05-20-2017, 08:03 AM
Last week I rigged Duckie for the year and it took all afternoon. I figured I had it all set so that I could just hook up and take off. Yeah, maybe not. Yesterday I actually took her out when the rain finally stopped and the wind was not going to be challenging. Yeah, maybe not. I got up to the lake at noon and it looked pretty good. The wind was out of the SE at about 10 mph and pretty steady so I rigged her up and rowed away from the dock because the wind was right on my nose and there was no room to maneuver. I got out far enough and dropped the rudder and started to raise the sails when I noticed that the tiller was above the rope traveler for the boom. No way that was going to work, so I beached the boat on an island out of the wind and removed the tiller and put it where it belongs. Cool, everything is fine. I sailed out from behind the island into a wind that was gusting to 20 mph and a heavy chop. No big deal, I can handle that. However, it looked like it was only going to get rougher, so I decided to tuck in a reef. Oops, I didn't rig the jiffy reef line because hey, I won't need it. Also, I didn't tie off the lacing on the boom so the sail was coming loose. Back to the dock I go. I sailed her half way up the beach under full sail and went about doing what I should have done in the first place. I also rigged my jib downhaul just in case the wind picked up much more. While safely beached I tucked in the reef that I would have done out on the water if I was smarter.
I launched from the beach into the wind and rowed out to where I could put the rudder down and the sails up. This time no problem. The wind had in fact picked up which made me real glad that I put in that reef. We sailed around the lake in high style with a pretty good turn of speed, a fact that was reinforced by two ex-racers who watched me tooling around and reported it to me while I was taking the rig down. They were old heads who were surprised that a gaffer could scoot like that.
Between Duckie and my CP 16, it seems that I have settled into a sailing style that prioritizes the head sail and then the main. These days, if I have the head sail pulling, that is what I try to keep consistent and play with the main in response to any changes in wind speed or direction. In my video that I have on Youtube, I am doing just that in the heaviest of gusts that day. I set the jib and only fell off or rounded up a bit to keep that sail happy. When the wind hit, I would backwind the main to reduce the heeling forces without going too far from maximum sail set. Last year I got hit by a gust that was easily 25 mph with my lapper up. By letting the main out until it had a big dip in the luff, the lapper pulled me straight through the gust with no drama. Anyway, I am going to play with this method until I find the limit that Duckie will withstand before I need to let go, or go over. I also learned a way to rig the jib sheets as a single line. I haven't done it yet, but it seems the clear remedy for not being able to reach the sheet to let the jib fly when I'm sailing on my side and can't get up. It should also keep the cockpit tidier without those tag ends laying all over the place.
Al
I launched from the beach into the wind and rowed out to where I could put the rudder down and the sails up. This time no problem. The wind had in fact picked up which made me real glad that I put in that reef. We sailed around the lake in high style with a pretty good turn of speed, a fact that was reinforced by two ex-racers who watched me tooling around and reported it to me while I was taking the rig down. They were old heads who were surprised that a gaffer could scoot like that.
Between Duckie and my CP 16, it seems that I have settled into a sailing style that prioritizes the head sail and then the main. These days, if I have the head sail pulling, that is what I try to keep consistent and play with the main in response to any changes in wind speed or direction. In my video that I have on Youtube, I am doing just that in the heaviest of gusts that day. I set the jib and only fell off or rounded up a bit to keep that sail happy. When the wind hit, I would backwind the main to reduce the heeling forces without going too far from maximum sail set. Last year I got hit by a gust that was easily 25 mph with my lapper up. By letting the main out until it had a big dip in the luff, the lapper pulled me straight through the gust with no drama. Anyway, I am going to play with this method until I find the limit that Duckie will withstand before I need to let go, or go over. I also learned a way to rig the jib sheets as a single line. I haven't done it yet, but it seems the clear remedy for not being able to reach the sheet to let the jib fly when I'm sailing on my side and can't get up. It should also keep the cockpit tidier without those tag ends laying all over the place.
Al