pictures in here and some useful links for others who may be interested.

Jeff.