by GreenLake » Sat Jul 08, 2017 3:16 am
The correct answer is "when you are ready to use them".
Of course, that just means finding out when you are ready. And that, of course, depends on circumstance.
As all situations are different, I give you some examples of what I've been doing; you may want to compare with what Tim wrote.
I'm sorting my reply by scenario.
1a. Sheltered dock with a narrow channel leading to open water. I turn the boat into the wind (as much as the dock lines up with the wind direction) and raise both sails at the dock. If the wind comes down the channel, I just push off, sheet in the sails and begin tacking towards the open water. The channel is 50-60ft wide, that's plenty width enough to short-tack -- as long as you take care to never stall your foils. Keep the boat speed up and don't try to sail higher on the wind than possible.
1b. Same, but with the wind coming from the opposite direction and the boat pointing towards land. All as before, except right after I push off (with a good shove), I sail a U-turn. As soon as the boat has turned (backwinding the jib may assist in that), I have the wind from behind and leaving the channel is child's play.
2. Beach with wind parallel to shore or blowing somewhat onshore, turning the beach into a lee shore. I'll raise the jib only. (If I were to raise the main, it would invariably drive me back on the beach). The jib I can let fly and it won't pull the boat in that state (other than a bit of drag). I will shove off, or paddle a short distance, enough to turn the boat around on any course that allows the jib to draw, get me away from the beach and gather speed. Once I have sufficient speed, I'll head up into the wind and raise the main (best with crew at the tiller). I may interrupt raising the main, fall off and gather more speed before heading into the wind again.
3. Dock parallel to open water (generally like 1a/b, except if the wind pushes the boat directly onto the dock). If there's nobody else on the dock, I'll sheet in the sails and push off the boat to try to launch directly into a close reach/close hauled course. If I find myself parked between large motor boats so I don't have "runway" then I'd need some other propulsion first to get away from the dock. In that case, probably best to not raise the main right away, because you can't let it out all the way and therefore can't fully depower it. (Using a trolling motor won't work if the wind's strong enough, it won't be able to overcome the tendency for the bow to be blown down - paddles or oars won't do that much better -- all of these should work in moderate winds).
4. Tricky cases. Docks with no room to maneuver, or where I have to back out without being able to turn the boat where it's tied up. Sometimes the only thing is to move the boat using long lines to some point I can sail off from. In winds that are not too strong, I'd motor backwards. In lighter conditions you can center the main so it doesn't catch any wind while you motor a short stretch backwards. Unlikely to succeed in stronger winds, as inevitably it will catch the wind eventually.
5. I've not mentioned raising the main when hove to; if your main has a boltrope you may be more sensitive to having it be pointing straight back than if your sail has slugs, and doing it upwind may be easier than while hove to. Both take the load off the main, but if hove to, the boom is not centered. However, it's worth experimenting with this technique and Tim describes it well. (You'll need searoom to leeward, something I don't have in my scenario 2).
6. I've not really mentioned techniques that work well for exposed areas in high winds. That's a scenario that I don't run into a lot. My favorite places to launch all have trees or buildings that tend to shelter the dock.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~