Yesterday I sailed for the first time this season and had a blast!
It was the first time I sailed single handed on our O'day and the major upgrades I made this spring worked well and really paid off.
The first upgrade was installing the hardware to run the main halyard and two-line reef system back to the cockpit. I got a lot of good ideas on how to do so from this forum.
The second upgrade was the new self tailing winches you guys recommended in my winch thread. The Anderson #12 ST winches worked like a dream, making jib handling easier than I ever imagined.
I followed some other advice I got from another thread when I talked about my difficulty keeping pointed into the wind while raising the main.
Yesterday I used a tiller clutch to hold the boat pointed off the wind a bit. I set the jib, shutdown the OB, then raised the main. That worked well. I also learned to set the sails and tiller clutch so that the boat would drift up or down a bit but keep the same basic heading.
Then I tried that Heaving To thing I kept hearing about. Wow, is that neat. I stopped, had a quiet bite of lunch, then continued sailing.
Tacking was so cool with those ST winches.
And in a hard gust instead of rounding up I tried bearing off, which a dock mate suggested I try. That helped to sail smoothly through those sudden gusts.
Near the end of the sail, I Hove To once again. I was able to drop the main and the boat was so settled I could easily tie up the sail, then continue on with jib only until it was time to fire up the OB.
I keep track of all of my sailing trips and this was #27. These upgrades in equipment and sailing techniques took my sailing experience to a whole new level.
This was a shorter trip than usual as I needed to do a bit of cleaning up in the cabin before heading home but it was sure worthwhile.
My goal this season is two day-sails a week. One trip after work during the week and at least one on the weekend.
Oh, from my other recent thread, I ended up with 1/2" 3-strand nylon dock lines with eye splices sized not to slip off my deck cleats. I bought a single length of rope, spliced the eyes, then cut to length.
Photo 1 is of Moon Shadow in her slip
Photo 2 is while on a close reach to LBI.
Photo 3 is while Hove To.
Photo 4 is the track info from the Navionics App I run on my iPad.
It was the first time I sailed single handed on our O'day and the major upgrades I made this spring worked well and really paid off.
The first upgrade was installing the hardware to run the main halyard and two-line reef system back to the cockpit. I got a lot of good ideas on how to do so from this forum.
The second upgrade was the new self tailing winches you guys recommended in my winch thread. The Anderson #12 ST winches worked like a dream, making jib handling easier than I ever imagined.
I followed some other advice I got from another thread when I talked about my difficulty keeping pointed into the wind while raising the main.
Yesterday I used a tiller clutch to hold the boat pointed off the wind a bit. I set the jib, shutdown the OB, then raised the main. That worked well. I also learned to set the sails and tiller clutch so that the boat would drift up or down a bit but keep the same basic heading.
Then I tried that Heaving To thing I kept hearing about. Wow, is that neat. I stopped, had a quiet bite of lunch, then continued sailing.
Tacking was so cool with those ST winches.
And in a hard gust instead of rounding up I tried bearing off, which a dock mate suggested I try. That helped to sail smoothly through those sudden gusts.
Near the end of the sail, I Hove To once again. I was able to drop the main and the boat was so settled I could easily tie up the sail, then continue on with jib only until it was time to fire up the OB.
I keep track of all of my sailing trips and this was #27. These upgrades in equipment and sailing techniques took my sailing experience to a whole new level.
This was a shorter trip than usual as I needed to do a bit of cleaning up in the cabin before heading home but it was sure worthwhile.
My goal this season is two day-sails a week. One trip after work during the week and at least one on the weekend.
Oh, from my other recent thread, I ended up with 1/2" 3-strand nylon dock lines with eye splices sized not to slip off my deck cleats. I bought a single length of rope, spliced the eyes, then cut to length.
Photo 1 is of Moon Shadow in her slip
Photo 2 is while on a close reach to LBI.
Photo 3 is while Hove To.
Photo 4 is the track info from the Navionics App I run on my iPad.
