Sea Cat Meeting

Attention Sea Cat (Sea Scouts) meeting this Thursday at the SAIL Marine store. Will be looking at samples of our new uniforms and planning our events for this year. Meeting is at 7:PM at 406 W Miles Ave., Hayden Idaho... just on the south side of Cruz Auto Sales... drive into the large parking lot via the gate past Cruz Auto Sales. Sea Cat meeting happen every 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month unless otherwise noted on the calendar of this site. In the summer when we have a lot of activities our meeting(s) will typically be replaced by various events.

Ice Sailing in Montana

It's been a mild winter here in the Northwest, occasional cold blasts lasting an week or two, interspersed with extended periods of daytime temps climbing into the 40s and 50s, making it a short season for we beleaguered lovers of frozen water.  With our small boats, John and I have been chasing good ice around Montana since November, but it's feeling like our window may be easing shut.

So when Dave Bailey puts out the word that Bitterroot's still got 9 inches with a sailable surface, and a forecast for breeze, we perk up.  I blast out of Spokane early morning, and by early afternoon we're rigging in precious sunshine, punctuated by furious snow squalls, one of which  quickly deposits an inch of graupel on our lovely surface.  But it's warm, with a few zephyrs passing through, and we push off.  I get her hooked up but a couple of times in the stronger puffs, but John, with his legendary light air skills, and this magical new craft of his, manages to zip around fairly non stop.  Tom Schock(yes, that Tom Schock) and his genial extended family, show up for a closer look at this alternative form of sailing.  And soon enough they're in the boats, trying their hands.  Mine's tough to keep rolling in the light stuff, but anyone who jumps in the Kestrel manages to exit with a massive grin.  Steve figures it out right away, soft water sailing skills transferring easily to this new venue.

We all stand about on the ice, enjoying the mountain surroundings and the company, til the day begins to wane.  Dave launches his kite for a few short runs before it all shuts down, and John and I park the boats for the night, as another snow squall descends upon us.  A bite to eat at the Hilltop Tavern, with the Marion locals who are gathering for a night.  And as we drive back down into the valley, the snow turns into rain.  We retire praying that the precip stops!

Clear skies, ten degrees, and the predicted breeze greet us in the morning.  On the ice by ten, there's an additional two inches of light powder on top of deposit, more than we'd like, but manageable given enough pressure.  And it's building.  Patchy, with big lulls, but in the puffs we're hooking up big time!   Four kiters join us in the melee.  It's sunny, with more snow squalls scouring the surface, bringing with them the glee juice.  When they hit, it's full tilt!  Maximum attention and lightning reflexes required to retain control.  Too much power and the windward rear runner leaps off the ice, or the rear end breaks free, either event demanding an instantaneous direction change and/or sheet dump to regain equilibrium.  Then sheet back in hard,  head back into the power, and take off again for more.

The sun is dropping, the skies are clearing, and now the puffs are kicking up clouds of snow ten or fifteen feet high, screaming across the lake, making the pressure visible.  Driving into them demands intense concentration in preparation for the hit.  Negotiating them skillfully delivers a huge burst of acceleration, with an accompanying spike of adrenaline that's massively rewarding.  In the lulls we park up together and blather about the impossibility of anything else being more fun than this!  Then the breeze cranks back up and we're off again!

This is the Kestrel's first test in big air, and all John's years of experience designing, building  and sailing these high speed machines, seems to have paid off with a superbly balanced boat right out of the box. He spent countless hours analyzing the proportions of other successful iceboat designs, and supplemented that with the recent championship results his most recent landsailer design delivered, and spawned a winner!   Blazingly fast in these conditions, controllable when overpowered, and easily pointing ten degrees higher than the Fed.  Even running with a sail a full meter larger than John's,  he still walks away from me in any direction. 

Along with the sun, the temperature is descending as well, and after over six hours on the ice we're getting cold, tired and sore. We've both seen max speeds over 50, in what were sticky conditions, a faster surface would probably have pushed us into the sixties.  My gps logs over 130 miles covered on a three mile long lake, but there's no metric for the giggles.  Another best day of the year........

We break the boats down in the last rays of sunshine, stuff 'em in the back of the van, and trundle on home, speculating whether there's more of this particular fun to be had this season.

I awake the next morning to more crisp winter sun, hitch up to the brand new landsailing trailer John's built for me, and sojourn back thru the mountains to prepare for the next big adventure, dirtboat racing in the desert!

I pull into Tum Tum with enough daylight to saddle up the Yamaha for a ride to the ridgetop in time to indulge in a sunset bowl.  Winter and summer sports all in one February weekend, life is ever entertaining.  I am blessed..... Dave

Inland Northwest Sailing News!

Hello fellow sailors!

In this email... Deals, Accessible Sailing, Sea Scouts, Closing comments

SAILBOAT DEALS HOBIE’S AND RS MONOHULL DEALS

 

I am offering $500 off still on Hobie Tandem Islands and $300 off on Adventure Islands and Cats. There will be a shipping fee which should be very low due to the number of boats on this shipment. So do not let this deal pass if you want an amazing a new Island, T2, Wave’s, or, etc.

In addition I am now working with RS Sailing the manufacture of RS daysailing monohulls. Check out the line of RS monohulls at www.rssailing.com . Let me know if you would like to purchase one. The more boats I can get ordered the better deal I can pass on to you. www.funtosail.com

I AM STILL OFFERING SOME DEALS ON PARTS… Contact me to learn more… funtosail@gmail.com

ACCESSIBLE SAILING

The good news I would like to report is that my accessible/disAbled sailing program will be fully running this summer. And it looks like I may even have a new location to moor the accessible boats. I recently started accesstooutdoors.com and because of this effort I am getting more demand than ever to offer sailing to our local vets, etc., particularly those with spinal cord injuries… which is my specialty.

If you know of any Hobie 16’s that could be donated to my disabled sailing program please let me know. I am in desperate need of two Hobie 16’s to be outfitted with my Trapseats. Even having one Hobie 16 would be huge.

I will also be adding two Tandem Islands as well to the program… I am still working on the funding for this effort but Hobie has been very generous in supporting my efforts via a deal on Islands.

Also RS Sailboats has a new 20’ accessible/disAbled keelboat that I am also looking to add to my fleet. More on that later…

The goal is to have 2 Tandem Islands, 2 Hobie 16’s, and 1 RS Venture Keelboat in the fleet to be able to fully make sailing accessible to our local vets and others. It’s a big project but an important one as well. If you know anyone that has a spinal cord injury in particular then you know getting them away for the daily challenge of dealing with such a disAbililty is a huge benefit to their health on many levels.

If you could help in anyway let me know. All donations are tax deductible. http://bit.ly/1DeUwEG

SEA SCOUTS

The Sea Scout youth program is moving along nicely. We have meetings at my store the 1^st and 3^rd Sunday of each month unless otherwise noted. We are doing some fundraising so we can develop a budget for this program so no youth is left out. I am happy to announce that some local groups and people are stepping forward in big ways to help out with our budget needs, etc. If you would like to help out please let me know as the more support we get the more we can do for the youth. I might add this is a great way to support our sport by getting youth into sailing. http://bit.ly/1Lw5UOh

ENDING

I hear people regularly say this… “why is sailing not bigger in this area.” The truth is the only way it can become big in our area is if people come out to our sailing activities and volunteering to support our youth, disAbled, and adult programs and activities. Really it just comes down to getting out sailing either by yourself or with us… the more sailboats on the water that better.

I know there is a lot going on in the world that is more important than sailing, however I also know sailing is a great way to reduce stress, and socializing with great people can bring many benefits to ones life… I know it has for me.

I truly love you all and wish you a very wonderful 2015! I have great hopes that I will see you at least at one of our activities… it would be wonderful to see you. Check out our calendar at http://bit.ly/17OioDK . More events will be posted shortly.

PS remember this Wednesday again is my Food for Sailors classes at my SAIL Marine store. And my sailing classes are now running so sign up soon as the classes fill up fast… http://bit.ly/1zaYF7K

If you need to contact me (Miles Moore) call 208-704-4454 or email me for sales info at funtosail@gmail.com or for club or Sea Scouts at inlandnwsailors@gmail.com

Food for Sailors!

Attention Sailors! My Thrive Cooking (Sampling) Meal In A Jar & Emergency Preparedness Classes take place at our store every Wednesday (Unless otherwise noted).

If you want a Meal In A Jar the price is $10 or $11.50 with our jar. Limits during our classes are 1 meal per family/couple. We’ll teach how to make the Meal In A Jar and then cook it so that you can taste before deciding if you want to buy it.

RSVP if possible so that we can have enough samples and food for jars/bags for all. Miles & Corine Moore 208-704-4454 or email funtosail@gmail.com

SCHEDULE

WEDNESDAYS

Times of classes are 11:AM, 1:30PM, 4:PM, 6:PM

LOCATION: SAIL Marine/Keys to Vitality Store (next to Cruz Auto Sales on HWY 95 and Miles Ave.) 406 W Miles Ave., Hayden, ID.

Hobie Members Sale!

North American Hobie Class Association / Members only Sale!

 

To help stimulate membership in the North American Hobie Class Association for 2015 (and as a benefit for it's 2015 members!), Hobie Cat... though it's Authorized Dealers... is offering discounts on selected sails and trampolines.

Discounts are 10 to 20% off the list price.

*Anyone is eligible… they simply have to join the class association to receive the discount. Hopefully this will encourage sailors to join the class!

Boat classes included in the sale are Hobie 14, 16, 17 (trampolines only), 18 (trampolines and jibs, SX) and Wave. Not all available sails or trampolines are included due to cost issues.

Available items and pricing: http://static.hobiecat.com/web_uploads/2015/01/23/HobieClassSale.pdf

All orders are through your authorized Hobie Cat dealership SAIL Marine (208-704-4454 funtosail@gmail.com . Member names and membership numbers are required with each order. We will confirm 2015 membership with the class before processing any discount order. One discounted sail set and trampoline will be allowed per member. North American Class Association only.

Sale is offered on orders received through April 30, 2015

http://www.hcana.hobieclass.com/

Join (or renew with) the North American Hobie Class Association!
http://www.hcanamembers.com

Any questions related to your order contact Miles Moore SAIL Marine at 208-704-4454 or funtosail.com

Hobie way of life!

Watch this video to learn about the "Hobie way of life" aboard a Hobie 16...

Free Shipping!

Hello fellow sailors!

FREE SHIPPING

I am currently making a big parts ordering in the next several days so if any of you are planning on making a parts order and can pick the items up at my store I can give you Free Shipping. However oversized items will have a shipping fee.

REDUCTION IN SAILBOAT SHIPPING

Also if you are planning on ordering a Hobie Catamaran or Island this is the time to do it also as this time of year I ship all the boat orders together which can reduce the shipping fee, and with the current fuel prices shipping has never been lower.

Becuase of the lower fuel price if you want to order a SUPER SNARK shipping will be lower than normal.

SHIPPING

Regardless now is the time to save on shipping.

LESSONS

Remember my Keelboat Lessons start this Feburary 7th. Sailing Lessons are the first Saturday of each month (more classes are available during the week starting in April) other than in July due to the 4th being the first Sat.

CONTACT ME related to parts and boat orders @ 208-704-4454 or funtosail@gmail.com