Thanks guys, good points all around.
As far as the anchor goes, not sure what I might’ve done wrong? Dropped it in the water and paid out the rode same as I’ve always done. It was covered in muck when I pulled it up, so it was on the bottom …
As far as singlehanding goes, well, I usually sail alone partly because I don’t have anyone to crew for me, and partly because I have found that crew can be just as much as a hindrance as a help. Mostly it’s just because I enjoy the challenge of being solely responsible for getting the boat from point A to point B and back. This debate has been hashed over elsewhere on this forum, so I won’t go into it any further here.
Question about the TX 200: how many days was the event, ie how many miles/day? The FL 120 is 30 mi/day, which I feel is totally doable for me. The first day is most likely going to be to windward, so more like 45 actual miles of sailing, but as long as it’s not howling too bad, I’m pretty confident. The other day, to windward was the only point of sail I had a problem with: reaching and running was fine. I’m planning on tenting it, so hopefully will get plenty of shut-eye.
Reef points: correct, the leech grommets are placed slightly higher than the luff ones. Sorry, I neglected to state that when I wrote 36” and 72” up from the foot. The instructions for the Sailrite jiffy reef kit state that the purpose of putting the leech grommet(s) a little higher is to keep the end of the boom out of the water in case of a broach. It’s only about an inch or two difference though. In practice, I’ve found that the boom doesn’t get in the way at all, in fact the aft end rides a bit higher when reefed. I keep my gooseneck lashed down to the stop cleat in a fixed position vertically, have a reef hook on the forward end of the boom, and luff tension is created solely by the halyard. When I pull the reef line, it brings the boom up to the reef point, rather than the other way around.
Yes, the kit comes with a roll of 1/4" wide seamstick used to prep the 3 layers of reinforcement patches and stick them to the sail for sewing. You pick out the stitches holding the luff and leech tapes, slip the patches into place underneath, and sew everything back down. I used a double throw zig-zag.