Humbling attempt at single-handing

[montenido]

As the others have said, hang in there and it will get easier. I SH my Cat 30 all the time. Have I been scared? Yes. I went out last winter in pretty good wind, 20 kts+. As I headed out to the ocean I saw a larger sailboat (40')following me out so I figured, I can do this.

Well, once I was out I looked back and the larger boat had turned around before leaving the marina. I went out for an hour before turning around. I recorded my highest speed ever in this boat, 9.5 knots, surfing back in. Well, all proud of myself, I raced into the marina only to find that I was unable to furl my headsail due to the wind. I made several attempts before deciding that I would just sail into my slip and drop the main and tame the headsail there. The force generated by the whipping headsail managed to snap one of my new sheets (5/16) about a foot away from the clew. I did manage to get everything down with no other damage.

Lessons learned? Plenty. Experience gained? Again, plenty. Was I lucky not to have been hurt? Probably. But 9.5 knots is scary fast!

Good luck, Bill

[DavePenney]

I'm a newbie here but wanted to relay a similar experience on the delivery trip of our '84 Catalina 30 last weekend.

I don't know what the exact wind speed was but it was predicted to be about 15-20knots and the surface of Lake Michigan seemed to be consistent with that. We were near reaching on a starboard tack with a reefed main and a full jib when we started weather helming periodically. Although we had the first main reef set, the 2nd reef wasn't rigged and it was too unsteady for my comfort (even with jacklines & a harness) to start rigging the lines while underway....so I tried to furl in the jib a bit but it wouldn't budge....I thought there was a caught line or something but no...all was clear. After triple checking that all lines were free, I used the starboard winch to furl it in to a manageable jib area. In the end, the winds intensified and because of time/light constraints, we lowered both sails and motored the rest of the way. At times, we were going 0 knots with the 21hp Universal....not a comforting feeling. We did manage to make it into a marina that was our backup in case we didnt' have enough daylight to get to our destination. A few days later we made the last leg of the trip.

In the future, my plan is to rig the second reef of the main ahead of time so its available and to furl the jib earlier if there are signs of increasing wind velocity.

[ste27]

Originally Posted by cghubbell

What really blew my mind was the multiple races going on where I was seeing boats putting out their kites! That had to be a pretty wild ride. If I weren't so busy scrambling around my cockpit I would have taken some pictures of them.

Sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders about this and the comfort will come in time. Remember, those guys are fully crewed, 10-15 is nothing. Our kite stays in the bag at around 30 and even then... if we had the crew for it and it was an "important" race, it might go up. Maybe see if you can get in with a low-key boat in the race fleet, learn lots about trim and boathandling pretty fast doing that sort of thing