Review of a newbie

Hey Cat-Sailors

Here I wanted to share some experiences I made with the Cat to help people getting an idea what it takes for a sailor who's new to Cats /Hobies to sail these boats.

Last year a Cat overtake me on my fahters monohull, but not like normal boats overtake, it just flied away, from this moment on I knew I would have to get a Cat.

This spring I bought one (Hobie 16), never have been on a cat before, bought without sailing it.

In the past two weeks I sailed the Cat for the first time.
Rigging was pretty easy, the original Hobie manual (downloaded version) tells you how to do it.

Then I got out on the lake for the first time. Wind 1 Beaufort, no waves, singlehand.
It was really amazing how fast the Cat was compared to other boats. The first tack was difficult, didn't think about what I've read about tacking cats, so I got stuck and the first tack took about one minute .
But after a while I got the trick to tack faster.

Second day out
Wind 3 Bft, no waves, singlehand.
Now I really got infected with the cat virus. It was so fast, I didn't expected to be this fast, the other boats just seemed to be there to make a nicer scenery. The something happend, a Hull took off the water.
This happened a few times, and after a while I could keep the Cat on one Hull, but I dind't use the trapeze.

So far so good, sceptic people should stop reading here
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I flyed the Hull once more, then a gust to control over the cat and soon I sailed with a 90 degree angle and capsized. I was surprised and as first reaction I stepped onto the mast.
Not good, soon the mast was pointing downwards.
I managed to get on the wrong side of the trampoline without getting wet (except my feet).
The I recognized that something has cut my left leg about 10 cm under the knee. The wound was pretty deep and looked ugly, but didn't hurt (adrenaline ? )

Then I was sitting on the wrong side of the cat waiting for help. After some minutes a motorboat stopped and helped to get the cat flipped back, it took more time than I expected.

Then I sailed home, because I wasn't sure if I should continue sailing with the open wound.

My father (doctor) told me that this 5 cm cut will only leave a scar, really great, second time out and the cat has marked me forever .


Anyway I really got addicted by my Hobie (I sailed about five hours, but it was like one hour), and it's surprisingly easy to sail singlehand. For the future I have to get some bandages so I can continue sailing after little accidents.

Nice evening
Chriss

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1994 HC16

Welcome aboard! You have experienced a typical day of sailing a catamaran, including being injured. Monohulls, for me, are good for drinking wine on, and appreciating my Hobie more. You clearly are infected with the Hobie madness, and you have plenty of company on this forum.

A few common terms when discussing cat sailing are needed. When your boat was upside down use the word (a verb) "turtle", as in, "My boat turtled." When your boat is on its side it "capsized". When the leeward (downwind side) bow goes under water and the boat suddenly stops, this is called a pitchpole. Try your best to avoid a pitchpole, and search this forum to learn more about it, since it can be dangerous, along with causing the following phrase to come from your mouth, "What the f*** just happened?!?!?!"

We call the wounds Hobie hickey's.

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Josh Benge
14 skip
16 skip
20 crew