Hello Folks. Today I took the Good Old #4101 (haven't named her yet) out for her maiden voyage. We chose a ramp at the head of Barnegat Bay (Point Pleasant/Bay Head municipal ramp) for her launch, and winds here were light and variable, but had promise of freshening as today went on, and looked to be about 5-7 knots out on the bay proper.
Because I just just bought my DSI last week, we had done a lot of tinkering to get her ready - new bearings and winch cable on the trailer, new spare tire, new Intensity sails, new halyards and jib sheet, fixed the split in the tiller and fitted a new tiller bolt, etc. No, I didn't get much work done this week.
Gorgeous day with 70 degrees high, lots of sunshine and warm bay water - classic October in Jersey.
Launch went OK, although training my crew (kids) to fend off the boat from the finger pier was dicey (the pier is 18 inches wide and had few cleats). Headed east under the new main, slowly towards the Bay Head yacht club side, and then things worsened. Upon raising the jib, it appeared that the new jib is longer than the old, or the wire section in the halyard was too long (I never thought to check that) and the thimble on the end of the halyard would not run through the cheek block on the mast. Thus our jib was far from taut - in fact, it had easily 12-14 inches of excess length. The crinkle in the jib did not produce any air flow over the main, and in the light airs we needed all the power we could get.
As we ghosted along, we tacked to try to head down the bay while I attempted a on water fix - but could not figure one out at the moment. This would later prove an important contributor to what happened next.
As we caught a couple of puffs, we made better speed, so I attempted to cross the channel and rount the point - just as the wind died away to a whisper.
I then detected a current - dragging us north, preventing us from clearing the point. We tacked again to head away, but the current strengthened, and pulled us into the path of the southern end of the point pleasant canal. Then the current got stronger. Then we could not make headway against the current, and got sucked like a vaccuum into the canal. We steered to the side of the canal, and tied to someones' pier for a few moments of rest and recovery.
Finally, we managed to sail across the canal, really crabbing diagonally, to the opposite shore - the one with the boat ramp on it. In the end we walked the boat along the bulkhead against the current for 300 to 400 yards, so we could get back to the ramp, exhausted.
On a positive note, we learned:
We need a moter to launch here - we left it home this trip because the previous owner said it was acting up
We hauled out just fine - that was the good news, and no one was hurt!
But today was sure no fun!