Sailor Steve’s New Ride

Categories Supplemental Thoughts
2012_04_28_riggedBoat.jpg

There will be no racing for me on My Mojo this year, because Sailor Steve has a new boat! I went down to the shore with him to pick her up and tow her back across New Jersey to the Delaware River.

The new boat is an immaculately maintained Capri 25. Capri is Catalina’s dedicated racing line, so this is a pretty serious race boat: minimal cabin, fast fin keel, an awesome traveler that spans the cockpit, jib car tracks everywhere, etc. It will hang with a J/24, but is also a comfortable ride.

Capri 25 Lines

As avid readers will recall I am completely unnerved by towing, but pulling a swing keel Catalina 22 is cake compared to towing a fixed-keel boat. As the travelift hauling Steve’s new boat approached his trailer and strained to its maximum lift height to get her onto the pads, I flashed back to my “What have I done?” moment the first time I saw Fortuitous on a trailer. A Capri 25 on a trailer redefined my understanding of unwieldy.

Travelift

Not sure if it’s clear from this shot, but the bottom of the hull is probably 5ft off the ground. We actually had to be concerned about bridge clearances with the top of the rig sitting at 12ft, towering over the tow vehicle.

In the end though, the move went smoothly. We took it easy and stuck with major roads, and there weren’t any surprises. The skipper had things well in hand and there wasn’t much for me to do beyond lending moral support, but I was glad to get to be a part of it.

Congratulations! Should be a fun season of racing.

"Prepare to fend off the bridge abutment."