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Another Sailing Chapter Ben Ho Fall 2007
Having owned a Marsh Hen, a 17 ft day-sailer, for almost 10 years, I was itching to move on to a slightly larger sailboat with a cabin for overnight trips. I still want it to be a trailerable boat, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a boat with sleeping accommodation so that I could just keep going and venture further out, instead of being limited to day trips or having to find suitable anchorages for camping every night! Somewhat surprisingly, after extensive searching, I could not find a suitable boat that matches my criteria: a trailerable sailboat that’s not overly heavy, with a sizable cockpit, affordability, and good aesthetics. The last item is of course subjective; I am a lover of classical boats who craves the traditional lines of old-fashion sailboats. So in the end I decided to build my own. The design I picked is the Chebacco, a 20 ft cat-yawl designed by Phil Bolger, a designer well-known in the boat-building community. Two year later, after about two thousand hours of very satisfying wood-working labour in my heated garage, Three River was completed and launched in May 2007. For those interested in the boat-building story, you can look up http://www.chebacco.com
The summer of ’07 was spent learning how to sail this versatile rig, and putting finishing touches to the boat (the work NEVER ends!). I probably did more sailing this summer than the last five combined. I am happy to report that the boat turned out very well and every aspect of trailering and sailing is as expected. I am now ready to resume my trailer-sailing journal.
Three Rivers: A Phil Bolger designed Chebacco
This sailing journal is intended to not only share my sailing journeys with sailors and dreamers, but also to provide information that might be useful for this audience to plan similar trips. To this end, I’ve added a rating system to every locale I am reporting.
Ben’s Rating System
Four areas that I feel are critical to a pleasant trailer-sailing-camping trip are rated:
- Boat Launch: including boat ramp and docking
- Suitability for Sailing
- Scenery
- Amenities in the area, such as parks, restaurant, shops
The ratings are:
4 stars: Excellent; First class, as good as it can be.
3 stars: Good: Above average.
2 stars: Fair: Passable.
1 star: Poor: Don’t go there.
Here's the sailing stories of the summer of 2007:
A 14-day Cruise Around Georgian Bay: From Barrie to North Channel
bravenet.com
