Dan from Sutton, MA

My name is Dan, and I live in Massachusetts

Which Tiwal model do you have?

I own the 3R racing model. I purchased it two years ago in August.

Where do you sail?

We mostly sail in the ocean, specifically between Long Island Sound (an inlet of the ocean) and the expanse between Cape Cod and Montauk, which is the tip of Long Island.

Single-handed or double-handed?

The boat is usually sailed two-handed. Typically, my daughter is steering, and I am on the sail, though we switch back and forth. Sometimes, I’ll let her sail alone while I roll back and forth under the boom, and she sometimes does the same for me.

When I bought the boat, my daughter was 11 and had never sailed alone. Now, at 13, she has sailed it alone a couple of times. We initially tried sailing in freshwater because, if something went wrong, it’s easier to find her there. I’ve also sailed it alone a couple of times, mostly just to play with it and feel what it was like to leave the line in the cleat, since the 3R has a cleat.

How was the first handling with your Tiwal ?

The first time out, we capsized. It happened 10 minutes into our first sail, and it was probably one of the best things that could have happened because the “worst thing” was over quickly. The wind was very heavy. It took us less than five minutes to right the boat. Most of that time was spent getting the boat righted into the wind, and then it just popped right up. From then on, our attitude was, “What else could go wrong?”. We had read the manual, including instructions like not to stand on the centerboard.

What was your experience before Tiwal?

We had some small experience on a Sunfish, which is a hard shell vessel with a small cub unit and a very small sail. We had a family one of those. I had also windsurfed quite a bit in the late ’80s and early ’90s when it became popular, so I had experience sailing on very small things. My daughter had zero prior experience, so the Tiwal was her first time sailing.

How is it going so far?

So far, we love the Tiwal.

What characteristics surprised you?

Two things surprised me:

• How quickly it turns
• The setup speed, given that we don’t own land on the water

We have to set it up from scratch every time we go out; we don’t keep it on a trailer. It’s exactly as advertised: we get it out of the two bags, inflate it, build it, and put up the sail. The first time we did it, it took about an hour and a half. After three or four times, with both of us setting it up, we got it down to 30 minutes or less.

We do this from scratch every time. The only things we leave on are the foot strap, the Velcro halfway through the loops, and the sail is rolled up with the battens in it. The key is that I can stick it in the trunk of my car and be sailing in under 30 minutes from when we park the car.

What is your best memory with your Tiwal?

I have two favorite memories:

• Encountering a dolphin. We stopped at one point to adjust the sail. We saw a fin pop up, and the dolphin rolled over on its side, looked at us with one eye, and then was gone. It was a cool moment.
• Sailing in high wind. About three weeks ago, we were out in very high wind. Once we got out of the large waves and into consistent chop, it felt like we were skipping from the top of one wave to the top of the next. It was the fastest we had gone and was absolutely exhilarating because the boat was skipping along the surface.

Where would you dream to sail with your Tiwal?

I’d sail anywhere with my daughter , but I would prefer to take it somewhere with deeper water visibility. For instance, you can’t see deeply into the water around Northern New England as you can in the Caribbean.

If we take a vacation somewhere down south, like St. Johns (where we used to go often), we would probably take the Tiwal with us to sail in clearer water. Sailing in cleaner, clearer water in the Caribbean would be nice. The Caribbean is close enough for us to take it with us.