New member with new R5.

[Waterfront]

My friends all say that I have gone to the "Dark Side", but it looks mighty bright to me. I took delivery of my new Cobalt R5 yesterday, a boat that my wife picked out,and am totally stoked !! I am sure to have questions for you all. Here is a short synopsis of my boating experience. I started out as a kid in a flat bottomed wooden fishing boat, as a young adult I sailed Hobie Cat 16, Hobie Cat 18, then a Cal 25 sailboat. Since then I have owned a Pacific Seacraft Flicka, Catalina 30, and an Endeavour 33 , all sail.. The Admiral ( wife) grew tired of working and leaning so we bought a Present 35 Sundeck Trawler. After 10 years on that boat we decided we needed a change. We scoured the used boat market trying to find out what we wanted. We went to a local dealer to look at a brokerage boat, and walked in to the show room where to my surprise my wife saw the R% and said "thats the one". So thats my story, and I'm stickin to it. Our cruising grounds are in lower Alabama in the Gulf Shores area.

[Big Block Power]

Very cool. Congrats and welcome from Wisconsin.

[Southernboatman]

Welcome "Waterfront"! You found it! Waterfront had just taken delivery when we came in from a short time out yesterday. He'll be in the same "shoe rack" as us at the gulf. Beautiful R5 and I''m sure he'll get some pics on here soon.

[Big Block Power]

Welcome "Waterfront"! You found it! Waterfront had just taken delivery when we came in from a short time out yesterday. He'll be in the same "shoe rack" as us at the gulf. Beautiful R5 and I''m sure he'll get some pics on here soon.

Well that's pretty cool.I'm sure seeing your r5 helped his cause.lol

[Driller]

Welcome Wtrfrt, glad to have you onboard.

[Southernboatman]

He found that all on his own, with help from "the Admiral"! And he's been at our hometown base at Fairhope Yacht Club instead of Barber until now.

[Ytmsn]

Welcome to the gang WF! I hope you will like it here. Remember, pictures or your boat doesn't exist!

[AsLan7]

Wow, great journey, Waterfront. Welcome to the CobaltChat forum. So glad you found us!

Yes, plz post any pics. We love 'em here!

What type of boating do you plan to do on her?
Great to see you in the Cadillac of runabouts. You and your wife will certainly enjoy your new-found R5 powerboat passion on the water.

...,& Great job "coming to the light"

(Although I too sail-- and on certain windy days actually prefer sailing over our powerboat). Say it ain't so here on a powerboat site!

[Soonerfan]

Welcome from Oklahoma! Can't wait to see pics of your new baby! You are one lucky man and have a wife with great taste!

[liquid]

Welcome! I also love to sail... although now I'm pretty exclusively whipping around a laser on windy days.

[Ytmsn]

You might like this story Waterfront. I too have a sailboat. It is a 17 foot racing sloop but I don't remember what the brand is. It has the wires that hang from the top of the mast down to a harness so you can stand out on the edge to counterbalance for Sspeed.

I bought it in 2012 and learned about sailing by reading a book. I sailed it twice in 2013. I got along pretty good and thought a lot about sailing it again over the winter, so early in 2014 I told my wife I was going to take the sailboat out and I'll be back in an hour or so. It had been a year since I had tacked everything up but I was confident I would remember everything. I was excited and cast off!

I was running with the wind and the boat handled beautifully and flew like a bird, but when it was time to turn around and tack back into the wind it would slough. The boom swung, I ducked and changed sides right on cue, and then it hit me in the head for the first time. I ducked underneath it, but then the stupid boat didn't tack like I had remembered and it' swung back and hit me in the head ahain.

About 6 hours and two or three hundred hits later I would have paid somebody $100 to drag my sorry ass back to the dock and would have given them the boat. I was burned to a crisp and had resorted to drinking lake water. The worst part was when it turned upside down. I was able to get it back up again but it was not very fun.

It sets behind my lake house and I have not sailed it since...

Note to self... Always check the plug

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[Waterfront]

That's the reason it is called a BOOM, the sound as it hits your head

[AsLan7]

Lol

Great story.

Sounds like something from gilligan's island.

[ajcampen]

Ytmsn sounds like it's time to auction that sail boat on here (for life safety issues).....where are u opening the auction at?

[Ytmsn]

Hah! I should! I think it has become a community boat now. Several guys in our little neighborhood didn't know I had it, and they all want to take turns sailing it next spring. I'm in! As long as the plug is in its a lot of fun