A couple of days ago, I went out with my wife for the first time this season. I sail on the Hudson, the tide was coming in (going North) and the wind was out of the S/SE blowing 10 - 12 so my wife says don't put up the jib.
We pushed away from the dock without the jib and the boat seemed to be locked in irons, no amount of pumping the tiller nor tiller to starboard nor port would bring the boat around. That happened again when we came back from our short sail.
Yesterday, I went out with a buddy for Wed night races. I don't know why I thought that a DS with a hull speed of 4.5 knots could somehow keep up with a 28 ft cruiser with a 150 genny, but hey Wed night races are just for fun.
The current again was going North but the wind was a little lighter and squirrely at 5-6 knots, again, out of the S/SE.
This time the jib was up but here's the thing, with the lighter winds, the boat would still not come tack that well. On a couple of tacks the boat didn't complete the tack and came back to its original heading another couple of times it got locked in irons
The consensus around here seems to be that the small, fractional rigged jib has to be up all the time, ok, that we got.
Also, when you tack, you have to wait for the wind to back wind the jib before you release the sheets to make sure that you have enough power to turn through the wind.
Any comments?