I launched my Cl 16 for the first time last saturday. The wind was 30 km/h. The dock at the launch was the length of the boat so rigging it was... tricky. Especially since the boat was on a broad reach at the time.

We finally left, with my brother (also my crew at the time) holding the boat steady as my sails caught the wind. I was off! But I left my brother behind so I had to return and nearly rammed the dock.

Our second try was slightly more successful than the first, we tacked back and forth across the narrow bay, but the wind shifted and pushed us back towards the beach.

Our third try was the success. We left the beach, and tacked back and forth across the bay (the tacks not lasting all that long). My main was probably halfway out to keep the boat flat. We finally left the little bay and nearly capsized with the increase in wind. But we didn't.

We tried to figure out where we were, and eventually saw our house on the hill. So we counted the docks until we found my friend's dock. By then the wind had died a bit. We encountered HUGE patches of weeds. I tried to steer away from most of them, but one of them snuck on me, and we slowed down completely. We waited until a gust hit and we were pushed away.

We finally found my friend's after much debate: he doesn't really have a clearly marked waterfront. We took down the main and paddled into his dock (a dock that broke off and floats parallele to the shoar that they tied to shoar). We took down and folded the jib and folded the main. Then set the anchor just in case the dock does something funny.

That's my tale.