Second sail, First "real" sail in to be named S22

3-21-2010

Dave K. took me up on a last minute call for crew this Sunday past. After the accident that laid me out for the beginning of the year this was my first real chance to sail the S22. Late last year I purchased an Santana 22 for a pittance. Sold off the S21 and motor sailed from Alameda to my new home port of San Mateo.

I had mixed feelings seeing "Isabel" go, all the upgrades I hadn't done yet etc. I'll miss having a trailerable sailboat, especially this summer when the Potter Yachter's have their Monterrey event, The Cruiser Challenge. But, I want to do some casual class racing and the S22 has an active association and is within sanity in terms of budget. I have a list of things to fix on this boat too, but I'll have to spread them out over time.

We are having some welcome sun and mellow winds the past week or so and I decided that it was time to get acquainted with the new to me boat. I've sailed and crewed S22's before (these were even the boats my basic keel boat cert. was completed on) and this is a pleasant return for me.

The drive up to the marina was the longest part of getting out on the water this time. I am so happy to just be able to get suited up, hank on the jib and get out on the water. We had light winds to begin with but by the end of the day we were blasting around. The S22 is solid compared to the S21. When the wind picks up, it just digs in and goes. No fighting the tiller because of weather helm. Getting it to "heave to" was a challenge. Harder than I remembered, but once set it was fine.

Other than some beautiful sailing, the most notable image of the day (no picture) was of a 36 or 40 foot modern boat charging up to us on the entry to the marina. I had been tempted to sail in, but had opted to drop sail motor. This other boat was a beauty and under full sail overtook and passed us in the narrow channel then dropped sail by push button.