Rub Rail in the Water

[romei]

Well, what an exciting weekened I had.  Saturday was beautiful.  Sunny skies and about a 5 to 8 knot wind with 10 to 12 knot gusts.  I took my dog up to the end of Packers Island swimming for about 2 hours.  It's just a short jaunt from my dock to where we swim and we were there within 10 minutes as the wind was at our back.  After our swim I decided it was time for a nice sail so we went with the wind at our backs for about a mile or so and then came about and started tacking back to the dock.  It was a wonderful day and it couldn't have been more prerfect for a novice sailor like me.  It was just the perfect wind to make it exciting for me and to build my new skills.

Sunday rolled in and Bert showed up at my campsite.  Bert and I have been friends all our lives and anyway, Bert wanted to go for a ride on the sail boat.  So we loaded up a cooler and headed out for what I had hoped to be a mirror image of the day before.  The wind was about the same when we left.  Up to the swimmin hole we went and dropped anchor for a few hours while the dog swam and chased his floaty.  As a few hours wore on the wind started picking up a bit.  I'd say 10 to 12 knots with occasional gusts of prolly 15 or 18.  We hopped in the boat and went for the same ride I took the day before. 

It was a lot faster and a bit more challenging but was still a lot of fun.  Things were going well and we were now tacking back to the dock and the wind started getting really gusty.  Clouds were rolling in pretty good.  The wind swirls pretty wickedly up there as there are mountains along all of the borders on the lake.  The wind is often unpredictable.  Anyway, sure enough, about a 1/2 mile from the dock we got hit with a cross wind gust.  She heeled over far and fast on the port side.  Bert and were standing on the inside of the cockpit and leaning as far and fat as we could over the starboard side.  The poor dog was trying desperatly to get his feet down on the low side.  He was inches away from the water which was splashing into the boat over the rub rail.  I had the tiller hiked all the way to point us windward at first but it had no effect, so I pulled it tight to my chest to try to go with the wind, but still no effect.  I can only assume that there was no rudder in the water at that time.  I reached down and released the sheet from the jam cleat and let the main float free and we leveled out immediately.

You should have seen the smiles on our faces.  Nervous smiles, but smiles of excitement just the same.  We pointed into the wind and I tried rto reef the sail but it didn't seem to help.  I don't think I did it right.  It filled up like a balloon and was hard to control.  I put it back up with full sails and carefully sailed home very close to the wind.

Wow.

I need to learn this reefing business. 

[Mike H.]

I'm a newbie to this site and Compac boats (really have limited sailing experience overall) and have yet to put my 16/2 in the water yet...   I know this will happen to anyone who sails eventually but it makes me nervous to read, good nervousness mind you but nervous just the same. Good to hear the boat leveled out when you released the main sheet,  guess that 400+ pounds of ballast is there for a reason.  Somewhere in my introduction post I was told about reefing the main in  heavy weather & I advised I wasn't' sure I've got reefing points on my sail, now I really need to check hearing this story!!!  and yes, I too will need to learn how to use them. 

I'm very curious to hear what the more experienced in this group might have to say about the boat not rounding up...  to much jib sail?   Last year I sailed with a friend in his 19' Oday and he was letting me sail it to get the hang of it as I hadn't sailed in a long time previous to this,  we were fortunate to have very steady winds with some gusts and with his permission I was intentionally trying to heal the boat as much as it would go. It used to make me nervous when the boat would heal too much so I wanted to see what the boat would do when you force it to heal, and get the nervous healing jitters out of my system.  I was trying to bear off the wind in heavy gusts to really heal it and when this happened the rudder lost it's bite on the water and the boat rounded up just like a charm.  Curious why this wouldn't have happened in your case as well???

Great story, glad to hear it worked out Okay...

Mike

[Paul]

Romei:

Glad you had a great time!  Sounds like a wonderful trip.  You did the right thing by letting the mainsheet go.  She'll round up into the wind for sure.  Actually, as Mike suggests, she may have rounded up eventually anyway.  Sometimes called a broach.  There's some discussion about broaches on the forum.  A quick search may find it.

Reefing is certainly a skill you'll want to learn to do quickly, safely, and securely.  Here's a LINK to read.  There are other sources of information as well.

I found a good book to be "The Complete Sailor" by David Seidman.  Great reference and well written.  A sailing instructor from years ago used it in his class.  Easy reading, not too over the top.  But, of course, nothing teaches as thoroughly as experience! 

Hope this helps.  Keep on the adventure. 

[romei]

Thanks for all the great info.  I've just purchased the book and will read it on the water. 

Unfortunately for me, the reefing link won't help me.  My sail doesn't have any reef points.  My CP16 is an '81 mark 1.  My boom rolls if I pull it back, away from the mast and that is what I tried to do, but I left the line that goes from the rear of the boom to the top of the mast attached because without it, the boom sagged in our faces.

I did try to sail with just the jib, and it was pushing the boat nicely, but I couldn't point into the wind at all.  The tiller was very unresponsive. 

I did not try to sail with just the main and no jib.  Would that have worked?

[Paul]

Well, my best answer is maybe.  Either way you are decreasing the surface area.  Some folks have experience sailing with the jib only.  IMHO, if you have a small jib and a big blow, that might work.  But, I don't have experience with that method.  My preference would be to use the main, if I could.  That way, if there is a sudden large gust, the boat will turn up into the wind.  It must.  It works much like a weather vain in this set up.  The cost is more weather helm.  But, I feel that I have the most control over the boat, ultimately.  There are several variables to consider, too.

Of course, the overall best solution would be to get some quotes from folks in your area for installing a jiffy reefing system.  I think it would be well worth it.

[romei]

I've been reading quite a bit in this forum.  You folks are awesome.  I was reading the tips and tricks section and I found a post with pictures of the boom/roller system I have and the main rolled up.  I guess I rolled it up wrong or something because the pictures show a nice tight sail with a level boom.

http://www.com-pacowners.com/gallery2/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=10114&pos=-814

I'm going to practice this roller reefing for now when there is little or no wind and see if I can get the hang of it.  perhaps over the winter I'll follow your advice of having reef points installed. 

[curtisv]

Jiffy reefing is better.  The sail modification is not expensive and the boom hardware is not hard to install.

I took some photos when I added a second reef to my CP23.
http://www.faster-light.net/remote-access/projects_S_R.html#1

The roller is hard to get reefed neatly when the wind is blowing while the jiffy reefing is quite easy.  You may notice that in Dale's photo he indicated that he plans to switch to jiffy reefing.

Curtis

[mrb]

Great post Curtis. Your work should provide a lot of inspiration to the rest of us.
Melvin

[Rick Klages]

Learn to watch what the wind does to the waves!  You can see the ripples from a long way off.  This will give you advance warning if you will get a "lift" or "headed".  A "lift" is a beneficial wind shift that will aid you in sailing to windward. "Headed" is just the opposite.  Sailing is all about balancing forces.  To do so efficiently requires you to be able to read the signs.  The boat and the sails will tell you much,  The wind on the whitecaps will tell you what the wind will do next.  I wish I could sail with you for an hour to show you.

ick

P.s.  I don't reef unless it becomes a safety issue.

[Paul]

Good reminder about lifts and headers.  I sometimes take the opportunity to use the header for a tack.  That way the apparent change in course is not as great as a regular tack.  Really feels great to "trick" the wind once more.

Paul

[Rick Klages]

Good reminder about lifts and headers.  I sometimes take the opportunity to use the header for a tack.  That way the apparent change in course is not as great as a regular tack.  Really feels great to "trick" the wind once more.

Paul

In fact a "header" is a "lift" on the opposite tack (I forgot that!).

ick