359 Sailing Saturday

Yesterday I found a new favorite boat. This happens apparently a couple times a year.

This one is a custom made "raid" boat called "River of Grass." "Raid" is a new style of racing, popularized in the US by three races primarily, the Everglades Challenge, the Texas 200, and the R2AK, which stands for Race To Alaska. ("Raid" comes from French, "raid velo" where this style of racing has been growing in popularity since the early 90s.)

This boat is fifteen feet long, with an unstayed cat ketch rig with spars instead of booms. It has an almost six foot beam, a hundred pound centerboard, hard chines, and two water ballast tanks of 80lbs each, controlled by a foot pump.

What does all of that mean? It means it's pretty small, but kinda roomy, and relatively simple to sail. There's plenty of sail area, but because it's spilt over two masts, it's easier to manage.

A few years ago when I was learning to sail, I didn't know this type of boat existed. I learned on a keel boat, a Ranger 23. 

That's a pretty small keel boat, but it still has 1500lbs of ballast in the keel. For years, yachties have sat around the yacht club pondering the decline in sailing participation. Why, they ask, are young people not sailing?

An RV.
A conversion van.
What my driving school had.

Learning to sail in even a Ranger 23 is like learning to drive in an RV. Even a tiny one like a conversion van is still kinda big and awkward, and any driver will tell you, that's not really the sweet spot for driving fun.

The most popular sailboat in the US is the Catalina 30, if you believe the experts. 

And this is why. It's a party house on the water. There were something like ten thousand made.

There are more El Toros and Lasers around, but somehow, with the exception of all of us who know better, dinghies have been relegated to kids toys in the US.

My first sailboat crush was the Bristol 24. I still get excited when I see one. 

It is a small but heavy boat built on the East Coast. It is capable of crossing oceans, but most of them putter around bays or sit at marinas.

Then I got into dinghy sailing, and realized I like going fast. The Cal 20, a slightly sportier classic, rose in my book. This is modeled after an old English design, and I used to think that flush foredeck was ugly, but now I just think they're pretty as can be.

But then I think about the kind of sailing I like to do. Now, maybe that would change if I had a bigger boat, but right now, I'm all about going somewhere off the beaten track, pulling the boat up onto a beach, and camping out. You can't do that in a keel boat.

But you sure can on "River of Grass." (And did I mention, it won the Everglades Challenge in 2019?)

Long story short, I don't know what my next boat will be, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's totally different than what I think now. 

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