03-04-2011, 07:55 PM
So about a year ago I bought my first boat. It is an 1975 O'day 22. I was able to get a pretty good deal on her becase the former owner basicly forgotten about her and let her sit at a dock for years without any attention. The rear port on her starbord side had formed a leak and as time went on more and more water overflowed from her bilges and into the cabin the quarter berth under the window had rotted out and all of the coushins needed ot be replaced. Generations of Dirtdobbers and built a network of nests that grew to a considerable size.
Needless to say I had my work cut out for me. The first thing I did was fix the leaking port and clean her up a bit. then replace the berth that had rotted through. Working as often as I could this took me to about the hottest part of the summer. Starting a carreer as a firefighter will take up a lot of your time that could otherwise be spent on a boat. When the weather got it's hottest, I took a break from working on her, Then I moved, and started Training at the fire academy (which many people will compare to army boot camp). that brings my story to about two weeks ago. I finish the academy and got placed at a fire station, and on that amazing firefighter schedual of 24 on 48 off. I had my free time back. So I rewired my boat. and finially got all my papers together to get my regstration.
So I finially took her sailing, and I mean really sailing. I had her out once before when the winds were nice but it was just a out of the marina and back in sorta thing. I had spent all day Wed at the firestation dreaming of the lake. I had my papers together so I could legaly take her out. I left from the fire station got my dog, and went straight to the marina, The winds were a lot stronger than what had been forcast on the news. I was epecting a wind of 5 to 10mph not the 15 with gusts to to 25. So I found stome stuff for me to work on at the boat and waited for the winds to die down. After about two hours Jeff, who is one of the most experinced sailers I know (30+Â years and two Atlantic crossings), shows up and said that he will go out with me.
I keep my boat at Aqualand on some of the northern most docks, so we go out into the lake at a different place than those in the main part of the marina. as we leave the marina we sail northwest tword the far side of the lake and about half way across head south in the direction of lake lanier islands, I had her pointed right at the big water tower. we kept this heading sailing at a broad reach till we got to the chain of islands right off of Van Pugh park. We turned east and the wind began to hit us from the port side and my little boat really began to heel over. Me being on the starbord side and being somebody who has never experianced anything like that, I was a little freaked out. Water was all the way up to the deck and if I had leaned back I would have gone head first in to lake lanier. and everything that was in my cabin was thrown from one side to the next, by the time we made it back to the dock everything was in the floor. sailing was just like this as we continued on back north north. I became more comfortable with the angles we had her leaning over at, I even started enjoying it. we Went north all the way up to browns bridge. Then headed back in the direction of the marina.
I learned alot on that trip. mainl that it's okay to have her heeled over, and that it's a part of sailing. I also learned that I don't need to leave the dock with anything I don't need because it will end up in the floor and then in the way. I thoght I was hooked before but after that little adventure, Sailing is in my blood!
Needless to say I had my work cut out for me. The first thing I did was fix the leaking port and clean her up a bit. then replace the berth that had rotted through. Working as often as I could this took me to about the hottest part of the summer. Starting a carreer as a firefighter will take up a lot of your time that could otherwise be spent on a boat. When the weather got it's hottest, I took a break from working on her, Then I moved, and started Training at the fire academy (which many people will compare to army boot camp). that brings my story to about two weeks ago. I finish the academy and got placed at a fire station, and on that amazing firefighter schedual of 24 on 48 off. I had my free time back. So I rewired my boat. and finially got all my papers together to get my regstration.
So I finially took her sailing, and I mean really sailing. I had her out once before when the winds were nice but it was just a out of the marina and back in sorta thing. I had spent all day Wed at the firestation dreaming of the lake. I had my papers together so I could legaly take her out. I left from the fire station got my dog, and went straight to the marina, The winds were a lot stronger than what had been forcast on the news. I was epecting a wind of 5 to 10mph not the 15 with gusts to to 25. So I found stome stuff for me to work on at the boat and waited for the winds to die down. After about two hours Jeff, who is one of the most experinced sailers I know (30+Â years and two Atlantic crossings), shows up and said that he will go out with me.
I keep my boat at Aqualand on some of the northern most docks, so we go out into the lake at a different place than those in the main part of the marina. as we leave the marina we sail northwest tword the far side of the lake and about half way across head south in the direction of lake lanier islands, I had her pointed right at the big water tower. we kept this heading sailing at a broad reach till we got to the chain of islands right off of Van Pugh park. We turned east and the wind began to hit us from the port side and my little boat really began to heel over. Me being on the starbord side and being somebody who has never experianced anything like that, I was a little freaked out. Water was all the way up to the deck and if I had leaned back I would have gone head first in to lake lanier. and everything that was in my cabin was thrown from one side to the next, by the time we made it back to the dock everything was in the floor. sailing was just like this as we continued on back north north. I became more comfortable with the angles we had her leaning over at, I even started enjoying it. we Went north all the way up to browns bridge. Then headed back in the direction of the marina.
I learned alot on that trip. mainl that it's okay to have her heeled over, and that it's a part of sailing. I also learned that I don't need to leave the dock with anything I don't need because it will end up in the floor and then in the way. I thoght I was hooked before but after that little adventure, Sailing is in my blood!