Sailing Lake Erie Catalina 30 Sandusky to Huron 

It sounds like a "Twilight Zone" nightmare day to me. This was once the heart of the North American industrial belt, now known as the Rust Belt, when I won a jr. sailing contest just off Sandusky at Put In Bay in 68. In this kind of weather there were hundreds of boats out, between the majority fishing, power and sailboats on such a summer day especially weekends. Sandusky Bay could be crowded but Lake Erie is huge, even for small Great Lake, so those hundred+ boats would be grouped in gatherings around active fish, along with a steady E-W traffic of boats going between ports from Toledo to Erie & east, and of course Sandusky with its Cedar Point amusement park, and the islands just to the north. We owned a Pearson 30 out of Huron then Sandusky in the 90's and sailed these waters often. Salt water sailors, note the spray and wake --no foam. Downside of sailing fresh water, one night crewing an offshore race from Cleveland to Sandusky in 40 knot winds, water began sloshing below. You can't tell from tasting it whether it's a tank leak or a hull leak!

Not many people make the connection of why I named the boat Liberty Call. Nothing better than Liberty Call on a Friday with a duty free weekend. Thank you.

Thank you for the feedback, I enjoy the hobby and thought I would try and give back to the RU-vid community.

Thank you for the kind words.

First thought is perfect boat for a couple to learn how to sail. Very stable and forgiving. The other big plus is with such a long production run there are plenty of forums to find info, and parts for just about the entire boat can still be found online. My criteria was at 1988 or newer MK II standard rig. By 1988 mid year so many improvements over the earlier boats, plus it has the t shaped cockpit with the closed transom. If you do allot of swimming the open transom is nice but I like the safety of the closed transom on Lake Erie, lots of short choppy waves in the good sailing weather. Just be sure to have a survey done if you really find a Catalina 30 you like. Let me know if you find one!

The most wind we have had the bait out in was this past week 30knts plus, on the starboard quarter. Last year I had it out in 20 plus upwind and the weather helm was a bit tough, could be more attributed to my learnings. It never rounded and we have the shoal draft wing keel. We have been on a few boats like the CC 32 and they like to heal over much sooner than our boat.

@@cburnworth1 it's a learning curve. Lake Erie gets scary quick.

Thank you for commenting. In my opinion the C30 would be good for costal sailing, day sailing and limited cruising. For blue water sailing personally I would want heavier standing rigging and chain plates. I know people do way more with less of a boat, but this is my opinion. At this point in my learning to sail the boat has more capabilities than I am comfortable pushing it to.

It has the wing keel, shoal draft. The draft is 3.8 ft but I just round up to 4 ft.

Shoal draft with the wing keel.

Still have the boat planning on some maintenance videos over the winter. Would that interest you?

Thank you for the comments, this is what I installed, picked it up on Amazon. It’s installed between the center two instruments and clears both. I installed a small terminal block and a inline fuse before the USB outlet. This off season I upgraded the auto pilot to the Ray Marine Evolution, requires allot more sea talk cables in the nav pod. I plan more videos this year, I will also capture how the new auto pilot performs. Quick Charge 3.0 USB Charger Socket, ADSDIA 12V/24V 36W Aluminum Waterproof Dual QC3.0 Car Charger Power Adapter Outlet with LED Display for Car Boat Marine Motorcycle Scooter RV Golf Cart DIY Kit www.amazon.com/dp/B07PN5YZX3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QWY8X2EJ5W6JY47MEXAQ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Thank you. Fair winds…