What a ride.... and a warning

[calden]

Hey all:

Went out today for flight #4 on my boat. Solo.

I arrived at the ramp only to find the weather a bit stronger than I'd like for my first attempt at singlehanding: Wind 15-20, gusts up to 25, and very gusty: whitecaps here and there, leaden clouds after yesterday's record-setting rain. Knowing it was SUPPOSED to calm down a bit, I sat for about 30 minutes. The whitecaps abated, the air became steady and consistent, not so gusty, and the trees stopped showing the undersides of the leaves. Okay, I thought, now or never. I rigged things up which took about 35 minutes - not bad, including reefing the main. The wind conditions held steady.

Got out of the no-wake zone and hoisted things up. I knew the main looked different because of being reefed, but it took me several minutes to realize that - again, like last time - I forgot to put in the battens. Sheesh. Once I got the feel of the wind strength and direction, I think I did pretty well handling things. Sure wish I had installed the jib sheet camcleats I bought, instead of leaning far forward to use the old jam cleat on the fore end of the centerboard trunk. THat's my next project. It will help going solo.

Tootled around for about an hour, then the weather suddenly got a LOT brisker, and whitecaps started dancing up around me. It was then that I realized that, although I hadn't gone very far from the ramp, I was directly upwind of where I wanted to be, and I had to wing and wing it to get back. I even managed to get in a jibe, which was fun. Once within spitting distance, I cheated and turned on the engine. THings were blowing pretty hard.

I'm very glad I put in the reefing system, and used it, and I'm still undecided on using the tiller extension I bought last week. It feels counterintuitive , and is harder to push around than just the tiller. BUt I suppose it's a matter of acclimation.

Upon getting back in and taking things down, I was just at the point of strapping the front part of the mast to the mast support on the trailer - just about ready to drive off - when I heard a little metallic "ping" come from the front end. I looked and saw the forstay clevis pin lying on the deck, and the forestay fork had popped off. The retaining ring was nowhere to be found. It was not there. This means that I conceivably had been sailing in this wild weather with NO RETAINING RING IN MY FORESTAY TOP FORK CLEVIS PIN HOLDING IT TO THE TANG. So I learned a huge lesson - to double check each and every thing on the boat before I go out. All it would have taken is a quick visual check on the shrouds and stay. (That's the warning!)

But it was a wild ride, really. Especially on my way back when I went from directly with the wind to a broad reach, and started zooming along. The wake behind me looked like a motorboat.

I also gained a lot of confidence in my ability to go out alone (one reason I bought this boat) and my ability to assess the weather. I really did sit and wait until it felt manageable.

Carlos

[sunapeesailor]

Hey Carlos -

How awesome is it to have a warning given in such a way that there was no damage? Sometimes we're in such a rush to get the rush that we overlook a simple detail. I like your idea of a quick once-around as a final step prior to getting out there. The jam cleats for the jib will make it much easier than the cleat forward you have now. Nothing like mileage to increase the comfort level !!

[crawford]

Carlos,
I, too, just completed my 4th ride on my new boat (hull 113). California weather has been odd like all parts of the country. All trips have been solo. Winds started out at 8-10knots. Each ended with 5-8 knots, just enough to ease into my slip or put on the trailer. (second trip got up on a plane!)
I like your warning. I will check out everything prior to committing myself and my hardy boat. Last night it was whitecapping BIG TIME. So I crewed on a Catalina 22. I am not ready to commit to 20 k stuff. We had a heck of a time on the larger boat, placed second out of a fleet of 8. But my little boat sat safe during the blow. I pulled it out this morning with 2 k wind. I just paddled to the ramp and slipped it on the trailer. It is so much easier than most of the boats I have had. I think I have fallen in love again.
Keep us updated on your trips. Your honesty and challenges help us all.
Dennis

[dsheer]

carlos,

Been sailing this week in the bays west of Ocean City Md. Winds have been great. One day was 20 - 25, with gusts higher. Sailed under reefed main alone. Most other days if I wasn't hard on the wind I was planing. Fun.

Dan

[calden]

Envious!

I was determined to sail today, despite an afternoon engagement with friends, and cold stares from the sig other.

I got to my destination only to find the parking area and ramp were blocked off due to a 4th of July parade. Okay, makes sense, but I had to add another 20 minutes to my trip to drive around town a bit.

Weather forecast indicated slight possible rain and t-storms, so I thought I might see a front come in with winds. But no. I got another heavy lesson in light-air sailing. VERY light, just enough to fill the sails and gently push me along. I took someone's advice from my last post on this topic, and sat on the leeward side of the boat to keep the boom over and sails from flopping too much.

I left in such a rush, though, and forgot my hat and water bottle. Not good for the sunny 91 degrees I experienced. I managed to sweat off most of my sun lotion and now have a bright red nose.

So how come sailing is great when I'm tied up, and lousy when I can get out to the lake?

Carlos

[dsheer]

Carlos,

It's simple, you must appease the Gods. Here's how. First, strip down to non-indecent essentials. The Gods give additional points for every square inch of skin exposed. Coat yourself in thick white sun block. Don't rub it in. Take your SO's pink lipstick (the more shocking the pink the better) and make 3 vertical stripes on your forhead, and three diagonal on each cheek. Put a big circle around each pap and your belly botton and three rings all the way around each thigh and each calf (the number three is very significant to the gods). You are now ready for the ceremony.

Make a small fire. Straw or kindling placed over hot barbeque coals will do. Hold your garden hose in one hand and an umbrella - preferably pink, the Gods like pink - in the other. Turn on the hose nearly straight up so that the falling water lands on the umbrella. This signifies protection from rain, so the greater percentage of the water you catch on the umbrella, the better your chances for good weather. Hold your hands out as if dancing with your SO and polka around the fire for three minutes while continuing to catch the water on the umbrella. That's it. Really you should be able to do all this in an hour, and it's supposed to last all season, though I can't guarantee anything.

Make sure you post video on the net. The Gods like to have people make their acts of appeasement public. Let me know when it's out there. I want to see it.

Dan

(sorry, I couldn't resist)

[captainseasick]

I would like to meet you and buy you a beer!

[calden]

Envious no more!

I went out with first mate (lovely wife) yesterday and had a wonderful time. Winds rated at 10 mph but appeared to be more - like 10-12 knots - with a few scattered whitecaps. PERFECT sailing weather. Could have used a bit more wind, but it was really plenty.

We were out 2.5 hours in 82°F and a sunny sky, wonderful weather. We used our whole bag of sailing tricks - reaching, running, close hauling, and even got in some wing and wing with my homemade whisker pole. This really helped us fly. I've gotten pretty smooth at jibing and no longer fear the boom (but keep an eye out for it.)

Couple of things I've rigged up that helped make the experience good:

A topping lift - I initially had a boom crutch, made from an old paddle, but when out on the water and lowering the main, I found that I still needed to use the tiller to steer, and the paddle crutch nixed that.

I also made up a jib dousing sheet, which helps immensely when conditions are really windy.

I've also made up a tiller control line to keep it in one place.

Next project is to install centerboard cam cleats for the jib sheets. Right now I'm using a single jam cleat way up at the front of the centerboard trunk, and it's not very easy or convenient to adjust sheet tension or singlehand.

I'm also thinking about putting the vang attachment bail on the hinge-stepped mast UNDER the deck, to get a greater angle for pulling the boom down. Any thoughts on this?

Carlos

[dsheer]

Carlos,

I attach my vang to the bolt through the tabernacle, using a flat bail with a roller. I set the bail on the boom so the angle at the boom is about 35 degrees. The vang is a Ronstan 4:1 assembly that Discount Marine sells for about $30 completer. Works fine, no cutting through the deck.

Dan

[Bob Hunkins]

I got a simple (and now obvious) tip from Kevin Williams in California a few years ago regarding cotter pins/rings that hold the clevis pins securing the stays to the chainplates: Tape over them with electrical tape (or rigger's tape, which is more expensive). That will keep the rings or pins from snagging lines or what ever, and potentially causing a dismasting.

Since I strike the rig before and after every time I sail, taping the rings over has become a kind of ritual to ensure the voyage goes well. Yes, it's superstitious, but then again, it's sailing; a little superstition is probably a good thing.

[Peter McMinn]

The rigging tape around pins is good--noticed one of the rings on my boat getting pretty bent up from sheets snagging on it, which ain't to good for the sheets neither!

But my warning has more to do with avoiding a loud and painful dope slap. Try, if you have any inclination to thinking ahead, if you are the slightest bit concerned about things going well on your sail, if you have any shred of self respect at all, try to remember your cockpit plug.

Not once, but three times last summer I happily launched my boat, tied her up, and drove off to find a parking place (taking up to 10 minutes), then strolled down to the dock to find the river gleefully gurgling into my boat.

Depending on the wind, this situation provokes varying measures of self-reproach. I won't get into that, but let it be known that such lapses are heretofor banished from my readying procedures. Anyway, I'm sure I'll find other ways to embarrass myself.

[calden]

Peter:

Isn't geography wonderful? When we get heavy rains here in Spokane, the sewage overflow dumps into the Spokane River which eventually ends up in Lake Roosevelt, which feeds to the Columbia River, which winds up down by you. And in your boat.

THAT will help you remember your drain plug next spring.

Carlos

[Peter McMinn]

Actually, I sail in the Willamette, which has it's own effluvia draining into the Columbia. Sure gives capsizing a whole new meaning when you sail in a superfund site!