Since I spent a lot of time at the beach during the summer, it is only natural that I have lots of boats to use. Most of my boats are small sailboats, but I also have kayaks and a windsurfer. As for sailboats, I have an Aqua Finn, a Zuma, a Hobie 18 SX, a Hobie 18 SE and access to a Tanzer 10.5 and Hobie 17.
It was my first sailboat and I still have it, though I don't use it that much any more. It's almost identical to a Sunfish, but a little larger. I've used and abused the boat for seven years now, starting on the lakes in Raleigh and then moving to the beach. Here are some pictures of me sailing my Aqua Finn in Beaufort.
I got the Zuma a few years ago as a step-up from the Aqua Finn. It is actually smaller, but a lot faster and a bit more complex. Since I've had it, I've broken the mast in heavy winds, worn out a sail, and gotten much more proficient at handling a small sailboat. Following are just a few of the many pictures that I have of me sailing my Zuma.
Talk about a fast boat, the Hobie 18 SX will sail at over 25 mph. I just got this boat and have to do a little work on it before I can use it heavily this summer. Basically it's in good shape and came with lots of extras including a brand new spinnaker. I should be spending lots of time sailing this thing when summer rolls around. This is a picture of a boat similar to mine that I got off of the Hobie Website.
We found this boat not long after buying the SX. It basically the same boat, only without the wings and a slightly shorter mast. It is still very fast and should
be a lot of fun. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to race the two boats and see which one really is faster. It is also convenient to have an entire boat to get spare parts off of.
This boat isn't mine, but I get to sail on it often. "Sailwind" belongs to one of my neighbors in Beaufort. It's 35 feet long and great for taking
a bunch of people out to Cape Lookout for the day. When just a few of us are on board, we usually try to get it going as fast as we can; our
best to date is around 7.2 knots (about 10 mph), which is pretty good for a cruising sailboat. Here are some pictures of "Sailwind": Once again, this is my neighbor's boat. He's got two identical Hobie 17's and we do a lot of racing. This was the boat that I learned to sail catamarans
on. It is a bit simpler than the 18 SX that I have now, but still very fast and a lot of fun. (Plus, I can right this by myself if I flip it.) These
are some pictures from last summer of me sailing the Hobie 17.Tanzer 10.5
Hobie 17
