Day Sailing

[morbidfollower]

So who actually does this still? Where you haul your boat to your favorite lake/reservoir, prep the boat, launch, sail, and then do it all over again and take the boat home in the same day.... Ive done it a couple times over the years, but it's a ton of work. Especially if you went crazy mode with all the accessories like I did. Unfortunately all the lakes and reservoirs within a couple hours of me do not allow overnight so I end up not going, just doesn't seem worth the hassle. I did get rid of my roller furler which helped with mast stepping/setup but it's still a bummer. When I first got the boat it was easier to do because it was new to me and exciting but now its like if im not going for a couple days im not going. I did keep the boat in sf bay for about 2 years and that was nice but the boat wants to be on a lake. Someone come build me a private 8000 acre reservoir that I can overnight on. Ill let you use it to. sometimes

 

[Stu Jackson]

all the lakes and reservoirs within a couple hours of me do not allow overnight

That's simply not true (if you live in the SF Bay Area).

but the boat wants to be on a lake.

In 1983, we bought a 1981 Catalina 22 swing keel on a trailer. We "berthed" it in Alameda Marina in the trailered boat parking lot section. We lived in an apartment in SF and then moved into our first house in Oakland during that time.

We, too, had the same question you did. So we did our homework. We found two: Lake Berryessa and Clear Lake. Both were accessible up highway 101 and the Route 20 east. We tried Berryessa, but the lake was too small for fun sailing. Clear Lake was superb. Big enough to enjoy a great sail in the upper lake portion, and the southern and eastern arms also had their charms. The sail from the top end to the narrows was one or two hours. There was a marina at the top end where we could launch and keep the boat during the week. The marina did not allow staying on board overnight on your boat. So, we'd drive up on Saturday, go out sailing, anchor out, and sail all day Sunday, and drive home in the early evening. It was heavenly. Anchorage at the NW end of the lake or in front of the state park at the narrows. The drive was less than 3 hours. Long weekends were fabulous! We'd do this from Memorial Day to Labor Day *weekend before and after to get the long weekends). Winds were perfect for sailing: like clockwork afternoon breeze came at 1300 to dusk, calm nights and mornings perfect for anchoring. We BBQd with a hibatchi then a utility box on legs in the cockpit. We built the sleeping option plywood: drop the table, slide the galley back and sleep athwartships, not the Vberth. Great times. There are a handful of other marinas there, too, or were, it was a long time ago. We stored and sailed the boat on SF Bay during the non-summer months.

We really enjoyed Clear Lake sailing, learned how to anchor and read and began to understand everything in Patrick Royce's excellent book - Sailing Illustrated, which had lots of C22 information. Pre-internet days.

Give it a try, reservoirs are too damn small to enjoy sailing.

 

[morbidfollower]

Hi Stu, I actually bought my boat from a guy in Clearlake about five years ago when the water levels were really low. It's about 3 1/2 hours from my house though (morgan hill). All of the lakes that allow overnight that I have found are three hours away or more. I'm gonna go check out Don Pedro. It's about three hours from me as well.

 

[Stu Jackson]

I'm gonna go check out Don Pedro.

I know it's been decades, but IIRC some of those reservoirs are long, narrow and skinny, which doesn't make for good sailing at all. That's why Clear Lake was so superb: the top part of the lake is a huge big ball shape, gives you tons of sailing options, winds were from the NW almost all the time, protected cove at the south end for anchoring, NW corner calm for anchoring, too.

If you're wiling to make the time, it's a great place. We went back for four summers. Only stopped when we got a fixed keel C25 for SF Bay.

I also liked that we could drive up 101 to get there and come back via Cache Creek and down to 80. Avoided boring repetitive trip over the same ground every weekend.

 

[Gene Neill]

We day sailed often when we first bought our first C22. We were younger and constantly learning, and it was always exciting. But in time it got tiresome, and we got less young. It's been years since we decided an overnight stay was the only way to make it worthwhile. Fortunately, you can anchor out overnight anywhere you go in our region of FL.

It's "only" about an hour to our closest launches. Sounds like you have triple that?? Yikes.

 

[morbidfollower]

I guess the realization after all these years is to me the Catalina 22 is not a day sailer in my situation and that It's more of a weekender. Love my boat but I just end up using my smaller boats more as they are more suited for one day trips. Since im not retired, I really can probably only do a handful of bigger trips a year of 3 or more days. I'd do more overnight trips if the lakes/reservoirs that allowed such a thing weren't so far away. Jealous of you guys who have them closer. Just figured I'd ask who was actually using the cat22 as a day sailer.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Just figured I'd ask who was actually using the cat22 as a day sailer.

You're right, it simply isn't. When we had it in Alameda for the winter months, we left it mast up. How? We were incredibly lucky when we learned that if we drove through the small parking lot of an adjacent office building, the telephone and power wires were high enough to allow us to drive to the launch ramp at the end of the short street!!! There was also a lift in the marina, but that was tetchy hanging the boat up on straps! They eventually ended the DIY lift.
Even so, mast up, we'd leave the boat at the marina dock overnight and come back next day, or anchor out in Clipper Cove which was right outside the mouth of The Estuary.

The C22 is NOT a day sailor unless you're young and there are two of you. And your trailer has guides.

 

[shemandr]

I think a better term for use of a boat off a trailer is "Dry Sail." Day sail to me means no overnights. You could day sail a boat out of a slip without launch and retrieval.

 

[morbidfollower]

Just realized my last post might have been interpreted as lost love for my boat. Not the case at all. Im currently planning a 3 day weekend with the family on it. Appreciate all the feedback. Happy sailing

 

[ShawnL]

100% -- we bought ours with the intention of bringing it home every night. Even though the boat launch was only 15 minutes from the house, after a couple of sessions of raising / lowering the mast we joined a club with a mooring harbor. So much nicer, and we use the boat a lot more. A dock would be better, but the mooring is so much cheaper.

 

[ShotgunSlim]

I'm totally with you on the day sailing and it's pretty much the same story here too. When I was younger and more excited, I day sailed exclusively on a small lake during the week when I had the lake pretty much all to myself. Then I changed jobs and now work a normal M-F schedule and when I started fishing on the same lake on weekends I realized how crazy it gets at the boat ramps (shots fired) and on the water (collisions and fatalities). I now manage to do maybe one trip a year usually in the fall or spring when I can get someone to come along and stay out for a few days at a time.