why a Hobie Cat?

Nanook

When My knee hurt and my back was killing me I gave up playing golf and sold my yacht, Nanook, a Noelex 22 which I owned for 15 years. I started to spend too much time in front of the keyboard, up to 17 hours per day. That was a mistake alright because this made my health worse.

To regain my health, I walked in the mornings with Christine, my wife; then in the afternoon, I go kayaking on Hamilton lake to get my upper body exercise. It was working but I needed something more to motivate me to continue with this regime of walking followed by kayaking so that I can get well again soon.

I post my health problems on FaceBook and received many helpful suggestions from all over the world! I was also under going acupuncture treatment, sticking needles in my back at the same time! 

Confucius says: the more needles you stick on your back, the faster you will get well!

Then I searched on Trademe, bought a Hobie cat, put that on my front lawn where the Nanook was parked previously for 15 years. I looked at it when I hooked up the kayak to go kayaking and I looked at it again when I returned, throughout last winter. Later on, I did more than just look. I started slowly to fix up this 30 year old catamaran which has been on my bucket list for much too long.

I found the agent for Hobie in Takapuna, ordered some spare parts for it and continued this regime of walking and kayaking for 9 months; exercising and at the same time, fixing the catamaran. 

I have been sailing dinghies and trailer yachts for 35 years. It is difficult for me to stop sailing now. With some perseverance, I hope to get back on the water again. Initially, I was simply using this catamaran to help motivate me to get well enough to go back on the water again.

Last week, CNY eve I was sleeping in a tent at Ngaroto watching the regatta for two glorious days. I brought my kayak with me and went kayaking when the regatta was going on.

The most important thing that helped me a lot was, talking to all the yachties who also lived in tents next door to me! They were a happy group of sailors who came from all around the Waikato, Auckland and Cambridge for this once a year two-day bash at Ngaroto. However, most of them were dinghy sailors.

Some were handicapped, using wheel chairs and had to be lifted in and out of their 303's using a temporary crane device.

303

Yes, there is now a dinghy that doesn't capsize. It has a longer and heavier centre board. I was looking for a sailing dinghy that does not capsize in 1996 because the water in NZ was simply too cold for me; but I didn't find one because the 303 has not yet been invented.

I bought a 19 ft. Kestrel trailer yacht in 1996 and tried to stay dry, warm and happy on the water. To post this old Kodak photo to this blog, I needed to learn to scan the Kodak print to convert analogue into digital format; then upload to my blog. Digital cameras were not yet invented. Now even a cell phone can take digital photos!

I do not use cell phones. I use an old desk top computer for FB and blogs. It does not have a built in camera or a microphone (cannot skype!) It has a mouse and a standard size key board. However, I am connected to fibre broadband and can stream movies and watch unlimited You Tube videos (up to 17 hours a day!!) For taking photos I used digital cameras.

However, they don't last very long, I have gone through 3 Cyber Shots and recently moving on to using Nikons.

These are now dirt cheap, at $60 each from Harvey Norman. The only problem I have now is finding my photos. I have more than 80,000 digital photos saved on my external hard disk (2 Tb). I use a soft ware program, Picasa for managing them. Three clicks of the mouse I can reach any one of my digital photos! Some valuable ones I uploaded them to my blogs where they are safe from fires, floods, earthquakes and cockroaches.

Digital cameras are now so cheap because only people like me buy them! All the iphones used by young people, can take excellent photos. They don't buy cheap cameras any more. Some people still buy digital cameras; but they are expensive ones.

They all look like this Canon. 

or this Nikon used by more serious hobby photographers. The world is changing so fast now that it is quite difficult for all of us to learn to use every new technology available. We got to pick and choose only those that are useful for our particular purpose...