Maiden Voyage

Maiden Voyage, originally uploaded by sailorbill.

Well, I'm a proud owner of both a one design remote control Laser model sailboat (above) that is a quarter-scale of the "real" Laser sailboat I raced 15 years ago AND now an Adventure 14 (pic is the 16 foot version) built by Mad River Canoe.

Here's the short version...

My wife and I drove down to Mendon, NY to check out a kennel where we'll be boarding our dog Maxine this coming weekend over the Christmas break and after the visit we decided to ride around the park directly behind the business. In the park we found a lake called the Hundred Acre Pond.

I had my new remote control Laser model sailboat in the back of the truck and after checking the depth of the water, I decided to give it a quick dunk in the drink. This was the model's first sail.

The wind was blowing steady at about 11 knots. There were few waves. It was barely raining. The temperature was in the mid-50's.

I checked the water depth, then set everything up after choosing the "B" rig and then tested the transmitter and servo, tuned and trimmed everything and set the boat off in the water at the end of the floating boat dock.

Man that boat is fast on a broad reach!!!

The bad news is that she did not respond to any commands from the transmitter at all. She sailed directly across the pond and got hung up in the cattails on the other side. For several hours, we attempted everything including brief contemplation of wading through about 200 yards of muck and brush to get the boat. That wouldn't have worked.

Emergency plan #1 - go rent a canoe for a few hours. We left the boat and headed back into town. The problem with this plan is that it is December in western New York and no canoe rental place is allowed to rent canoes because they don't carry insurance for people in the winter months when usually there is ice and snow all around.

Always have a backup plan. Plan #2 called for us to quickly head home to Fairport and pick up our foul weather gear then drive over to Oak Orchard Canoe and Kayak on the south end of Irondequoit Bay and bought the Adventure 14 and a couple of wooden Loon paddles. A quick stop by West Marine for two PFD's and we were on the way back to the lake.

After about 4 hours of running around and collecting all of the emergency gear and finally paddling for about 20 minutes to get to the sailboat, we retrieved it and headed back to the truck.

Everything and everyone is in one piece, but just like our first "real" sailing adventure on our Alberg 30, Sabrina years ago, we now have a tale to tell about our first remote control sailing experience!