One of the things that I’m looking to do as a part of this trip east is bring Synchronicity, my Hobie 16, out to California. Given that I haven’t sailed Synchronicity since 2007, the first orders of business were to free her and fix her up.
It took me about a week of on-and-off yard-work to excavate Synchronicity from the weeds that had overgrown her in my absence. Having excavated Synchronicity, it was damage assessment time.
Synchronicity’s trailer was structurally altogether but one of the tires was flat and both of the wheels were pretty thoroughly rusted; additionally, all of the lights and wiring were shot. So I bought new wheels and a whole new set of lights and wires. I’ve got the wheels swapped out and I’ll redo the wiring tomorrow, if it doesn’t rain. All told, not a lot of effort in repairing the trailer but a decent bit of expense, especially when combined with the cost of buying a trailer hitch and getting it installed on my car.
Thankfully, Synchronicity, herself, seems to be holding up pretty well. I had to replace all of the ropes and one of the shrouds that I damaged while clearing away the weeds, which is some expense and little effort. The main halyard also needs replacing and, on a Hobie Cat, it’s not just a simple rope, so that’s another little expense. The mast, sails, trampoline, and hull structure are all in good shape but the gelcoat on the bottom of the hulls is pretty sad. I might fix the gelcoat now but odds are pretty good that I’ll wait until I get back to San Francisco, as it may be a bit too time/effort intensive for my remaining week and a half
Between all of the repair costs and the expected decreases in fuel efficiency for the drive west, I expect that it’ll probably cost me a good $500-$800 to get Synchronicity out on the waters of San Francisco Bay. Take that plus an estimated 30 – 50 hours of my time and ask me if it’s worth it.
Heck yes it’s worth it! There are few things in the world like sailing a catamaran.