Latest News – The Sailing Center

Raising A Sunken Catalina 26 – Total Loss In Hurricane Milton

November 20, 2024November 21, 2024Tom Ray

Last summer, the Sailing Center received a Catalina 26 that had been dismasted and scuffed up in hurricane Ian. It was a promising donation with a working Yanmar diesel engine and no major damage apart from the mangled mast. We had fitted the Catalina’s old standing rigging and spreaders to a donated mast and were getting close to having a working sailboat when hurricane Helene flooded our building in September 2024. We were just getting the mud out and drying out our stuff in October when hurricane Milton flooded the whole park much worse. The floating dock escaped its piling rows and crashed into the Catalina as it was tossed up onto the dock pilings and a piling tore a large hole in the side of the boat, sinking it. In the picture at left you can see the aluminum ramp that provided access to the floating dock just hanging in the water and one piling next to the Catalina that looks a bit battered on top. It won the fight. With limited access to the park and the need to clean our way to our salvage tools, it took a while to assemble the people and tools needed to raise the boat. First it was lashed to the dock with come-a-longs to hold it vertical. Then our fearless leader, Dennis, went in the water with a hand drill and a thin slab of fiberglass and covered the hole. We then draped a tarp over the patch and some...

Impact of Hurricanes Helene and Milton on the Sailing Center

October 28, 2024October 30, 2024Tom Ray

The wind-driven storm surge from Hurricane Helene brought about a foot of muddy water into the Sailing Center building but overall damage was not too bad. Our boats were not hurt, we just lost some tools, supplies, and documents that were too close to the ground. We picked up the pieces and were carrying on as usual when Hurricane Milton came along. The water came up quite a bit higher in Milton, removing our 420’s from their trailers and smashing them into the Optimist Prams and Minifish, which then floated into the Sunfish rack, freeing all of them and sending them into the Laser rack and then the whole jumble of boats fetched up against our bigger boats and the fence. What a mess. Here’s a video summary: The small sailboat pile was interlocked and we had to cut the rig off a Laser to extract it. These 420’s were strapped to ground anchors on their trailers. Now the trailers and the metal pole barn roof and two of the hulls need repair. Inside the building there seems to have been some wave action, enough to knock over a pretty big air compressor. It was pungent. After we shoveled away the wet piles, the dried mud had to be scraped from the floor. It’s still going to need pressure washing. We got the small boats moved from the messy pile at one end of the yard. To a more organized stack at the other end of the yard. Next...

Hurricane Milton Cleanup Day Saturday, October 26

October 25, 2024October 25, 2024Tom Ray

Can you lift one end of a Sunfish? Or push a broom? If so, we can use your help tomorrow at the Charlotte Harbor Community Sailing Center. Charlotte County will let us into the Beach Complex in the morning. The park remains closed to the public....

Adult Sailing Classes Wednesday 9/11/24

October 24, 2024October 25, 2024Tom Ray

When I took this picture on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, it was just another picture of Dennis doing some adult sailing instruction. I have hundreds of these. It’s still somehow worth taking a picture every time. I did not know then that this would be the last one. As I write this in late October, the Sailing Center is heavily damaged and that floating dock is in pieces. The park where we operate is closed and we are being allowed access only to clean up our boats and building. The floating docks were constructed by volunteers for the 2012 IFDS World Championship and so were outfitted to mount hoists used to get people from a wheelchair to a boat and back again. Sailing is a special kind of freedom, whether it’s the person learning how to make the most of the wind later in life like in the picture above or it’s our sailors who arrive in a chair but who have the same freedom of movement as others once on the water. We’ll gather our boats and our dock and be back when we can. Details on the damage coming in the next post....

Adult Sailing Classes Wednesday 7/31/24

August 1, 2024August 1, 2024Tom Ray

We had three students show up for some Sunfish sailing last Wednesday, 7/31/24. The Sailing Center is happy to accomodate adults who have never sailed and those who sailed long ago and want to get back into it. Here’s a short video:...

Newbies Sailing Across Charlotte Harbor

July 19, 2024July 19, 2024Tom Ray

On the last day of our week-long Kids Sailing Camps we like to let the kids sail from the Port Charlotte Beach Complex across to Punta Gorda and back. It only works if the kids have learned enough and the weather cooperates and we got both this week! A pic of the group of Sunfish and one Minifish sailing out Alligator Bay toward Charlotte Harbor. Sunfish and Minifish crossing tacks on Charlotte Harbor. Sunfish sailing upwind to Charlotte Harbor....

Kids Camp #3 Sailing Pictures & Videos

July 16, 2024July 19, 2024Tom Ray

We have a couple of older teens in our last Kids Camp of 2024. We like to see people of all ages learn to sail. This youngster is big enough to right a Sunfish if he should capsize it. This girl has been with us before and knows how to sail a Minifish. It really helps some of the new kids to talk to someone their own age or younger, or just to follow her around as she sails. Light winds shift around a lot in the sheltered basin so the kids learn to pay attention to it....

Com-Pac 19 Donation July 2024

July 10, 2024July 10, 2024Tom Ray

The Sailing Center has been donated a 1985 Com-Pac 19 sailboat. The most recent registration sticker on this boat is 11 years old and it’s easy to believe no one has sailed it since then. It’s dirty and neglected looking. Boats like this can be hard for individual owners to sell. It needs so much work that hiring it out would consume the sale price and people can’t or won’t do it themselves, so the boats deteriorate until they find their way to a landfill. We interrupt that process with volunteers who are willing to use a little elbow grease on an old boat so we can sell it to support The Sailing Center. If you have a boat to donate or if you are willing to help us rejuvenate donations, contact us today!...

Adult Sailing Lesson 7/3/2024

July 4, 2024July 4, 2024Tom Ray

Wednesdays at The Sailing Center we are happy to see our adult students come in for sailing lessons. This woman sailed long ago and wants to get back into it. The protected basin provides a great place to relearn basic skills and get comfortable in the boat again....

Kids Sailing Camp #2 Highlight Pictures and Videos

June 25, 2024June 28, 2024Tom Ray

Kids got in some light air sailing on our first day of Kids Camp #2 for 2024. The two teenagers are in Sunfish and two younger girls are in Minifish. It’s always fun to watch new sailors struggle and then the lights come on! We also teach basics indoors in an Optimist Pram on wheels. It’s on wheels so that we can move it in response to kids moving the tiller. It’s indoors because we have air conditioning and kids learn better when they’re not trying to manage a deluge of sweat. Day Two featured almost no wind. We got in a little sailing when possible. Day 5 got off to a slow start with no wind until after 10:00 but some breeze finally came in and the kids got out sailing. Full sails, smiling faces! Turned into a great morning for sailing! Kids sailing Charlotte Harbor....