i be sailing

A day after volunteering for sailability, I still wanted to go sailing, so I did. We arrived at club lake at around 11pm, Andrew was supposed to come, but was drunk again

so it was just me, the Wife and son Cholo. When I invited Cholo to go sailing this weekend he said he was game but changed his mind last minute (what do you expect from a 6 year-old ).

So he just went swimming instead. I really wanted to take both of them out, but Cholo didn’t want to and I couldn’t take just Cheryl out since no one would be left with him.

So it was just me single handed.

When we arrived, there was a good breeze going, but by the time I got out to the water the wind had died, and coudn’t go out, so I waited. a slight breeze came about 30 minutes later and died again as soon as it got there. So I decided to go for a swim in the pool instead. 30 minutes later the wind started picking up, so I decided to give it another go. the breeze was pretty steady and I was on my way. weremermaid said she might be at TLYC on Sunday so I went that direction. A few hobies also went out, taking advantage of the good breeze, I was looking for a one legged lady with a yellow pfd on one of the hobies on the water but didn’t see any.

Then I noticed the wind was starting to pick up, more and more and more! It came to the point that the weather was like the last time Andrew and I were there, and I was out on the water, alone, in raging conditions, and it was my first time single handed! and worse, my phone had no load

If it were a little calmer I would’ve gotten closer to tlyc to see if mermaid were there, but had to scratch that idea in favor of turning back, as it looked like rain over in the distance. (that’s me chickening out. )

the wind was blowing shoreward, so I made 180 degree turn to windward (keeping safe) and stayed on beam reach on the way back (and yes, wider gunwales and hiking straps would’ve been great at this point). then I turned down wind and was on a run on the way back to club lake. it was a good thing I was able to fix the sticking daggerboard problem last week, as I don’t know what would’ve happened if I had to let go of everything and had to pull out the db with both hands.

the whole time, the boat never felt unmanageable, even in the strongest winds that day. yes, I was mostly in control

woohoo! thinking back, I think I should’ve stayed out a lot longer. but my newbieness got the better of me I guess. all in all, I had loads of fun. It was kind of a mix of the second outing and the thrid.

I found my most comfortable seating position in the boat was on the floor, between the center thwart and the rear compartment. comfortable, maybe, but i actually like the vew from there.

Last week, me and a few buds from PHBYC volunteered for Sailability Philippines, a program that teaches disabled persons how to sail. Aquaman and biel volunteered their sailing knowledge to be instructors on Access dinghies and teach the newbies how to sail. Arvin skippered a 40′+ sailing yacht that would carry a film crew from the TV show gameplan which was also there to take footage of sailability in action. Leading sailability was weremermaid she was also the group’s spokeperson. since I had too little sailing experience to teach any one, I volunteered my boat. here’s a picture of one of the access dinghies with Aquaman in it and biel (in the blue and yellow pfd) getting ready to board. ====>

With the help of Arvin, we set up Ceol Beag at the MYC parking lot and carried it  down the dinghy ramp. I then brought it to the dock to pick up Bong, a polio victim who’s also part of the sailability program. Bong works at the MYC restoring boats and stuff and actually has had more sailing experience than most of the sailablity sailors there.

With Bong at the helm we went out of the breakwater and went out to join the Philippine sailing team at their practice. But we knew well enough to keep our distance. Watching the sailing team at practice was like watching ballet on the water. all those synchronized tacks and gybes were fun to watch.

After a few minutes in the water, Aquaman boarded ceol beag and bong transfered to an Access. The Access 2.3 dinghy is an amazing little boat, especially developed for the disabled and newbie sailors. Steering is controlled with a joystick and all lines lead to the helmsman. Seating is on a very comfortable in a hammock type seat. It is also very stable, courtesy with its 60 pound centerboard. I was also able to try out the Access later in the afternoon. It was fun, but a little to tame for my taste though.

After lunch other sailors also got to try my spindrift for the first time. Weremermaid was one of them, one leg and all. Mermaid has had plenty of experience sailing dinghies and even hobies, so for her, handling the spindrift was easy. She really took the boat out through its paces, doing rolling tacks and several hard gybes. The racer that she is, she was looking for hiking straps and side wings for hiking purposes, but I told her that the spindrift was designed as a working tender and not a racer, and thus its very simple deck layout.

An ex laser sailor, XP also got to try out the spindrift and made several recommendations on the rigging and seating arrangements. He was so impressed with the boat and even talked about the possibility of creating a one-design racing class for it. I’ve since given him a quote on how much it would be cost to have a commisioned build. but so far no orders yet. here’s me crossing my fingers

With the help of the other PHBC guys, we packed up the boat. A small crowd gathered around it while we were doing so, amazed mostly by it’s protability. It is very rare that you see a perfectly good boat taken apart in half and loaded into a van.