Well gather round kids and I'll tell you the exciting and dramatic tale. It all started around last summer, one day me and a friend decided we would go up sailing in Lake Tahoe (since we have a cabin there) well, about a week before we go up(again) there was a huge sewage spill out on the Kings beach. And this is the ramp we use to launch my boat since it is close, easy, and with a parks and rec pass of California... free. So we go up a week later and the beach and ramp is still closed, so my first mate and I quickly devise a plan, we planned to seduce the girl stationed at the launch ramp into letting us launch there with our sauve, sexy and charmingly witty personalities. Well, it worked... apparently she was no match for our amazing charm... anyway, we convinced her to take a "lunch break" while we set up and launched amazingly fast, the only catch was the coast guard was patroling up and down the beach.

So we ended up tossing everything on the tramp and raising the mast then flying down the launch ramp at about 20mph, we get out, shove the boat off, the first mate takes it to the beach and was supposed to start getting ready to go while I parked the car. I come running up and see my H16 not on the beach, but it making its way out to sea(ignore the fact we are on a lake...) and my first mate yelling at me and pointing at the coast guard boat less than a 100 yds off and getting closer. We hop on the boat, the first mate grabs the oar(yes I have an oar on board... in case of emergencies, plus the first mate is in crew, so he is always the oar whore on my vessel) and frantically starts paddling us out; in the mean time I get the rudders down and tiller attached so we can steer. The coast guard is getting closer, but we stay just far enough away for them not to yell at us. As we paddle through the bouy field we start zig zagging between boats in attempts to lose them... even though they are faster and we have a 26 foot pole sticking out. At this point we are just playing games with them, once we feel we are far enough out, we realize the sails are still on the tramp... we are screwed...

We thought the best way to go would be to get the jib up, to help stabilize the mast and give us SOME way of moving under our own power. We tightened the battons on thr tramp, connected it to jib halyard and the jib sheets... then came the hard part... getting in on the forestay. We ended up putting the sail in the water, and it took a combo of standing on the nose of the while almost laying on the forestay and pulling up to it from the water to get it attached. Then raised the jib, getting it out of the water and getting us moved out away from most certain trouble.

Now the main sail... this was a doozy... Again we tighten the battons with the sail on the tramp and I attach the main halyard while the first mate attaches the blocks and gets the traveler set up. We then thread the main into the groove and start raising. I really wish i was on the coast guard boat to hear what they were saying, I should also mention they stopped chasing us and decided it would be a very amusing spectacle to watch, and we would end up going through all the trouble and wind up heading back to shore to raise the sails where they would surely catch us. But we heave and pull with all our might and its only about half way up. So I wrap the halyard around the hand, and try raising it on the hull, but in the water it just rocked the boat alot, so I go and stand on the crossbar, and slowly lean back while the first mate is on the very stern hull in order to equalize the boat more. Also might I add that leaning back like that was one of the scariest thing I have done on my boat. But I got it all the way and it took about five minutes to get that stupid bead locked in, but I did it.

We were off, we had successfully seduced a lovely young lady into looking the other way, out ran a coast guard boat on a hobie with no sails, raised sails while quite a ways out from shore, and did not get caught and chewed out by the coast guard and entertained them for about 15- 30 minutes... it was a full day... but not before a daring rescue, I almost lost my hat that day to Davey Jones' locker, but I save that story of epic heroism, adventure and most certain tale of near death for another time and another day. The End.