After two years on this forum and the frustration of life interfering with plans, I went sailing yesterday.
My kids were/are all up for the 4th. It's been a busy holiday, and my wife asked, "How long will it take to see if the boat is in sailing condition?"
"I don't know. I have never sailed a Windmill before."
"Well perhaps we should just forget it this time and take the kayaks instead."
To which, I said, "It shouldn't take long."
So, I went out and set her up to see what was what.
Man! This is a complicated little boat. The were hauls and vang lines and multiple halyards and a whisker pole setup along the boom that I'd never seen before. It has a line running down its middle and bungee holding it loosely in place. The stays seem to be too long, the mast has two throats, one is obviously hand made by bending the track out, and there's either a cunningham or a downhaul cable (It turned out to be a downhaul, but I'm still not positive). The step looks like it has multiple positions and there are wedges cut out of cutting board material to fit into the thwart where the mast comes through. Nothing holds the floating dagger board down and the vang catches it when it floats up (maybe a bungee needs to be added).
The are still a few lines I haven't figured out what they're for yet. It came with a mainsail and two jibs. I chose the larger jib and left the smaller one home.
Linda decides to call it quits and just go with the kayaks.
"We're ready." I say. "I'll figure the rest out when we are on the water. "
We scramble, last minute, for PFDs and head out to Forest Lake.
I rig her up without the jib because there is a small amount of impatience as well as nervousness about the tippiness. We make a quick try at turning our Rougarou into a sailor dog
and Linda and I head out.
Now, something about the Windmill one should know. The Daggerboard is quite long. The public boat launch has a shallow rock bed between it and the rest of the lake. I am not a regular visitor to Forest Lake and I did not know this. I have some fiberglass work to do now.
We had fun, Linda was not yet ready to heel so we kept it sedate. But then, the winds were very cooperative for that too. Lots of on and off with some shifting around the convolutions of shoreline. Without the jib, it's good we had paddles to help bring us through some of the earlier tacks.
My daughter and her boyfriend took a turn with me then my son's girlfriend when he declined because his mother said, "Not on your own. This isn't some little resort Hobie 14."
He decided later he'd go with me.
He was surprisingly nervous about heeling too. After I assured him that the Windmill could heel a lot more than he was letting it, he relaxed a bit. I even got a chance to demonstrate how the hiking straps worked. My mistake. I really feel that today.
Then we were talking about planing and sailing down wind. I decided to try out the whisker pole on our last run before heading in.
Wow, that is a cool setup. Just pull a line and the whisker pole runs out through a sleeve right to the clew of the jib. Only on the port side, but it's for DDW, so no problems.
Then, my son is complaining about the loss of wind. I say, "What? We got plenty of wind."
"No we don't. I don't feel any wind."
I say, look at the water. We're moving pretty good."
"There's no wind!"
"Because we're sailing with it."
"Not very fast."
Then, BAM! We hit a submerged rock and I fly across the thwart into the bow. Got a huge goose egg on my shin.
"See how fast we were going?"
It was a great day, but never on that lake again.
-Will (Dragonfly)
My kids were/are all up for the 4th. It's been a busy holiday, and my wife asked, "How long will it take to see if the boat is in sailing condition?"
"I don't know. I have never sailed a Windmill before."
"Well perhaps we should just forget it this time and take the kayaks instead."
To which, I said, "It shouldn't take long."
So, I went out and set her up to see what was what.
Man! This is a complicated little boat. The were hauls and vang lines and multiple halyards and a whisker pole setup along the boom that I'd never seen before. It has a line running down its middle and bungee holding it loosely in place. The stays seem to be too long, the mast has two throats, one is obviously hand made by bending the track out, and there's either a cunningham or a downhaul cable (It turned out to be a downhaul, but I'm still not positive). The step looks like it has multiple positions and there are wedges cut out of cutting board material to fit into the thwart where the mast comes through. Nothing holds the floating dagger board down and the vang catches it when it floats up (maybe a bungee needs to be added).
The are still a few lines I haven't figured out what they're for yet. It came with a mainsail and two jibs. I chose the larger jib and left the smaller one home.
Linda decides to call it quits and just go with the kayaks.
"We're ready." I say. "I'll figure the rest out when we are on the water. "
We scramble, last minute, for PFDs and head out to Forest Lake.
I rig her up without the jib because there is a small amount of impatience as well as nervousness about the tippiness. We make a quick try at turning our Rougarou into a sailor dog
and Linda and I head out.Now, something about the Windmill one should know. The Daggerboard is quite long. The public boat launch has a shallow rock bed between it and the rest of the lake. I am not a regular visitor to Forest Lake and I did not know this. I have some fiberglass work to do now.
We had fun, Linda was not yet ready to heel so we kept it sedate. But then, the winds were very cooperative for that too. Lots of on and off with some shifting around the convolutions of shoreline. Without the jib, it's good we had paddles to help bring us through some of the earlier tacks.
My daughter and her boyfriend took a turn with me then my son's girlfriend when he declined because his mother said, "Not on your own. This isn't some little resort Hobie 14."
He decided later he'd go with me.
He was surprisingly nervous about heeling too. After I assured him that the Windmill could heel a lot more than he was letting it, he relaxed a bit. I even got a chance to demonstrate how the hiking straps worked. My mistake. I really feel that today.
Then we were talking about planing and sailing down wind. I decided to try out the whisker pole on our last run before heading in.
Wow, that is a cool setup. Just pull a line and the whisker pole runs out through a sleeve right to the clew of the jib. Only on the port side, but it's for DDW, so no problems.
Then, my son is complaining about the loss of wind. I say, "What? We got plenty of wind."
"No we don't. I don't feel any wind."
I say, look at the water. We're moving pretty good."
"There's no wind!"
"Because we're sailing with it."
"Not very fast."
Then, BAM! We hit a submerged rock and I fly across the thwart into the bow. Got a huge goose egg on my shin.
"See how fast we were going?"
It was a great day, but never on that lake again.
-Will (Dragonfly)
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