Rounding the Point
10 May 2016 • On passage
Some preliminary thoughts on the handling characteristics of our Cascade 36. We only cruised on this first overnight trip and didn't even try to incorporate the sails for such a short voyage. There was morning wind as we departed after anchoring out and it did get pretty wavy around the point coming back into Catch-22 Bay. We were taking the seas head on and they were 4-5 feet at least, the bow slicing and crashing through them with spray coming up. The boat was stable. Sarah sat in the cockpit with the little kids on either side of her and as we would come out on top of a swell they would together yell wheee and whoaaa. Sarah made into a fun game and nobody was scared at all, except me. I don't fully trust this boat yet as it's so new to me and I'm still checking and rechecking and updating and replacing things as necessary. There's really no way to do that without taking the boat out and around the corner for the night to see how it does. My other sailboats were all relatively nimble in comparison, in terms of their ability to turn on a dime. This is the heaviest feeling sailboat I've have had, but also the one I'd want to be in in heavy weather or rough conditions of any kind. I'll get more adept and comfortable with her over time. I'll never forget the first time the previous owner took me sailing on Oz. The man is over 80 years old and all I did was steer, he did everything else by himself and the sailboat flew. I remember he got tired quickly from it and we had to go in after less than an hour. But he clearly had a lot of confidence in himself and in his boat. She made it through our first little overnight trip, but there are still some kinks to work out before Oz goes out on longer adventures away from the docks.
Comments