I recognize that not everyone is interested in trailering. I did it with my hobie because those were the circumstances I lived in. I hardly gave it a thought beyond, where can I get my boat in the water and sail.
Going after and collecting accomplishments for a "badge" may seem childish, but people, adults, collect all kinda of things, including knowledge and accomplishments, for the self satisfaction, for the comradery and community, and for the bragging rights.
My idea of the 50 50s Challenge or whatever name to call it, maybe the '25 30s Challenge', wasn't for getting people who own and sail their trailersailer in more places. That is just the mechanism. The idea was to promote new interest in trailersailers like the C22.
If it worked the way it works for the 48 4000 footers in NH, it would go something like this:
A potential sailor is at a party or an event of some sort. Two people who recognise each other start talking nearby. "Hey John, that's a nice little sailboat I saw you on the other day. What kind of boat is it?"
"A Catalina 22. I was sailing to Nantucket for the weekend."
"Oh yeah? You should have called me. I could have gotten you there in a quarter of the time, heh he he."
John responds, "Ha ha ha, yeah but that's not the point of taking my sailboat. Besides, that made number 23 of my 50 50s Challenge."
"Your what? 50 50s Challenge?"
Yeah, there's this challenge of 50 sailing trips that are at least 50 miles long, some are over a hundred. I'm trying to complete them all."
"Really, what do you get when you complete them?"
"Mostly, it's just a chance to get out and get some real sailing in and try new places, but at the end, I get a badge to sew onto my dodger and a bumper sticker for my car, plus bragging rights and my name on the SBO's 50 50s Challenge log. It takes a lot of challenging sailing to finish them all."
Now this is about where our hero interrupts.
"Excuse me, I couldn't help over hear. You said there's a challenge called the 50 50s Challenge and people are doing this just for the achievement and a badge? I've been thinking about getting a 16 foot bowrider. Maybe I should get something a little bigger, that the family can spend the night in?! The 50 50s Challenge sounds like a good excuse to get my family on the water more."
The response would be something like, "Well, if your interested in doing the 50 50s Challenge, it will have to be a trailerable sailboat. You can't earn it in a power boat. Why don't you look at the new Catalina 22s, they should accomidate your family for a weekend and one will cost you about the same money as your basic 16 foot bowrider, maybe a little less with the motor included."
"Does it need to be trailerable to qualify?"
Answer, "Not strictly by the rules of the challenge. It just needs to be a sailboat, but some of the starting points and destinations are on lakes or far apart. You can't really do it in anything but a trailersailer. Why don't you go online to sailboatowners.com and download the rules. That will tell you everything you need to know. I already completed by Gulf Coast Challenge and my Southeast Challenge. When I've finished the New England Challenge, I'll concentrate on the Yankee Challenge. I've done about eight of those sails anyways. There's no time limit. I'm having a blast. I think there's only one guy, his name's 'Super Sailer Will', who's done all the challenges in the US, Canada and South America. I hear he's in Europe working on the Western Med Challenge right now."
This would be the point at which our "real sailor" pulls out his Samsung and starts showing the pictures he took of his various adventures.
Done! A new C22 owner is born, along with that, a new SBO member too.
- Will (Dragonfly)