Slow Going

[calden]

Hey all:

Went out today for sail #3 of this season. All my weather sites (National Weather Service, Intellicast, Weather Underground) indicated 10-13 mph winds. But we got there (Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) only to find very sluggish air. Sat still for an hour, watched the sails flop back and forth with passing wakes.

Finally got a teeny tiny bit of pressure and sort of slowly glided around for another hour, leaving the cutest little wake I've ever seen, and sails barely shaped.

Although frustrating while there, I learned a lot about finessing the wind, and my wife loved being able to take a nap. Also, plain and simple, sitting in the boat on a lake doing nothing is better by far than a million other things I could have been doing.

So what are the general guidelines for capturing next-to-non-existent air? I tried to keep the sails open and full without being blowsed out and flopping around. Any great tips?

Carlos

[Felix Graham-Jones]

Carlos
Two thoughts for you,
1) A boom vang - flatter sails are much more efficient in drifty air
2) Electric wind - a trolling motor will get you home, and they're quiet, non-polluting and light - check out the threads on this site - 35# thrust is quite enough for non-current situations.
Fair winds
Felix

[calden]

Felix:

Thanks for the advice.

I loosened my vang, thinking a larger pocket would grab more air. Looks like it may have been counterproductive.

I've got a 5-hp engine on the boat. It's large, but it came with the boat. The previous owner did Columbia River sailing and dealt with some mighty forces! I would prefer something much smaller: the boat shakes all over with this thing going, and when fully raised it interferes with the stern mainsheet rigging. It has to be only half raised, and the prop sticks a little bit in the water. All in all not ideal.

Carlos

[crawford]

Often I loosen up the halyard and vang, then put weight to leeward (just a little, 10 degrees maybe). Then sit very still as the willow whisps push me around.

[sunapeesailor]

Hey, Carlos-
Try loosening the outhaul as well. In very light air a tight sail will not be as effective. I have a 4hp that came with my DS1 and find that it, too, wants to hang up the mainsheet rigging. It is not ideal, but it sure is nice on my local lake (Sunapee) which is notorius for great wind in the 'broads' but can often leave you without any real wind in its narrow "fingers" where the harbors are located!

[Roger]

Crawford's got it. When there is barely a zephyr, the thing to do is to shape the sail by loosening the vang, halyard, and outhaul, then sit on the low side to let gravity let the sail bag. Keep the boom centered, then place the low side of the boad in the shade of the sun. The differential between the hot side of the sail, where air is expanding with heat, and the cool side of the sail that is in shade, should create the slightest bit of differential pressure to 'pull' the boat into the low pressure zone. Look at your wind indicator. If it is doing circles, or at odds with where the wind should be coming from, you are truely then sailing on sunshine, especially if the lake is a mirror. You need to sit very still for the boat to move on sunshine.

[calden]

Wow -

Thanks for all the great tips. These are the exact kinds of questions I was wondering about yesterday. I had lots of potential adjustments but didn't know where to start. Totally ignorant. Well, not totally - I figured that subtle and slight changes would make something go, but I didn't know what exactly.

But it was so thrilling when the tiniest bit of wind came up - nothing more than a bit of pressure - and as soon as the sails shaped I could begin to feel what to do.

Now I have an arsenal of ideas to try.

Carlos