Wind Path Sailing offers hope for the boatless
_BY EVAN _WILLIAMS ewilliams@floridaweekly.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Wind Path Sailing owner Bob Johnson stands at the bow of his Catalina 309 - one of two sailboats in his "fractional sailing" fleet.

Fort Myers resident Matthew Hauf, 31, doesn't have the time or resources to own and care for his own sailboat. But that has not stopped him and his fiancé - two busy, young professionals - from sailing almost any time they want to.

That's because Hauf is a member of the new Cape Coral location of Wind Path Sailing, a national company that charges members a monthly fee for the convenience of having a maintained and wellequipped sailboat at the ready.

It's called "fractional sailing." For little more than the cost of a cheap studio apartment, Hauf shares a new Catalina 350 sailboat with five other members. Each may schedule trips online with as little as 24 hours advance notice, to sail for a half day, a couple of days or even a full week.

"I own my own business in (Fort Myers)," Hauf said. "I'm very busy. My fiancé is an attorney. We wanna sail but we don't have time to sail all the time, so this is a good alternative."

Kathy Johnson, still a novice sailor, takes a turn at the wheel of the 32-foot long sailboat.

They learned about the service after meeting Bob Johnson last year, at the annual boat show at Harborside Event Center in downtown Fort Myers. Johnson has owned the Cape Coral location of this fractional

sailing franchise since October 2006. (Wind Path opened its doors only two years before that in Stamford, Conn.).

He operates out of Burnt Store Marina, located at the northern edge of Lee County. It's in a gated community with a restaurant, golf course and overnight accommodations, sits in Charlotte Harbor, notable for its deep water access to the Gulf of Mexico.

But it's also the largest harbor in Southwest Florida, Johnson said. That allows his members to be in open water in mere minutes; with 10 miles of protected waters to cruise in all directions, they may decide to

either stay in the harbor, take Boca Grande pass into the Gulf, or head down the Intracoastal Waterway towards the East coast.

 

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTO EVAN WILLIAMS This Catalina 350 sailboat, seen motoring out into Charlotte Harbor, is owned and maintained by Wind Path Sailing. It is available for members to use anytime for $590 per month.

Members pay $1000 for an initial training program; a $2,500 damage deposit; then either $490 or $590 per month thereafter, depending on their choice of boats. (Johnson keeps two sailboats - a 32-foot long Catalina 309, named Beam n' Brooke for his granddaughter, and the slightly larger 35-foot 350 called Perfect Dispersion.)

His boats cost $120,000 and $175,000 respectively, and Johnson estimates it takes about $10,000 a year to maintain each.

"When you think of investing that kind of money, I think it's a pretty good deal for the members," he said.

Johnson's first few members were retirees, but since then more people like Hauf have expressed interest.

"Young professionals like it because they're not really ready to take on a boat on their own yet," he said. "They just don't wanna have the headaches of owning a boat, and this works for them."

A full year's membership comes with two free months. And each member is guaranteed seven "slots" per month: one slot equals a half day sailing; a full week on the water counts as 14 slots. However, if the boat isn't scheduled on any given day, it's up for grabs.

"Some people can take a day every week," Johnson said. "Some people take a week every two months.

"It's a very sophisticated scheduling program to make it fair, so no one can take it out on all the holidays or all the weekends."

Even after members pass the initial training program at Colgate Offshore Training School, Johnson spends time aboard with them, going over operations like opening the sails, turning around and - what he said is the biggest challenge - docking: getting the boat in and out of its slip.

"Basically, I tell members I will go with you as long as I need to make you feel completely comfortable operating the boat," he said. "That usually takes two days."

The boats come with standard features like air conditioning, auto pilot, DVD players, two small bedrooms, bathroom and a mini kitchen below the deck, and are stocked with amenities like dishes.

"It's well outfitted," Johnson said. "Well equipped for anyone who wants to sail."

But he's still looking for members (the goal is eight per boat by next January, he said) since the 350 has six and the 309, one. That also means it's unused many days, freed up for Johnson and his wife Kathy to take it into Charlotte Harbor themselves or on to Sanibel Island or Cabbage Key for lunch.

Last week they motored slowly out of the Marina past other sailboats and enormous yachts and, once in open water, turned the engine off and unfurled the 50-foot sails. Everything was quiet. The wind pushed the boat gently across the harbor. A dolphin appeared.

"A lot of people think sailing is a lot of work," Johnson said. "But the biggest part of the work, really, is putting the sails out and taking them back. And Charlotte Harbor is so big that no matter which way the wind is blowing you can sail and not worry about it."

When he was ready to turn around, Johnson used the "winches," which make it easy to pull the rope that changes the direction of the sales.

When Johnson isn't enjoying the Southwest Florida dream, he does volunteer work. This summer he's taking a church group to help poor children in Nicaragua get an education. He also teaches safe boating, chart reading and GPS navigational courses on the weekends with the U.S. Power Squadron, a boating education group.

His family - a daughter in Cape Coral, a son in Ohio, a brother in West Palm Bach and a sister in Key Largo - are all enthusiastic about Wind Path as well.

"They always say, 'Can we go sailing?'" Kathy Johnson said.