12Lb Striper caught on Yo-Zuri shallow runner

We went fishing last Sunday on the Delta. Check out the Video of a 12.5 lb striper that we caught. We had a better then average trip, and I have a feeling if we went again we would do even better. We tried here and there to catch some Black Bass, but they weren’t biting. My main goal was to catch some striper and we did just that.

I kept reading about guys catching stripers trolling using shallow running rebels at 5mph so this is what we tried, and it worked once we found the fish. What I also learned is that on outgoing tide the stripers were hanging out near the down current side of a large sand bar. I trolled in as shallow an area as possible without going shallower then 6 feet. Seems most of the fish caught were in the 6 to 10 foot depth range.

We caught a 5# and 12.5# striper and several shakers and at least one missed strike. I had a 17 inch striper practically rip the rod right out of my hand as I was letting out the line. I thought for sure he would be a keeper, but he was just shy of 18 inches. The striper's seemed to be well fed. We kept the 5# and had fish tacos last night and released the 12.5 pounder which I presume to be a female.

As a result of this trip I have identified two new places that will hold fish on outgoing tide. We fished around Decker Island and caught our 1^st keeper just east of the main channel. After that nothing on the Sacramento, so I headed to one of my favorite spots on the San Joaquin near the sandbar up stream from the Antioch Bridge. We saw others fishing up north about a mile and a half, but didn’t try although I heard there was a decent run there recently.

All fish accept one small shaker came on one rod that had a Yo-Zuri on it. I tried to purchase a couple more prior to the trip, but I couldn’t find any in Tracy. I will have to make a trip to Manteca’s Fisherman’s Warehouse most likely prior to my next trip. I am sure if we had a couple more we would have had better luck. The Yo-Zuri has a much more pronounced rattle and ran shallower then the other two shallow running broken back rebels that we had. I used a small 2.5” grub with curly tail, white with sparkles on all rebels. I have heard of others using longer trailers around 6”, but based on their posts they had a lot of missed strikes.

2008 12lb Striper on Yo-Zuri

New Catatamaran - Marquee 380 - CatStats Update

I ran across a new Cat at the Strictly Sail Show last Friday. The first Maverick 380 Sailing cat will be available this month according to their flyer however the distributor is advertising July 2008. This cat is being distributed by Catamaran Marquee out of South Africa. The cat is aimed at the Private owner and offers a Twin owner layout with space an privacy.

One thing that I noticed right away is the large protected cockpit which will be ideal for SF sailing. It appears to come with boards. I entered the statistics into my CatStats table to see where it ranks in performance compared to the rest. It doesn’t look like it will be very fast compared to the other cats out there, although it is not the slowest either. I added more links and corrected a few stats on the cats statistics table as well.

Strickly Sail Show Catamarans

I was at the Oakland Strictly Sail show on Friday. I could have used two days at the show rather then just one. I only saw one of the presentations. There were at least two others I wanted to watch. I just couldn’t fit everything in. There was only three catamarans at the show. The Lagoon Hybrid 420, Fountain Pajot Mahe 36 and the Seawind 1160. I didn’t get to spend as much time as desired on each of the cats. For a weekday, the show was very busy. You had to wait your turn to go through the cat. Just walking though these cats isn’t enough. Eventually I will need to do some sea trials.

There were no surprises on the Seawind. It was what I expected. Wide open cockpit area with the sliding glass doors up. I was happy to note that while standing behind the helm I was able to see through ahead just fine. Sailing in the busy SF bay would be a must though to know if the visibility is a concern. You can’t really navigate without having to look through windows with this design. However there are a lot of windows and the visibility was excellent so perhaps that makes up for it. I suspect this boat would be very nice and allow one to stay relatively comfortable out of the cold SF wind if desired.

I was surprised at how spacious and roomy the Mahe 36 felt. I realized when I was done why it felt so roomy. Unless I missed something, there was only one bathroom on the whole boat on the Owners side. This concept has it ups and downs, and may not be a bad idea in some cases. I like the idea of only having to clean, maintain and replace parts on just one bathroom as apposed to two, three or sometimes 4 separate bathrooms. It really made it feel like a bigger boat. Privacy would more then likely be an issue though if there were 6 people staying in the three berths.

The biggest disappointment came from my discussion with the salesman aboard the Lagoon 420 hybrid. He didn’t have much good news to say about the hybrid technology. In fact something very important he mentioned was that they could barely make it out the Golden Gate Bridge on electric power. I am familiar with the strong winds and currents that can occur. It is not uncommon to have a strong incoming current and a strong headwind while heading out of the SF Bay through the Gate. In fact it can be rather nasty if the seas are rough. This wasn’t the only issue. The salesman advised me that you are supposed to replace the batteries every two or three years or so. This hardly makes up the difference for the fuel savings. I mentioned solar power and he shot down that idea. He said if you can afford the boat, then you can afford the gas and that most likely there is no savings by going green with the Lagoon. He mentioned that some have discussed more powerful electric motors, but that this raises safety concerns as there is possibility for electric shock from the more powerful electric system required for the larger electric motors. This salesperson is just one opinion, but it isn’t a good one. More research is needed on the Hybrid topic.

I know that better batteries are being made. I recall reading about a lighter and more powerful batteries are available now. There was a battery vendor advertising 7 and 10 year warranties on their batteries. I wish I had more time to discuss this issue with them. I was hoping to run into an OSSA Powerlight vendor at the show. Perhaps Lagoon should look into better batteries or better salespersons. I would like to think that the Lagoon salesperson just wasn’t very informed. Regardless this is a serious blow to my theory of going green on a cat for the purpose of saving money. If prices keep going up on fuel, hybrid technologies will make more sense, but perhaps we are just not quite there yet.

Traffic on this blog has jumped up sharply over the weekend for some reason. Could be that search engines are finally finding me. I hope that folks are finding the site informative. there is so much to learn and research before buying your first cat. It is not uncommon to hear about folks taking two years or so to find the right boat. Now I know why. I feel like I have only scratched to surface. I really need to get out on more Cats for some real world experience. I just don' t know when that will happen at the moment.

Video Editing and Underwater Photography

I have not been blogging as often. Work and family life is taking a lot of my free time. I try to provide something entertaining or educational in my posts. Things will start to get interesting soon. I will be at the Strictly Sail show this Friday. Soccer Saturday and Sunday so there goes the weekend. Camping will happen this month as well as La Paz next month. I need to sneak a fishing trip in somewhere in between as well.

Meanwhile I have been struggling with Video editing and streaming issues for the past week. What a mess. Avi, mpeg, mov, vob, etc etc. Can’t we all settle on just one format for crying out loud? I am not happy with the Microsoft WMM(Windows Movie Maker) and I am not a lone. For some reason it will not import my Sony DCR-SR100 mpg video’s. I have tried converting them to AVI’s and still no luck. I guess I will need to break down and buy some video editing software. I was able to use some old avi’s that came from my Cannon S50 and create a 3 minute avi with WMM. It turned out well and was easy to use.

Microsoft Windows Media Player is finicky as well when it comes to streaming videos. I have installed several codec packages, and still no luck. TVersity is working better although I have an issue with it loosing its connection. TVersity won’t handle mpegs, so unless you have video converters chances are half the stuff you want to stream through these programs won’t work. Hopefully they will improve on things soon.

Just received the latest issue of Multihulls World magazine and am reading it from front to back. I keep seeing information on multihull boat shows. I am going to have to travel far to see a good one. I will be lucky to see 3 multihulls at the upcoming show here in Oakland, Ca.

I plan to do a lot of exploring above water as well as underwater when I eventually go on a serious voyage. What I would like to find though is the best place to start weather I am fishing or diving. So I have often thought an underwater camera would be a good option. One that you could drop down. Often times you see things on the fish finder and you just don’t know what it is for sure. I could see myself getting a little more serious about underwater photo’s and video. But not too serious unless I can recoup my costs. A quick internet search and I found the Backscatter Underwater Video and Photo online store. $7,515 bucks for the FX1/Z1 Housing package. I might have to settle for the mini system at a mere $1899. wow. Save you pennies.

I keep thinking about all the things I want to do on my adventures. Everything cost money and is gear intensive and will add weight and take up space. I am going to need a bigger boat and a sponsor. Maybe there is a video crew that want to film a reality Catamaran Sailing show with me as the captain. Yeah right. :)

Surfing for New Catamaran News

In a way I am kind of glad I am not ready to buy a Catamaran just yet. There is so much innovation and change going on, although not fast enough for my tastes. I hope that when I am ready to buy, the cat I desire will be available at a used price and in relatively good shape. I may end up waiting a long time for this to happen. I am sure I won’t wait any longer then I have to. I may instead opt to buy something as new as possible for as less as possible with the idea that I will replace the power plant and generator to support a diesel electric/hybrid concept. I really feel like this will be the best bet and I expect in the next year or two that technologies will improve in this area.

The area I plan on parking my cat will require me to motor for short periods of time here and there to reach to my destinations. While I am not motoring, the solar panels, props and wind generators will replenish the batteries. My ultimate goal is to travel using Mother Nature 99% of the time. This may sound like I am a tree hugger. I am sure I would get along great with them, but I am not so sure about the whole global warming thing. Bottom line is I just don’t want to pay 4 or 5 bucks a gallon to get from point A to point B. Can you blame me? If I can figure out a way to cook, heat water and keep things frozen without using fossil fuels, you can bet I will be looking into it. While moored I do not want to have to run the generator either. But you can bet I will want to shower, watch TV, and run lights all night if needed, maybe even do laundry if I have one on board. Question is, will I have any choice in the matter? Depending on the situation I am sure I will hit a point where the generator will need to kick in. I just want to minimize this as much as possible.

I did a little surfing today to look for some Catamaran news. Not much new though. There is some news about the Voyager 10, however this is two small for my taste. . Apparently the Lagoon 440 is now offering as an option the same hybrid power plant that comes standard on the 420. I am not a fan of Lagoons yet though but it is nice to see this technology taking off. You can read about some recent launchings here. Most are below 40 ft in length. Although I don’t know if I want to go aluminum, it is something I would love to take a look at. The Sirus Racha 1530 Aluminum Catamaran might be something to keep an eye out for. It is considered to be very weight efficient for a 50ft cat. She doesn’t look very pretty without paint, but maybe that is a good thing. Looks mean. Something that pirates might pass up.

Directv, On Demand, Photo, Music, Video's Sling Box

Thought I would share the recent flood of techie stuff that I have learned lately. DirecTV customers listen up. So what does this have to do with Catamarans. The catamaran of my dreams will have all the conveniences of home. The information below could be used to improve life on your boat or your house. Check it out.

The HR10-250 is one of the 1^st HD DirecTV receivers that came out a couple years ago. It is similar to a TiVo box so you can record and pause live TV. It comes with an Off-Air receiver on it. Many of us are in the process or have already upgraded to the HR20 and HR21 DirecTV receivers. Don’t throw away your old HR10-250. Did you know the HR10-250 will function as a free off-air HDTV receiver and you don’t need to pay for DirecTV service to use it? It will still allow you to pause, rewind and FF live TV. You don’t need to have it activated as a receiver through DirecTV to use the Off Air receiver capabilities. I fumbled through the steps to get the unit working without instructions so it is not difficult. You will need to go through the setup and let the system know that you only have an Off-Air antenna. You will need to go through the step of identifying the off air channels in your area and then it should work. I apologize that I don’t have more detailed instructions. There are Help Forums out there like http://www.dbstalk.com/ that will more then likely have the instructions somewhere. You just have to search for them. If you don’t have any luck, send a comment to this post and I will see what I can find.

If you have gone through the recent upgrade to the DirecTV HR20 or HR21 you may already know this, but it is not widely known or advertised since I believe they are still in a beta phase. DirecTV now has On Demand. This is great when there is nothing on TV to watch. Go to On Demand and you can usually find something you want to watch. You will need an Ethernet connection to the Internet connected to your DirecTV receiver. Your best bet is a direct Cat 5 connection from your Internet router to the DirecTV receiver, but in my case I am using wireless. I purchased a Linksys WGA600N which isn't difficult to install. It is marketed towards networked gaming machines. It is a dual band Wireless-N adapter so it will work with the older wireless networks or the newer and faster network standards. It was easy to setup, however in my case I skipped over one step that I shouldn’t have skipped over. The step that advises you to update your wireless routers firmware. This turned out to be a requirement. Don’t skip this step. There is a ton of information here which should point you in the right direction regarding setup here.

Once you have On Demand working you can also share Photo’s, Music and Videos from your PC so you can watch them on your TV through your new DirecTV receiver. The music and photo’s are working great. You can have a slide show while listening to your mp3’s through your TV. It’s great for gatherings and parties. I have not been successful with Video yet which I presume is due to a wireless bandwidth shortage. I have an older Linksys that transmits at a maximum of 54mps and the receiver is not close to the wireless router. It will play for a few seconds and pause or cut out altogether. My plan is to upgrade to the new Linksys WRT600N Dual-Band wireless-N gigabit router. I hope this is the solution, otherwise I will have to try running cat 5 to the TV. Also keep in mind from what I have read and from my experience the Video’s must be mpeg 2’s.

Once the above is working, then the I plan to pick up the Sling Box. This looks cool. Since I work from home a lot and spend a lot of time in the office it would be nice to watch TV there. With the sling box, as long as you have an Internet connection I can watch TV. You could be on you boat connected via Wi-Fi and watch your TV at home. If you are in a Hotel, or Wi-Fi enabled coffee shop you can watch your TV. Pretty cool. The only issue is, whatever you are watching on you PC is what will be shown on you TV, so if you are at home and someone is watching the TV and you want to watch TV on the PC then you will have to fight over what you will be watching. This might not be the case if you have cable since I believe one of the unit’s has a cable tuner in it. This way the TV could be tuned to one show and the Sling Box is tuned to a different channel.

Photo's courtesy of http://www.aeroyacht.com/Yapluka/Sail/main.htm, www.linksys.com and http://www.sunreef-yachts.com/

Justification for a Dream

How do you justify making your dream a reality? There is a wealth of information out there that I am collecting surrounding sailing. Today I received an email from the Captains’ and Admiral’s Café Yahoo group which appears to be a fairly active group. The email mentioned some of the pros and cons of living aboard their boat. Although she says they enjoy it, there is some boredom and frustration that comes with this lifestyle. Additionally she mentioned that whatever you think cruising will cost, you have to double it. She also mentioned a saying “Cruisers look out for one another” that is not always accurate according to her experience. Well, I hope to learn from her experience and others in hopes to prevent or at least have the appropriate expectations.

She mentioned that there are some frustrations with customs and immigration officials and the issue of not being able to get what they needed. I am sure living life on land has similar frustrations. They are just different and on land I suspect that there are more frustrations. I guess boredom can get old, but I am so busy, I would welcome a little boredom. I also think that by learning from this experience that one might be able to do things and equip your catamaran with things that will prevent or at least reduce the amount of boredom.

Perhaps if you knew ahead of time that you would likely run into customs issues, that it wouldn’t be so bad. If you knew it would take a while and you were mentally prepared it wouldn’t be so bad. If you are in a hurry, then customs could be frustrating. If you don’t have the necessary items to clear customs it could be a challenge. If you researched ahead of time what you would need to get through customs, perhaps the experience wouldn’t be so bad.

A natural thing that happens with me is when I hear some negatives that will impact my dream; I begin to formulate theories as to why these things won’t be an issue for me. Being better prepared is a valid theory. Buying a newer boat would perhaps be less frustrating. Installing a satellite dish, game console, and lots of books might prevent boredom. I have to be careful here though. After all this wouldn’t be the 1st time I have theorized and been wrong. This is not the 1st time I have been blinded by love. In this case it is the love for a dream. It is easy to make excuses for a negative, because you don’t want to admit that there are negatives. It will take some time before reality sets in and love ceases to be blinding.

One of the reasons I have chosen a Sailboat over a power boat is that in theory this should be a less expensive option, but is it really less expensive long term? How much fuel can you save sailing vs the cost of owning a power boat? How much does it cost to replace the sails? Does it make up for the fuel savings? I am still concerned about ongoing costs and maintenance needed to keep a Catamaran. I know that when it comes time to take out a Sail boat VS a large Yacht, I will be much more excited to take out the Sailboat because there is almost no fuel costs to take out the sailboat. If you take out a power boat, you know that every mile will cost you. On the other hand, could put a price per mile on a sailboat after including maintenance? Although I am 99% sure what I want to do, when it comes down to it, I have to be 100% sure that a catamaran sailboat is the way to go for me. As you can see I still have some convincing to do and reader comments like the one above do cause one to pause just a bit.

I am confident I will be purchasing used. The price needs to be right. I have some ideas of what I will be looking for. I have to justify jumping into this dream of owning a cruising catamaran. Since boats don’t generally appreciate in value (Here is an interesting post on resale value of Catamarans) I need to make sure I can turn around and sell it if needed for a fair price. I need to make sure that if things don’t work out that I can still get out of the relationship unscathed. I want to keep it simple, however my needs are complicated. The more luxuries I have the more items that will eventually need repair or replacement. Will it cost more to live on a boat or on land? Which is more fun? Which is less frustrating taking all into account?

In the end I might just have to try it to answer some of these questions. After all, the best way to learn is to learn it the hard way. I am notorious for learning the hard way. This is most likely why I do so much research. Unfortunately one can never research enough so it seems. At some point you make a decision and hope that your research paid off. If I could buy a cat now, I would probably do it, but the fact remains, that I have a lot of time to research. I find my self doing a ton of reading. Every little bit helps to educate me and helps me to cope with my strong desire to achieve this dream.

The cat pictured above is a Kynsa 440. I just came across this cat today and thought I should share it.

Main Cat 41 and Catamaran Statistics Updated

I read about the Main Cat 41 today. This appears to be an easy to maintain and pilot, performance minded, functional Cat. It doubles as a day sailor or cabin cruiser. The cockpit and cabin are integrated into a great room. The great room can be opened like a day sailor or closed up to keep out of the weather. This should create a wonderful central social/sailing area with excellent 360 degree visibility for navigation. Accommodations appear to be simple, hardy and functional which is all I require in a starter cat.

The Main Cat will perform will and ranks very high on the Performance Potential scale. The price per lb may be the highest which indicates that it is a very lightweight cat compared to the other cats on my Catamaran Statistics table. Bridge deck clearance is ample so this cat should perform well in rough sea’s. The price for a new Main Cat 41 including the Performance Cruiser Package is listed at $499k as of 8/9/07 here. The Main Cat 41 was also certified in 2006 by the US Coast Guard as a “T-Boat” for commercial day-charter service to carry 18 passengers and two crew.

Each time I visit a catamaran manufacturer’s website I will check the specs with the Catamaran Statistics table. I am slowly picking away at the lengthy list making minor changes and updates to it. I have just updated it with new information. Check it out. You will see that currently the Main Cat has a Ranking of 10 which is very good compared to most. I have also added Bridge Clearance, Mast Height and Payload columns. I don’t have much data yet for these columns, but I will add to it as time goes by.

Vessel Certification & Mast Failure Related Fatalities

I was reading an article on a website that brought up the fact that in order to run charters in a vessel in US waters it must meet the minimum U.S. Coast Guard Regulations. Since there is a chance that I may run charters in my Catamaran, I will be looking for one that is USCG certified. There is a CE Certification that is required for all recreational boats entering or being sold in the European Union. As it turns out, the NMMA verifies annually, or whenever a new boat model is introduced, to determine that they satisfy not only the minimum U.S. Coast Guard Regulations but also the more rigorous standards based on those established by the American Boat & Yacht Council. So it appears that the CE Certification kills two birds with one stone.

I don’t expect to be circumnavigating for a long time. I am a ways away from retiring, and as a result it will be difficult to take any long journeys. I suspect I won’t make it to Europe on my 1^st Cat, however just in case I will be looking for boats that meet the USCG and or the CE certification. The NMMA certification information can be found here. This web site also has a chart that compares the U.S. Coast Guard Regulations to the higher standards used by NMMA to inspect and certify boats.

There is also a list of certified boats, however I don’t see any sailing catamarans manufacturers on the list. According to the PDQ web site, the PDQ Antares 44i is CE Certified Category A Ocean and they even let you see their certificate. So why are all the Catamaran manufacturers missing from the list? I suspect that most Cats are certified. I just checked out the Lagoon and the 500 is CE Certified/EEC Certificate. I would hate to buy a Cat only to find out it will not pass USCG Certification.

It appears that the Coast Guard will inspect your craft but the certification may be limited. In the report mentioned below theirs was only good for 5 years. At least that is what I am reading from this tragic story where a sailing catamaran on a whale watching tour lost it’s mast and eventually sank. One life was lost and 50 were saved. Apparently the crew was unable to detach the rigging from the broken mast and the boat was drug under the water and eventually sank.

Move it or Sell it?

Part of the master plan to achieve my dream will require us to relocate. So I have been looking around my house and noticing we have a ton of stuff we don’t use that is still worth something. I don’t want to move it, so it has to go prior to the move if at all possible. My 1^st thought was to have a garage sale. This thought wasn’t a fun thought. I am sure a garage sale is a lot of work. I was also reminded that I won’t get that much for the items in a garage sale.

I have messed around trying to sell things on Ebay, but the thought of having to be concerned with boxing up and shipping the item wasn’t very attractive. Additionally the items I tried to sell didn’t sell. So I temporarily gave up on the idea. The suggestion I kept hearing about was to use craigslist. http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html So I gave it a try and it is working out great. Everything I have put up has sold. I am starting to wonder if I should be charging more for my items.

The nice thing about craigslist besides being free is that people will come by the house or stop by near where I work to pick up the item. So far so good. I have lots of stuff to sell. Now I always have cash in my pockets. Haven’t used the ATM in a while. It adds up and it is very easy to sell on Craigslist. The website is not fancy. It is a little old school by today’s web development standards, but it really works so it doesn’t bother me. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broke.

I have been selling items that were acquired for free, or are scheduled to be given away. If it has been on a shelf for more then a couple years, then it probably needs to go.

By the way. I sometimes wonder if my readers think I am just advertising for other sites within by blog, but this is not the case. I am simply passing on good info. Maybe someday someone would like to pay me to say something, but for now I do this for free. I do have some related advertising on the left side if anyone is interested. They pay me .05 each click. Woo Hoo. I have made 6 cents so far. Oh well. This blog helps me to process my thoughts and share my experiences. As time goes by I hope to blog about things that will be even more informative and useful.