Jump to content

Woohoo! Got on the water today *Photos Added*


Konrad in Lincoln

Recommended Posts

A variety of factors have kept me from sailing my Vacationer very much for the past 3 years. Primarily, they lowered our best lake by 4 feet to rebuild boatramps, and the water never came back up.

The birth of both boys in the last 23 months has also slowed the sailing down. But I'll take that trade any day of the week. :wink:

Anyway, I tooled around inside the boat for about 2 hours this morning, standing the rigging and even raising sails in the driveway, checking for loose connections and hardware (I did find some, so check over your boat)

Then called my buddy Tom and we met at my "new lake" which is small but extremely close to my house. I can be there in 13 minutes, even going slow at 50 mph towing the boat.

Winds were perfect at 12 - 15, out of the southwest. Temp steady at around 83 deg. Skies were 4/10 clouds, the big cotton ball kind. Stood the rigging with no drama. Backed the boat in and floated it with no drama. Motored out and raised sails, all with no drama. Everything went just about as well as could be asked, considering this boat was only sailed ONE TIME last year.

The lake is basically a rounded square footprint, and we banged all four corners during the afternoon. Never raised the jib, we were doing fine on the main alone.

A perfect day all around.

I will post a couple of pix either later this evening or tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Nice to see that you are bonding again with your long lost buddie. Have you introduced your social buddie to your boys yet? Its never to young to teach them to paddle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah, Tom knows the kids well.

I probably won't take Collin (23 months) out on the boat until he's at least 3. He doesn't yet understand that there are dangers in the world, and when I tell him "no" he doesn't really get it yet. It's still a game for him. A little frustrating, but it's just because he's still very young. Most of his "talking" is really just mimicking the words he hears us say.

He can be a handfull when he decides he wants to do something.

I can just see it now: I'm trying to keep the outboard pointed the right direction while trying to hoist the main, while keeping Collin from jumping overboard or fooling with the running outboard. :shock:

:lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great news, as I had a simular experience after my first two kids were born with my very best buddie during my growing years. My best friend seemed to shy away and we lost contact for thirty plus years, sometimes talking on the phone. Just this past monday, he showed up at the shop. He had gone his seperate ways, loosing a leg, below the knee and having a liver transplant ten years ago. I was hoping to be able to get him in the water, but the rain hindered that for now.

I traveled with my kids on the boats, since about nine days from birth, and its a wonderful time being able to spend the time on the water when they are young, even with some of the trials and tribulations that goes with the unknowns of the youth in them. In the teenage years, which will come sooner than you think, other interests will consume them and it will be back to enjoying mamma, or so says me. :wink: So if you enjoy boats, do what you can to keep some form of one around you and ready to go at a moments notice.

Of course, teach them to swim in these years, even if you are thousands of miles from any water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, when the kids are small it can be tough to get some play time for Dad. I didn't have a sailboat when my kids were small but I did have a 14' runabout with a 20hp merc and took the boys out boogie boarding whenever we could. We cruised around the lake camped and had picnics and went fishing. One of my guys ended up loving the water, is learning how to sail but the other is a geek :lol: His idea of a good time is sitting in front of the monitor.

It is really quite amazing you got yourself out Konrad. Excellent. As Oyster says, it would be great to be able to keep a boat around of some kind and introduce your kids to the water life.

I hope you can get out more yet this season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are some photos.

First one is at the dock, with some free help from bystanders.

(The boat always gets free help.)

DCP_5452.jpg

Second one is while we were motoring out to the middle to raise sails. That is a perfect Nebraska Summer sky right there, folks.

DCP_5454.jpg

I kind of forgot how much fun the boat is to sail, and it's no slouch in the water either. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Konrad,

What lake were you at? I wasn't able to recognize the lake from the pictures.

Good to hear you got out. I only have one weekend left in Nebraska. We will be in the area this coming weekend, in Dallas the 25th and we take off for Alabama on July 1st. All of the boats were already hauled down to the new house.

Not a whole lot of time left.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hiya Steve,

I was kind of wondering about you.

That's at Connestoga, which is 13 min from my driveway.

It's small, but how can you complain about 13 minutes??

Blue Stem is probably about the same distance, but it's an oddball shaped lake. I think Blue Stem might be a little bigger, though.

Well if we don't connect before you take off, I hope your travels go well. My e mail address is bosch232@yahoo.com

Save it and give me a shout when you're back this way.

Konrad

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Konrad,

I took a look at Conestoga with http://maps.google.com/ and there is a really good satellite photo of the lake with the parking lot and boat ramp showing nicely.

That lake would have been really good for the Spindrift, but I never got to it. 50 miles is just a bit far to go on a whim.

Sorry we won't be able to link up, but the retirement thing kinda snuck up on us. My e-mail is srday@alltel.net right now and I will keep this for a while. I don't know what it will be after the move, but I will keep it up-to-date with Frank and this forum.

Enjoy that boat!

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.