This morning, ORION was finally launched. This was the first time towing her behind my new-ish Subaru Outback, and the car seemed to handle everything just fine. I’m always very nervous when towing ORION since I have encountered a lot of trouble doing so over the years. Let’s recap some of the experiences that stand out in my mind, shall we?
Trailering her home from New Jersey after buying her in 2007. The trailer was shedding rusty pieces of her frame all the way to Connecticut, and it was a miracle we even made it back in one piece.
Driving down the road in North Branford in 2011. I was on my way to bring ORION to Niantic when, five minutes from home (fortunately), I heard a loud clunk and the sickening scraping noise of metal on metal. A tire hub had come apart and was scraping directly onto the axle. I very slowly limped back home and spent the weekend repairing it.
Trailering her to Maine with my family in 2016. I blew a tire in Maine on the way there, and I didn’t have a spare. It was a nerve-wracking experience involving calling a towing company that winched the whole trailer up onto a flatbed. It set us back several hours so we missed the tide to launch, and we ended up staying the first night aboard ORION in a parking lot. Not fun.
Bringing her home the fall of 2023. My Volkswagen Tiguan died on the highway, shaking uncontrollably as oil went all over the engine, spark plugs, ignition coils, and inside the cylinders. My father-in-law helped tow ORION home with his own truck, and now I’m making payments for the next few years on a Subaru Outback.
Add to the mix the odd assortment of overheating hubs, faulty ball hitch components and near-misses with crazy highway drivers, and you can see why I almost never take ORION anywhere but to the launch ramp and back home every year. Some people just have bad experiences trailering their boat, and I am most certainly one of them. So, I was pretty darn relieved when I was able to get to Niantic today without incident.
My father was kind enough to lend a hand, and we were able to launch her very smoothly. She’s on her mooring waiting for her first sail which will hopefully happen next week. The 2024 season has officially begun!
About to leave Northford this morning.
Working with my dad. (Photo by good friend and fellow sailor Doug Butler who happened by!)
Fully rigged and ready to go.
On her mooring, patiently waiting for her first sail.