Close one today. I decided not to run down the sound after raising sails because my son wanted to see if we could get lucky and spot the whale I saw close in yesterday. Nice day for a tack out to sea and a screaming reach back anyway. That left us sailing a rather overpowered boat until we could clear enough of the harbor traffic to put in a reef.
There was a big fiberglass ketch ahead with just a man and his wife beating out and the wife handling the Genoa which was way too big for a single crew member in that wind. Why they weren’t using the self tending roller staysail that would have made the whole effort very easy, I haven't a clue. The mizzen wasn’t set so they weren’t racing.
We ran out of sea room against the breakwater and tacked to starboard. The big ketch was just bearing away after a tack on the far side of the channel. I realized almost immediately that CPA was going to be very tight. I hate boats with big dodgers because you usually can’t see back through the plastic and you don’t know if the helmsman is looking at you instead of the GPS or yelling at his wife who isn’t handling the sheet just right. I took pity on the wife struggling with the big Genoa and made a short tack back which would put us about 100 yards under their course.
Damn if this boat that had been pinching its way along the whole time we were watching it didn’t chose this tack to crank the wheel down and drive her. He fell off a good 10-15 degrees and started forcing us inshore. The shore was converging with our courses so we were almost instantly out of options. There wasn’t room to jibe around because of rocks that he probably wasn’t thinking about. A tack that panicked him into trying to go under us if he suddenly spotted us as we were trying to fall off under his stern would result in a big tangle of expensive fiberglass up against the breakwater. We clearly wouldn’t make it across his bow at this point.
He kept right on as if we weren’t there as I feathered along at the slowest speed that would keep us from sagging into the rocks while keeping enough speed to preserve some options. The ketch sailed past us about 100 feet to windward and 100 feet past us and then tacked like we weren’t even there. Watching the sail handling and deck work, I was glad I hadn’t pushed the right of way issue.
We tacked instantly and sailed almost through her lee before she began to sail away from us upwind. The greater speed from her length let her pinch up and still outpace us. I threw in a reef after the next tack. We were starboard after the next and, despite the speed lost with the reef, we crossed her BOW comfortably and gained to windward until we reached the harbor mouth and she headed off in a different direction.
Next time, I’ll be much more inclined to get out the Vuvuzella and start blasting away between screams of “STARBOARD”.
There was a big fiberglass ketch ahead with just a man and his wife beating out and the wife handling the Genoa which was way too big for a single crew member in that wind. Why they weren’t using the self tending roller staysail that would have made the whole effort very easy, I haven't a clue. The mizzen wasn’t set so they weren’t racing.
We ran out of sea room against the breakwater and tacked to starboard. The big ketch was just bearing away after a tack on the far side of the channel. I realized almost immediately that CPA was going to be very tight. I hate boats with big dodgers because you usually can’t see back through the plastic and you don’t know if the helmsman is looking at you instead of the GPS or yelling at his wife who isn’t handling the sheet just right. I took pity on the wife struggling with the big Genoa and made a short tack back which would put us about 100 yards under their course.
Damn if this boat that had been pinching its way along the whole time we were watching it didn’t chose this tack to crank the wheel down and drive her. He fell off a good 10-15 degrees and started forcing us inshore. The shore was converging with our courses so we were almost instantly out of options. There wasn’t room to jibe around because of rocks that he probably wasn’t thinking about. A tack that panicked him into trying to go under us if he suddenly spotted us as we were trying to fall off under his stern would result in a big tangle of expensive fiberglass up against the breakwater. We clearly wouldn’t make it across his bow at this point.
He kept right on as if we weren’t there as I feathered along at the slowest speed that would keep us from sagging into the rocks while keeping enough speed to preserve some options. The ketch sailed past us about 100 feet to windward and 100 feet past us and then tacked like we weren’t even there. Watching the sail handling and deck work, I was glad I hadn’t pushed the right of way issue.
We tacked instantly and sailed almost through her lee before she began to sail away from us upwind. The greater speed from her length let her pinch up and still outpace us. I threw in a reef after the next tack. We were starboard after the next and, despite the speed lost with the reef, we crossed her BOW comfortably and gained to windward until we reached the harbor mouth and she headed off in a different direction.
Next time, I’ll be much more inclined to get out the Vuvuzella and start blasting away between screams of “STARBOARD”.
If there's enough room for the other boat to get out of trouble I might give a toot with the air horn to make sure that they see me.