Boat Projects & Upgrades – 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....

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!...

Repairing A Dismasted Catalina 26

June 23, 2024June 25, 2024Tom Ray

Our latest project boat is a Catalina 26 that was dismasted in a hurricane. We’re in the process of adapting a mast from another boat to fit. The boat has a working diesel engine and isn’t in bad shape. We will sell it to support our sailing programs. The original mast was mangled beyond repair but the mast we are using for the boat was another donation. It was the mizzen mast on a cruising multihull....