Sailing 'er in.

[TomY]

It's rare, but we do see an occasional boat sailing into a harbor onto a mooring or anchor, even occasionally to dock up, all under sail. It's a spectator sport for sure as we know how many things can go wrong.

For real drama, to see a boat sail into a near impossibly narrow crowded harbor like Perry Creek - dead to windward, is a real treat!

Such was the sight of this old gaff rigged sloop this season. A Bud McIntosh design and an unlikely candidate to be sailing into this slot.

I watched them sail, close hauled, into the creek. Below the mooring field, they tacked a couple of times through an alley between moored boats with a fair amount of boat speed.

On their final tack - close hauled, with no water just a few yards off their starboard side and moored boats on port side, they pinched just up a bit more which seemed to wring out the last of BUFFLEHEAD's way in the water.

The captain has his eye trained on his target ahead as his gaffer slows..... Nice.

BUFFLEHEAD coasts out the last tack with sails finally luffing and no one on the helm. The captain hooks his target as the bow kisses the mooring ball, dead center.

It's important to deactivate the sails and he has lots of help here. He wrestles with the mooring pennant while the crew quickly douses sails.

Piece of cake. What's their secret? Daily use I suspect. This is a charter boat that does daysails out of Rockland all season long.

Plus BUFFLEHEAD is a handy boat with a self tending rig. Many of these old gaff rigged designs originated for fishing under sail.

And it doesn't hurt that the captain built BUFFLEHEAD himself. That must give you an extra connection to a sailboat.

Here they are the next morning, next boat aft, well up the creek and past most of the moored boats. Who'd believe they sailed in?

 

[tfox2069]

GREAT post!

 

[31seahorse]

Beautiful pictures accompany your post (as usual)! Seeing sailing skills on display will never get old. Thanks.

 

[cb32863]

Sailed on to my first mooring once. Was an interesting experience but, I had experienced help on the boat when we did it. We have multiple boats at WYC that don't use motors. One guy with a Capri 25 sails in and out of his slip pretty much all the time. Slip placement helps too and like you said, experience, knowing your boat and your area.

I had to sail out of my slip one cold November morning to haul out. Couldn't get the motor started, breeze was light, Jackdaw shows up, in shorts of course, and says "It's a sailboat, let's sail it out of here!", so we did. Weaved through the docks to get to the gin pole to drop the mast and then pulled her over to the crane to haul out. Have some pics somewhere of that little sail somewhere...

 

[rgranger]

 

[dLj]

Loved the photos and story. It's always delightful to see folk sailing, start to finish.

The weekend Will G. came to sail with me this summer, we sailed off my mooring. Turns out an old timer up there was watching unbeknownst to us. Several weeks later I was up and he came by and recounted how he'd watched us sail off the mooring. It's always lovely to watch! (Certainly not as impressive as this boat coming to the mooring ball).

dj

 

[Serenity on Hudson]

I leased a 28 foot Jenneau in 1990. I kept it on a mooring in Oyster Bay on LI. I sailed on and off the mooring all year. The only down side was I never charged the battery and it went dead one night as a big freighter was bearing down on me while drifting with my mind on the young lady accompanying me that evening. Couldn't start the engine until I noticed that the battery switch was on B1. Switched to B2, started the engine and got out of dodge. Made it a point to motor in and out of the harbor after that.
Last year as I was bringing my boat in for the last time of the year, the motor quit just outside my marina. I had taken the main down and rolled the jib. Let the jib back out and sailed into the marina, along a bulkhead some 3oo feet to the launch ramp dock using a boat hook to keep me off the bulkhead. It was slow but i made it upon which i noticed i was a spectetor sport with a good crowd applauding when i got the the dock. I learned to sail on boats with no motors and found many ways to get motion where there was no room to sail. As the man said "it a sailboat!".

 

[danstanford]

My old slip was designed for 27' boats on both sides of the fairway and in fact there was less than the length of my 32' boat between the boats on the two sides. My slip mate in a 31' boat was having engine troubles on race night and he begged a tow out of the harbor once he had pushed out of his slip and fended off from the surrounding boats.
The race went off and we returned to my slip when I thought about the fact that my buddy was not back in and we chatted about where he was going to go with thoughts of him pulling himself up the fairway boat by boat till he got in. About that time I looked up and saw him sailing down the marina heading for our location under main and jib but the jib was being dropped as I started to race around getting help. By the time they were headed up the fairway under a luffing but dropping main I was positioned to fend off from my stern and had one of my crew on the end of their slip with a dock line and a boat hook all of us ready to help. Not only did he wave us off but he refused anything but some push from the cross dock on his pulpit as he came in 15 or 20 feet too fast.
I never, ever, complained about how tight my slip was after that day! Did I mention that we had only about 3' between the boats when we were both in?
Dan

 

[Meriachee]

We regularly sail off and to the mooring. What's interesting is the times we head into the marina, things get a little antsy going into a slip, simple because we do it so infrequently. Last year we had a sibling visitor just after the boats got splashed.

 

[rgranger]

Sailing off a beach is not the same thing... but still fun

 

[SkookumZac]

Two weekends ago the outboard quit just as we were approaching the marina entrance. We dropped anchor and fiddled with it for a while but it was no good. I said, '**** it, we're sailing in!' The wife was dubious but the wind was gentle and the current was slack. I came in a little hot but a dock worker was waiting to grab a spring line and slow us down. Poseidon smiled on me that day because if we had crashed into another boat I never would have heard the end of it!

-Z

 

[jssailem]

Sometimes you got to do what you got to do.
Poseidon understands and in this instance chose to throw you a little grace. Must have been in a good mood when he heard your frustration about the motor. You ever discover the reason for the motor acting like a recalcitrant teen?

 

[Will Gilmore]

It's the only way to sail your Opti. Sailed on and off the transom of our schooner almost every day when I was a kid. Sometimes, I did hit the boat a bit too hard. And you don't just drop the sail of a pram. Funny, I can't remember what I did.

This is me sailing up to out live aboard, Sunflower, and that's our cat, Little Bit, poised to grab the gunnel as quick as she can.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Matt White]

Don't have pictures, but once, in the 70s, watched a Morgan 27 enter a small marina under spinnaker, they doused it just before their slip and glided in perfectly.

 

[TomY]

I'm sure you did what all kids do in sailing dinghy's, especially light prams. You put er' on a fast reach and aim for an imaginary bullseye on the mother ship. You wait until the last second,...and then you wait one more...

Only then do you slice the tiller to leeward. A featherlight pram turns instantly into the wind and all speed is lost in a matter of a couple yards.

Then you beamed a smile at your father, as he shook his head.

I still do it this way, the boy in me I guess.

 

[Michael Davis]

the boy in me I guess.

Long live the boy!

 

[dLj]

Play every day. We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing...

A saying that I try to conform with...

dj

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

My ex was sailing the 21 footer once, coming back to the launch ramp.. She lined up started in, didn't like the looks and bailed out. Sailed out a ways, started back in and was still not happy, so bailed again. Third time she nailed it perfectly. Guy standing on the dock asked- why didn't you use the motor- she grinned and told him- that's no fun

 

[jssailem]

the boy in me I guess.

I’ve heard you can raise a boy up to be a Man, but you never take the boy out of the man.

 

[Hunter216]

My neighbour is a master of sailing onto his mooring. I was standing on the dock one day and he came by downwind under full sail in 20+knots. His mooring ball is about 60ft offshore.
He just smiled as he did a complete 360 around the ball to bleed off the speed and then on the next go around he just brought the bow onto the ball and stopped, grabbed the painter and tied off. He’s 83 this year!!