Had a crappy sail today, learned a couple things.
It was very windy outside of Baltimore today. I went out by myself with about three hours of daylight left. I planned to try reefing my main, which I've never done before other than a quick trial in light air.
Here's how it went:
- Started to unfurl the genoa. I intended to keep that reefed too, but she snapped all the way out. With a sheet in one hand and the furling line in the other, I let go of the furling line to handle the sheet. Oops...furling line is too short (recently re-installed the furler) and now the bitter end is lying up on the foredeck.
- (By the way, I normally raise the main first, but today the wind was coming from a different direction and I was able to bring out the genny and secure the engine while still in the creek).
- After reaching some bigger water, I tried to come up into the wind a couple times to take air out of the genoa, but the wind just would not allow me to. By now we're really getting beat up.
- Started the motor, but with the tiller hard over and the motor at the highest RPM I was comfortable with, the wind would still not allow us to come up.
- Meanwhile, my genoa is beating itself up and--a new experience for me--the sheets have now knotted and twisted themselves together. Now I am unable to try my backup plan of jibing back toward shelter instead of heading up to handle the sail.
- I went forward to haul in the reefing line. I got 6 or 8 feet in when it jammed. Let it back out, tried again, jammed again.
- Did I mention that lee shore?
- Looked at the jammed furler, looked at the winch on my coachtop, remembered all the furler/winch stories I'd heard. Yelled some stuff at the wind, then at the boat, then hauled on the furling line until it started to furl again. Got the genoa put away.
- Oh yeah, the lee shore. Depth meter is reading the same depth I saw when I went aground in this area a while back. Under motor only, I try to turn directly into the wind and directly away from the shore, but she just won't do it. The wind wants to turn us broadside. I settle for about 45 degrees off the shore, and sight along some landmarks to confirm that I am inching away from the shore. INCHING.
- Finally saw some more depth under the keel and limped back into my creek.
- Never got the main up, thank God.
Things I learned:
- College football can be an alternative to a Saturday sail.
- My boat has limits beyond which it can't maneuver in wind. I'd have been fine in open water, but I wasn't in open water.
- The end of the furling line should reach the cockpit when the genoa is completely out. I knew this, of course, but it didn't really matter in the type of weather I'm usually out in, so I hadn't fixed it yet. Dumb mistake.
- If the genoa is flapping like crazy, I need to be able to keep the sheets from fouling each other. Any advice here?
- Give that lee shore lots and lots of extra space when it's blowing.
So basically today I emerged from shelter, floundered around for 45 minutes with only marginal control of my vessel, then crawled back home. I had considered inviting some people along today, and I'm REALLY glad I didn't! (None would have been helpful handling the boat, and probably would have been terrified).
OK, cheers then, I've got to go find a rocks glass...
It was very windy outside of Baltimore today. I went out by myself with about three hours of daylight left. I planned to try reefing my main, which I've never done before other than a quick trial in light air.
Here's how it went:
- Started to unfurl the genoa. I intended to keep that reefed too, but she snapped all the way out. With a sheet in one hand and the furling line in the other, I let go of the furling line to handle the sheet. Oops...furling line is too short (recently re-installed the furler) and now the bitter end is lying up on the foredeck.
- (By the way, I normally raise the main first, but today the wind was coming from a different direction and I was able to bring out the genny and secure the engine while still in the creek).
- After reaching some bigger water, I tried to come up into the wind a couple times to take air out of the genoa, but the wind just would not allow me to. By now we're really getting beat up.
- Started the motor, but with the tiller hard over and the motor at the highest RPM I was comfortable with, the wind would still not allow us to come up.
- Meanwhile, my genoa is beating itself up and--a new experience for me--the sheets have now knotted and twisted themselves together. Now I am unable to try my backup plan of jibing back toward shelter instead of heading up to handle the sail.
- I went forward to haul in the reefing line. I got 6 or 8 feet in when it jammed. Let it back out, tried again, jammed again.
- Did I mention that lee shore?
- Looked at the jammed furler, looked at the winch on my coachtop, remembered all the furler/winch stories I'd heard. Yelled some stuff at the wind, then at the boat, then hauled on the furling line until it started to furl again. Got the genoa put away.
- Oh yeah, the lee shore. Depth meter is reading the same depth I saw when I went aground in this area a while back. Under motor only, I try to turn directly into the wind and directly away from the shore, but she just won't do it. The wind wants to turn us broadside. I settle for about 45 degrees off the shore, and sight along some landmarks to confirm that I am inching away from the shore. INCHING.
- Finally saw some more depth under the keel and limped back into my creek.
- Never got the main up, thank God.
Things I learned:
- College football can be an alternative to a Saturday sail.
- My boat has limits beyond which it can't maneuver in wind. I'd have been fine in open water, but I wasn't in open water.
- The end of the furling line should reach the cockpit when the genoa is completely out. I knew this, of course, but it didn't really matter in the type of weather I'm usually out in, so I hadn't fixed it yet. Dumb mistake.
- If the genoa is flapping like crazy, I need to be able to keep the sheets from fouling each other. Any advice here?
- Give that lee shore lots and lots of extra space when it's blowing.
So basically today I emerged from shelter, floundered around for 45 minutes with only marginal control of my vessel, then crawled back home. I had considered inviting some people along today, and I'm REALLY glad I didn't! (None would have been helpful handling the boat, and probably would have been terrified).
OK, cheers then, I've got to go find a rocks glass...