Hello everyone. My brief story is that I'm the son of a man who gave up most of his hobbies when he married my mom and had kids. His hobbies included rally racing, small aircraft, and catamaran sailing. I can't remember the various boats he had, but I do remember that he spoke fondly of his Tornado 20, and how he managed to get a skier up out of the water for the length of one of one of the finger lakes in upstate NY.
Anyway, they divorced when I was a teenager and he moved out to Salt Lake, UT and bought himself another cat. A Nacra 5.2 - pre 1985, not sure what year. My first memory of that boat was going out to visit him one hot summer in the mid 90s and spending a really fun day in the blazing sun at a marina on the Great Salt Lake scavenging a destroyed 5.2 he ALSO bought or all the spare parts that were in working order. If I remember correctly, a microburst yanked that 5.2 off its trailer and threw it across the marina into a Miata.
I got to go out in his Nacra about 3 times, if I recall. He'd have me run jib. We were always a crew of 3, and he always got a hull flying at least a little. The last time I was out in it was 2005. I was a newlywed and he took my bride and me out for a sail at Rockport Lake. We were flying a hull good down the lake when a gust hit, the fiddleblock stuck, and we buried a hull. My dad fell of the back. I was sitting low side, saw the sails coming down at me, and bailed off the side. My dear sweet wife was determined not to let me get buried under sails, and started jumping up and down on the high hull. Somehow she countered the motion of the boat and it came back down on it's hulls, right side up.
And that was the last time my dad took the boat out. He moved back to VA in 2008 or so, and parked the boat out at his house in the woods. And there it sat. For 9 years.
Last fall I expressed interest in it, and he said I could have it if I wanted. So I got the trailer tires filled up, and towed it across town to my place. And now I own a catamaran. A Nacra 5.2 with an extra mainsail and a toolbox full of extra stainless steel hardware bits.
I work for an architecture firm where both of my business partners are sailors. One sails competitively most weekends during the season. The other is a hobby sailor that doesn't get out as often. I thought this was an excellent opportunity for me to learn. My goals are to get the boat seaworthy, and start learning. I'm a handy guy - I do home improvement and work on vintage cars, so I'm confident I can do most of the minor stuff.
I'm about to post in the repairs forum, where I'll put up photos of the boat and start asking questions. It's great to be here!
Great story loquinho. I'm 60 years young and just started sailing again. I haven't sailed since my late 20's. I found a 78 Nacra 5.2 on craigslist last month and just finished replacing a few bits on it. Sailed it for the first time last weekend. It's a great boat. Good luck and keep us posted.
Welcome to the forum. I too am just getting back to cat sailing, or sailing in general. I am 51, and until last Labor Day, I had not sailed since I was in my early 20's. I have always admired Nacra cats, I knew they were fast and they look so cool. When I had the opportunity to get back into cat sailing I went with what I mostly knew about and that was Hobie. I had a H14 when I was a teen, so this time around I went with the H16 because I was somewhat familiar with the type of boat that it is.
Good luck with your boat and be sure to post pics of your progress in the clean up and restoration. It's really cool that the boat was passed along to you by your Dad. My Dad got me my first sailboat which was a little Sea Snark.
Happy sailing!
Thanks for the warm welcome, guys. Quick question - since I'll likely have quite a few different questions on the boat, should I post them in separate thread that are specific-problem related, or should I just start a mega thread for the restoration and ask all my questions in there as I run across them?
separate thread that are specific-problem related
i don't think it really matters - it's just that in multi point threads, things can get sidetracked and off topic pretty fast making it harder to find the answers to any specific question
so it would probably be best for future searches to keep on topic and start a new thread for each issue
MN3
loquinho wrote:
I'm about to post in the repairs forum, where I'll put up photos of the boat and start asking questions. It's great to be here!
loquinho, Thanks for the introduction and welcome to TheBeachcats.com! Really loved your story and good luck with the boat, the 5.2 is a popular model so there will be plenty of help (and parts) available.
There are probably beachcat sailors local to you here if you need some hands on help.
You can setup your avatar and signature using the instructions in my signature below.
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Damon Linkous
Another great place to spend many many hours is just going through all the technical photo albums. Lots of people have spent a great deal of time showing how they have repaired and upgraded these boats.
Just out of curiosity do you know what your hull # is?
dmgbear55 wrote: Another great place to spend many many hours is just going through all the technical photo albums. Lots of people have spent a great deal of time showing how they have repaired and upgraded these boats.
I've spent quite a bit of time lurking there over the past few months before I decided to join and start participating. Thanks!
dmgbear55 wrote: Just out of curiosity do you know what your hull # is?
TRRC1197M79F. What does that tell me?
Ok, just checked my hull number to see how it works. Your hull # is 1197 and it looks like it was made in 1979. The original sail # would also have shown the 1197. (unless the numbering schemes changed)
Oh, that's crazy. I had no idea the two were related. I have two main sails, one of which is #1197. I didn't make the connection. The other main is from an earlier cat - it's #616.
That's pretty cool, you either have the original sail or your Dad bought a new sail and put the original number on it.
The last three digits of your hull number HIN 79F, the F stands for January so you have a 79 model built in January of 79, the digits start with A for august, so if your boat had 79A as the number it would have been built in August of 78 but be a 79 model.
Here's a link, the sytem changed in 84 to a system like 876 which would bean an 87 model boat built in 86.
http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/hin.htm
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Damon Linkous
If you ever need parts, check out Dan Berger, IIRC he is in Norfolk Va. An honest guy, he parts out boats as a business & usually has lots of stuff around. If you find an ad for Nacra on Ebay, with a Va address it's probably him, & he usually ha ads here.
Before you get serious about boat work, you better get rid of that Xmas tree.:-D
When the wife finds that still lying about, you're done.
E C Hilliard
Nacra 5.7
Bombardier Invitation
Edchris177 wrote: If you ever need parts, check out Dan Berger, IIRC he is in Norfolk Va. An honest guy, he parts out boats as a business & usually has lots of stuff around. If you find an ad for Nacra on Ebay, with a Va address it's probably him, & he usually ha ads here.
Before you get serious about boat work, you better get rid of that Xmas tree.:-D
When the wife finds that still lying about, you're done.
HAHAHA! That's our random scrap and refuse pile. There's at least two Christmas trees and an obvious pumpkin in there from Halloween. So I guess it's a holiday scrap pile too. I'll throw in a few eggs over Easter.
Good to know about Dan Berger. Heck, Norfolk is only a couple hours down the road from me, so I could easily pop down to grab some parts if needed. Thanks!
DamonLinkous wrote: That's pretty cool, you either have the original sail or your Dad bought a new sail and put the original number on it.
The last three digits of your hull number HIN 79F, the F stands for January so you have a 79 model built in January of 79, the digits start with A for august, so if your boat had 79A as the number it would have been built in August of 78 but be a 79 model.
Thanks for this info as well. I'm fairly certain my dad didn't have enough money for a new sail - I'm pretty sure it's original. Both mains and the jib all have this logo on them.
Welcome Erik,
There are and have been a lot of 5.2 guys on this site. If you have a question, I'd search the forum here and see what you can find then feel free to ask. There are quite a few guys that have fully restored these boats and I'm one of them. Feel free to reach out if you need help figuring something out.
If you don't have the captive mast base that holds the mast on the ball while you step, I would try to track one of those down especially if your wife is going to be the one helping you step the mast.
You've got a great boat that you can sail solo or with crew when you want.
That logo is the Skip Elliot sails logo, the original brand that came with the boat. Good sails, the stiffer the better, if you get serious about racing, you might want to get a new or newer set. You'll see a difference in performance and your ability to control power both both increasing and decreasing. It is hard to de-power blown out sails in a lot of wind. SLO sails cuts some good sails for the 5.2, they've done quite a few and have revised them a couple times for better performance.
A lot of mineral spirits, even more sore elbows, and maybe some fine 600 or more grit wet sanding followed by a coat of fleet wax will clean those hulls up pretty good.
Last piece of advice, if you don't have kids yet, fix up the boat before you do. It's much easier that way. Trust me. Hats off to your dad, but you can have a hobby like this and a family, it's all about balance and knowing that sleep is over rated. haha.