Nina Likes Cats

Of course she does. Everyone knows that. But there's a new cat she likes a lot: our Fanatic Ultra Cat. We've had it for almost two years, but today was the first time she sailed it. And here's what she said: "So viel Spass!"

We both needed some long board practice for the upcoming Kashy/WET spring regatta. I needed to sail again after being off the water for about 2 weeks, visiting family in Germany. It was sunny, warm, and a holiday in both Massachusetts (Patriots' Day) and Germany (Easter Monday). Not to go sailing would simply have been wrong. The wind collaborated, with south winds increasing from 7 mph to low teens.

Nina rigged a 7.0, I used a cambered 8.5; considering our weight differences, these are roughly identical sail sizes. We switched between sailing the Ultra Cat and the Exocet WindSUP 10. The WindSUP was a lot easier to jibe, but had no chance against the Cat in little races: the Cat always won, regardless who was on top, and whether we raced upwind or downwind. It also was a lot more fun to sail, especially when the wind picked up - the Cat just kept going faster, almost planing at times in 12 mph wind. Fun!

Unfortunately, we now have a few problems. At the ECWF in Long Island, Nina has stayed away from low wind races so far - but now, she wants to sail the board I bought specifically for the ECWF low wind days. At the Kashy/WET regatta, I will rent a Kona, so she can have the Cat - but we have to figure out how to get it there. It fits into our van, but just barely so - diagonally, with it's nose separating the driver and passenger, and also blocking the view of the right mirror. That's fine for local trips, but a no-go for the long trip to Hatteras. It would also take too much extra space - leaving one of the other 9 or 10 boards we usually take to Hatteras is inconceivable. So I'll have to explore a roof rack. There are mounting points, but the roof is darn high up on our high roof Nissan NV. Thule does not make racks for it, so some improvisation is called for. We'll have to see what can be done in the few hours we have to work on this before our next trip...