Good Morning Everyone,
Hey, just wanted to say Hi and thank everyone for accepting me to the group. I just bought a 1978 Hobie Cat 16. She's primarily yellow with sunburst sails. She needs a little clean up, patchwork on a soft spot on the port side (has a soft spot and spiderweb crack where a large hailstone hit her) a good rubdown with polish compound to remove the oxidation, clean the sails(to bring the color out, they've been stored for years) and probably a new or repair to some small tears in the tramp. She came complete with all the gear, cables and blocks are perfect, but do need new spagetti on them.
I must say that I'm excited to get her on the water. Problem is, Ive only been on two cats in my life and have never sailed. I'm no stranger to boating and water, live on lake and vacation on laguna madre S. Padre Island Tx. I'm just wondering is this sport like many others? One where you jump in with both feet and the rest will come with experience, or do I need some pro advise to get started. My first instinct is to get my butt on the boat and find some wind and figure out the small stuff on the water! lol
I do plan a quick sail on Saturday(tomorrow) with the previous owner, so I will get the very basics from that. I know that I'll need tech info about rigging and such so where is the best place to find that? Also if there is a good place to pick up tech info such as an owners manual and such that would be awesome.
Thanks for hearing me out, and a Big Howdy to everyone from Texas!
Arthur