Richard Shiu

Richard Shiu
(inducted 2008)

We started out in Charleston, SC and headed out to the open ocean. This was my second time delivering a cat, the first was from the Bahamas to West Palm beach. But for this occasion, we were 30 miles out in the ocean, first day was a relatively calm day.

The second day we heard on NOAA that a small squall was coming. We all had 4 hours 4 hours off shift so everyone was responsible for manning the helm, keeping an eye on the chart and the GPS to make sure we did not head off course.

As the evening set in, we set up the jack lines, the winds grew stronger and the swells grew larger and larger. We were in the ocean now and with land out of sight, and just ocean everywhere, we were relying on our instruments to get us through the water and mother nature.

We double reefed the main, and having never been in a minor squall this far offshore on a catamaran, it was an exciting time for myself. I eagerly wanted to see how the cat performed in inclement weather, because I was planning on purchasing a catamaran in the coming months.

The waves grew larger and were now approaching 10 ft, and the winds 30 knots, the bridgedeck didn’t slam as badly as I thought, she held up pretty well and handled excellent. Each shift attempted to ride out each swell as best as they could and everyone attempted to break my speed record of 21 knots coming down on a swell.

I was amazed at the speed the cat could achieve downwind, and how at ease and safe I felt riding this squall out. This continued onto the next night when the captain decided the constant slamming of the ocean became a little tiresome.

We then proceeded to plot a course into the ICW and left our speed of 12 – 20 knot downwind behind for 8 knots under motor in the ICW. With all that behind me, I obtained a passing grade for ASA 104 and ASA 114.