December Sail

[tomodda]

Finally! I got a day of decent wind, decent temperatures, and no rain. To top it off, it was Saturday, so one of my sailing buddies was free to come enjoy the day with me. HIs second sailing trip! Always good to have a partner in crime, even a "newbie."

Headed up to Kerr Lake, on the NC/VA border and it was just a beautiful day - sun and high cirrus clouds, 12-14 mph winds out of the south (some whitecaps), high 50's air temp, cold but bearable water temps. Rigged the boat in 30 mins with some help from buddy, launched at the empty ramp just in time for the local fleet of CAL35's to come charging down at us, wing-on-wing from the south. I electric-motored our way SLOWLY across their bows then headed up into the wind to raise sail, handing the tiller to my buddy... Who was still learning that you point the tiller in the opposite way from where you want to go! Suffice to say that he put us right back into the path of the oncoming fleet(6 boats or so), so I quickly grabbed the helm and steered us between them, alternating between waving at the other skippers and explaining the ins and outs of a tiller to my newbie friend. Soon the fleet was past, we raised sail, and we were off. Tacking from one side to the other of the lake (2 miles across), poking into the side coves (no wind there! Trees were screening us), and generally enjoying ourselves. Box of Bojangle's Chicken for lunch, lemonade, granola bar for dessert.

My buddy quickly learned the difference between upwind and down and soon was smiling from ear to ear. I know him thanks to his wife - a dear friend of MY wife. He used to sail at camp as a child in Poland and dreams of sailing again, so I am vey happy to indulge him. Poor fellow recently lost a pet - 17 year old cat - and is still getting over it. Both his wife and mine have been telling me to do some "guy time" with him, get his mind off the loss. I'm decidedly NOT a cat person, but I understand the pain... so, was happy to get him in a better mood. It's the simple things, right? Day on the water, learning something new, wind in your face.

And I got something new too! After we'd tacked some 7 miles upwind, it became quite obvious that the east side of the lake had the better wind. Going home, I stuck us right in that "channel" of strong wind and went wing-on-wing just like the Cal-35's. I was all set to jibe downwind, but realized that my buddy had learned enough "lessons" for the day without having to dodge a swinging boom. Contrary to my usual, I sat right at the back of the seats and had him sit right across from me, also at the back. Pulled the CB about 1/2 way and we FLEW. Not quite planing, but certainly running into the back of the waves before us. One of the very rare times that I actually enjoyed going DDW. We met the Cal fleet tacking their way back upwind and gave a jaunty wave to the same skippers we'd saluted a few hours before, as we roared by. All too soon, we were back at the ramp and hauling her out. No matter, I was glad to have her back on the trailer, unrigged and securely strapped down with an hour's daylight to spare. Took some photos at the lakeside beach as the sun was settling down and then hit the road for home. Good time was had by all.

Sure enough, we now have a cold front coming thru and some snow forecast for Wednesday. Water was 54 degrees yesterday, but the coming week of 30's and 40's air temps during the day, freezes at night, will quickly get my local lakes below 50-degrees water temp. That's my "no-go" limit (till I get a dry-suit, one day!), so this is probably the end of the season. And what a season - wasted, fearful springtime, windless summer (the usual), windless falltime (weird!). I got a lot of long-planned mods done to the boat, but exactly TWO sailing sessions for the whole year. Sigh... I have some more "project" plans for the winter, I have a few things to fix from my two sail sessions (always something!), and there's some paint touchups and wood refinishing to do. I call all these projects my "winter boating," but seems that I've been doing that all year. I guess the important part is that I'm still having fun doing it and have some friends to share it with. Can't ask for more!

Tom

[GreenLake]

Ennvious! Looks like you had a great time. And in great conditions!

Side note: On a DS, gybing downwind doesn't seem to be doing anything for me (in typical wind conditions). Wing on wing appears quite effective (combined with the shorter distance). However, I do tend to avoid any points of sail where the jib is blanketed. Those I recollect as slow. (With a spinnaker, things are yet again different, so I don't have as many recent data points for jib+main).

[tomodda]

GL:

Yes, I remember you telling that in another post, gybing downwind is slower for Velocity Made Good. I'll admit, I'm spoiled from growing up on catamarans, where its definitely worth gybing the "hotter" angles. But the truth is that Dead Down Wind just bores the pants off of me! This December session taught me that it's a whole 'nother story with a good wind - whitecaps and bit of chill in the air. OK, you also did the math and showed me that colder air isn't really all that "heavier..." Maybe, but still "feels" better, the jib stayed out without any fuss, the main stayed pressed forward without hesitation, all was well and we flew along. Maybe I'm just learning too - old dog, new tricks. Once we sat ourselves in the sternsheets and brought the board up, the boat just sang (although she didn't plane). Balance REALLY makes a difference in this little boat, great fun!

December Afternoon on Lake Kerr

IMG_20201214_110819_2-01-413x514.jpeg (53.58 KiB) Viewed 19526 times

P.S. If one REALLY wants to pick nits, I was carrying a surprising amount of "weather helm" downwind. That is, if you consider the side the main is on when wing-on-wing to be the "lee side," I had the tiller pointed almost 10 degrees towards the jib. I know it was slowing us down a bit, and I supposed that it was because I was sitting on the "lee" side... I outweigh my friend by about 100lbs (he's a wee fellow) so my lard-butt was probably causing us to round up. I could have tried moving us around or fiddled with the CB some more, but I was enjoying the ride too much, so just left as is. Did give us nice teensy-tiny-rooster tail though, at least for an old Daysailer with two old farts aboard Also in the "coulda shoulda" category, I should have slowed down a bit and tried to surf the waves instead of riding up the ones ahead of us. Ooops, next time...

[GreenLake]

I find your reported weather helm surprising. I usually have to work to keep the boat from rounding up mainly when doing things like reaching at the edge of what the spinnaker will do with the wind abeam or in some heavier conditions going upwind. Otherwise my boat's been really balanced from day one (well before I even knew it mattered ).

Next time, make sure you sail somewhere, where the waves are faster

Now, the interesting thing is that the length of a (water) wave determines how fast it's going. Hull speed is when you climb your own bow wave, because the wave you create is just long enough that your stern will fit in the trough.

If you've "caught" waves that were longer from crest to trough than your boat length, you were going above your hull speed. DS hull speed is nominally something like 5.4kt, but you can get into a 'forced mode' up to bit over 6kt. If your waves were less than 40 ft crest to crest, then you they would be going slower than 6kt and you would have caught them in hull speed or forced mode. If they were more widely space than that, you'd needed to be planing to catch them.

Well, I "race" a bit (in quotes, because it's no-handicap, any boat type from 9-90') and that tends to give you good feedback as to what point of sail gets you there fastest. If switching to a broad reach had allowed you to plane, for example, then downwind gybing could well have been both more fun and faster.

My longer cruises tend to have destinations, as opposed to just making circles in the water, so the "getting there" aspect exists even then. Hence my attention to VMG. (I used to do that seat of the pants, but ever since I started to carry GPS, I felt vindicated that it largely corroborated my earlier intuitions. I'm still resisting chart plotters . . . but will concede that for some cruising grounds there would be a solid use case).

One difference you may have with colder air that would be significant in sailing is the degree of turbulence. If that's less, then things like sail trim work better. Usually, going over heated land is what adds a lot of turbulence to the air flow. And, in the margin, slightly heavier air might make itself felt as well.

[tomodda]

GL: Thank you for the observations.

Commenting in backwards order -

Huh, never thought about cold air being less turbulent, certainly makes sense. As far as I know, "Puffs" are usually because of higher level, faster air coming down and mixing with us mere mortals at surface levels. So you're saying colder air -> harder to mix (and in the winter, lower air is colder), Eureka! The lake had the usual eddies and dead air downwind of big trees on the points of land, and up in the coves, but those are easy to see. We had very few actual "puffs" on Saturday, maybe 2 or 3 all day. One very obvious one coming over top of the trees when we'd sailed into a calmer cove - I was able to show my buddy how puffs "fan out" from the initial impact, it was very visible in the water. Fun stuff.

Agreed that racing is the best way to truly learn your boat, especially in a one-design regatta. However, my destination on Saturday was just to get upwind as far as possible and then time my downwind return to get me back to the ramp an hour before dark (4:30PM, dark at 5:30 this time of year). We flew back so fast that we got back at 4, but no matter. Gave me time to be lazy before going home. Well, guess I was still going for VMG, but I didn't let that stop me from exploring any side-coves that I thought were interesting - a nice boat anchored in one, a pretty house up another, always something to see.

My waves were short and sharp (you can kinda see it in the photo above), maybe 8-10 feet from crest to crest and 1-2 feet high. After all, it's a LAKE, not much fetch. So your math makes some sense in relation to what I observed.

I'm pretty sure my "weather helm" going DDW was because I had my (lee) side of the hull lower in the water, hence the boat turned away from me. And sitting aft on the fat planing part of the hull made it even worse - less tracking effect from the forward deadrise, for all practical purposed we were sailing a big dish and I had my side tipped in harder. Did you have one of those Snow Disc Saucer Sled-thingies when you were a kid? Swaddled up in some gawdawful snow suit that our Moms put on us, we still knew to steer the things by shifting our weight, digging in one side or the other. Same principal I think! Next time I'll switch places with my buddy, "The Runt" and see what happens.

[Fly4rfun]

good read guy's, as a pilot I can attest to cold air being less turbulent, always looked for cooler air, lake's, green grass, (golf courses) to get smoother and better lift air. especially if at altitude. and hot air equals bumpy.

[tomodda]

You're making me want to budget a drysuit. In the photography world (another passion) it's called having GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome!

[Fly4rfun]

Tom, been looking at them on amazon, a 3mm basic suit, good to 50 deg from 60-90 bucks, Photography was a passion of mine also, the illness took that away, have a Canon 70D with a 70-200 L series lens, haven't used the lens in 3 years and camera once in last year, thinking about getting rid of it, have a little point and shoot. but then maybe it will come back?

[tomodda]

Wetsuit is quite different from Drysuit. As the names imply, Wetsuit keeps you wet, Drysuit keeps you dry. In other words, the wetsuit is form-fitting and traps a layer of water against your skin. You stay warm by heating up that water with your body heat. Good if you're actually going to be IN the water a lot, bad if you plan to stay mostly dry - not to mention hard to move your arms in, doing things like pulling on sheets or grabbing another beer out of the cooler. Also, they don't breathe, so even if you don't go in the water, you'll soon be stewing in your own sweat, yuk! Ant then there's wetsuit rash.... Most wintertime sailors use DrySuits - basically a whole-body Goretex rainsuit, but with neck, ankle, and wrist seals to keep all water OUT. Good news is that they are breathable, so you don't stew. Also they are not skin-tight, so you can move. Bad news is that they are EXPENSIVE (Starting around $400 and rapidly going UP). Oh, and baggy, you won't be winning any beauty contests in one. But baggy for a reason, they don't insulate you at al, so you're expected to wear insulating clothes underneath. Which I take as a positive, I can easily choose my level of insulation, anything from a long-sleeve shirt to my full thermal undies and a thick sweater, up to me. Anyway, drysuit is the way to go, just need to justify the expense to She Who Must Be Obeyed. I love her, though

Photography... now there's another pitiless, thankless muse. Any art is like that but Photography is particularly crazy - the tools and technical skillset are accessible to any mere schlub like me, but mastery takes a lifetime. I can't help you with passion, but i can say what I enjoy about it. Vision. "Photograph" means "Recorded Light" - Seeing... Remembering... as human we do that every waking moment of our lives, and even in our dreaming moments. You don't need a magic box (camera), all you need is eyes and brain. It's not about the camera, not about the image. Analogy - it's just like sailing is not about getting anywhere, it's about capturing wind (Nature!) and dancing with it. I'm sailing when I take a walk and look at the trees swaying in the wind. I'm sailing when I participate in this forum. And I'm constantly learning, Photography is the same, I'm looking at things, looking at light, wondering how to capture it. I'll frame views with my fingers, I'll squint my eyes, I'll move between patches of light when I'm walking in the woods. And sometimes I'll take out my camera and make an image. Other days I'll spend the whole time looking thru a viewfinder, doing the same. And constantly learning. Two clichés that are very true here - "The Best Camera is the One You Have With You" (ahem, often just a cellphone!). And "Life is a Journey, not a Destination" (ok, Emerson never actually said that, but close enough.). Enjoy!

[Fly4rfun]

Tom, thanks for the advice. yes that is how i did it, tried not to take a bunch of pictures(not to be confused with Photos) of one thing in hopes to get one that was good. i learned on B/W, still love it, so want my Photo's to be good by doing as you said. (thus a photo, rather than a picture) but that's whats left me. I still see the photo, but rarely take it,

[GreenLake]

Well before cell phones, I spent some happy years taking pictures on a Minox; a 35mm camera the size of a pack of cigarettes. Since taking up sailing, zoom has become a must: most of the things worth taking pictures of on the water are outside your boat and in some distance. So I've switched to cameras that have good optical zoom (but stop short of SLR). A phone with it's wide angle lens would be better for pictures inside the boat. I've not much to add to Tom's eloquent description. Just, perhaps, that I'm largely trying to satisfy an audience of one: more interested in seeing whether I can manage to realize/capture something I've "seen", than whether others might find that interesting - the exception being photos of the DS and its parts that I post here; they are about what is shown, not how it is shown.

[Fly4rfun]

GL I remember them. most of my photography has been for my satisfaction, wont take the 70D on the boat, to much cost to loose, i have a waterproof fujifilm camera that i take on the bike and now the boat for pictures. i put everything into ziplock freezer bags with a tether to minimize loss, ( wallet, car keys, phone) and the camera goes inside my vest jacket, has a pocket .

[Vanalien]

I found out the hard way that the ziploc bags don't work well enough. Get a dry box.

[Fly4rfun]

thanks for that,

[GreenLake]

There are cheap food-storage boxes that have a snap seal (brand name KOMAX) that will work well for a camera - but make sure to keep anything that's transparent / translucent in the shade. It doesn't always have to be a Pelican box (although I have two smaller ones of those for phone, wallets and keys with dongles).

On longer trips, the camera went back into the box when not in use, but for most daysails, I tend to leave it out. It's a calculated risk, you may say, but there are too many things I like to take a shot of that develop quickly; even having to wait for the camera to turn on, may risk losing the shot, let alone trying to get it out of a container.

The DS1 has the shelf in the back, the cuddy and the shelves behind the seats; all of them work well to stash the camera out of the most immediate splash or rain zone. On a daysail, if I lose the camera to exposure to the elements, it's a monetary loss. On a longer trip, I'd lose all the photos I'd take the following days, which may be irreplaceable. Hence the difference.

On real rainy or wet days, I'd need one that I can fit in a pocket. Those small ones, and I have a nice one, are just to small for me to operate. When I had the old Minox, it was small, but had almost no controls, and none, other than the shutter, that were buttons. The new ones, my big fingers don't do well with tiny controls . . .