I've sailed my '72 Catalina 22 for 6 seasons now and before that I sailed a massively over-powered sailfish my father built (so I guess I kind of know what I'm doing). But now I find myself kind of gun-shy. 2 Weekends ago we were out, close-hauled and heading in when I realized that no matter what I did with the main, we were massively over-powered with the 110% jib (all we have). I had so much so much lee-helm it was hard to steer. The boat kept wanting to head down-wind no matter what I did. We ended up turning into the wind and dropping sails, and I'm glad we did, because the weather didn't get any better. It should be no problem, decent sailing until the last 20 minutes.
I sail with my wife, who doesn't know a lot about sailing, except if in doubt, let it out and if the jib is flapping, pull it in. Tried everything I could think of -- the wind didn't feel _that_ bad, we'd been out in worse. Dropping the traveler, reefing and flattening the main, playing the gusts, pinching-up, etc. The boat was probably fine, I know it'll handle way more that I want to. But it seems to have gotten to me.
In these situations I start thinking about what all the stress is doing to the standing rigging, what would happen if X, Y, or Z... you get the idea -- I replaced the running rigging a season after I got the boat, I installed the newer chain plate fittings, etc. So I'm fairly confident in everything. But since I know what's happening to all the pieces and parts and responsible for everyone on board, I start to get into my own head, which I don't consider a bad thing, but it can tend to make me a nervous sailor at times.
Today we went out in 4, gusts to 11 mph (more like 15). Should be easy sailing, no problem. At first no wind, we're just drifting. I could see the ripples on the water not too far away, so fired the motor up and headed there. Once we found the wind, we killed the motor and had a nice sail on a close / broad reach. But I could tell from the tell-tails on the main that I wasn't trimming it in enough. I could have trimmed it in and gotten more speed, but I just couldn't find it in me to do it. Once we started to heel more than I was happy with (which is nowhere near as much as the boat will handle) I'd let the main out a little more. I knew it was killing our speed (though the helm felt nicely balanced), but I just didn't want to trim it in. I feel like I'm gun-shy from being over-powered and having to drop sail and now I can't seem to just relax and have a nice sail. My wife didn't say it, but she intimated that I was being overly cautious.
I guess I just needed to vent and see if anyone else ever goes through this.
I sail with my wife, who doesn't know a lot about sailing, except if in doubt, let it out and if the jib is flapping, pull it in. Tried everything I could think of -- the wind didn't feel _that_ bad, we'd been out in worse. Dropping the traveler, reefing and flattening the main, playing the gusts, pinching-up, etc. The boat was probably fine, I know it'll handle way more that I want to. But it seems to have gotten to me.
In these situations I start thinking about what all the stress is doing to the standing rigging, what would happen if X, Y, or Z... you get the idea -- I replaced the running rigging a season after I got the boat, I installed the newer chain plate fittings, etc. So I'm fairly confident in everything. But since I know what's happening to all the pieces and parts and responsible for everyone on board, I start to get into my own head, which I don't consider a bad thing, but it can tend to make me a nervous sailor at times.
Today we went out in 4, gusts to 11 mph (more like 15). Should be easy sailing, no problem. At first no wind, we're just drifting. I could see the ripples on the water not too far away, so fired the motor up and headed there. Once we found the wind, we killed the motor and had a nice sail on a close / broad reach. But I could tell from the tell-tails on the main that I wasn't trimming it in enough. I could have trimmed it in and gotten more speed, but I just couldn't find it in me to do it. Once we started to heel more than I was happy with (which is nowhere near as much as the boat will handle) I'd let the main out a little more. I knew it was killing our speed (though the helm felt nicely balanced), but I just didn't want to trim it in. I feel like I'm gun-shy from being over-powered and having to drop sail and now I can't seem to just relax and have a nice sail. My wife didn't say it, but she intimated that I was being overly cautious.
I guess I just needed to vent and see if anyone else ever goes through this.
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