Is there a bad day of sailing?

[David Hall22685]

Unlike some people, I can't take a good day for sailing (windy, sunny, etc.) I have to take my day off and take my chances. Being a pastor, Monday is my day off so I took a chance thinking that with all the storms moving it, there would be a fair breeze. Unfortunately, it was a dead calm day (see photo below). I love hearing people talking about foaming their masts and worried about having only one or two reef points. I have no foam in my mast, no reef points and as far as I can tell, I will never need these things. However, I have discovered that my hull (98) is cracking now as well. what else can go wrong?But is there a bad day if you are on the water? Is it like fishing, "A bad day fishing is better than a good day doing anything else." If there is no wind are you really sailing? What do you think? Or am I just ready for winter...David

 

[john]

I agree

David, I find the 170 doesn't paddle too well, but you can use the tiller to scull pretty effortlessly, is that your experience as well? I agree with you that there is no such thing as a bad day on a sailboat. The first time I took my boat to Lake Huron the wind was on shore at 23 mph (my friend had a little high tech scoop thing to measure it). Me being inexperienced, and my friend being a dang fool, we went out anyway. After three failed attempts to make it out of the harbor I started to get frustrated and my friend said, "I'm having fun . . . what would you rather be doing?" I try to keep that in mind when I am experiencing problems (see my previous post). Honestly, some of the "worst" days in the sailboat make the best stories later! john

 

[Glenn17427]

Some good, some better than others !

Hi David,I would certainly recomend foaming and sealing your mast if you do nothing else. this is simple to do and does not take much time or moneny.And yes, there are bad days on the water, turtling is one of those bad days because you are going to have to relie on others to assist you in righting the boat. In my case the Harbor authorities broke my mast trying to right the boat. It took them about 2 hours to get the boat back to the docks.More importantly, my wife and I had to be pulled out of the water by other boaters and wait for the Harbor patrol to respond.(we did have our PFD on)Had the mast been sealed / foamed, we could have righted the boat and sailed on.Good news was, no one was hurt, material items replaced.Minimize your chances of having a bad day, Be prepared, No your limitations, keep you and your crew safe and you will most likely have an enjoyable day.

 

[Jack W -2005 H 36]

Looks like a nice day to me......

heck, from your picture, it sure looks like a beautiful day to be out on the water! The best sailors are those who take what's given and learn how to deal with it. There are many sailors who never master the sport because they sit and wait for the perfect day to come along. Remember that time spent on the water is added to our time on this earth.Ready for winter? Nah--I doubt it!

 

[breadman]

Bad Day

I was out last Saturday on a little lake (86 acres) near my house the wind blowing pretty good 20 mph and gusting we were out in the middle just scooting along and I dont know what happened but the jib just came apart only 3 years old but I do leave it on the mast all summer every summer fall winter you get the picture. Id say it was pretty weathered anyhow its a good thing you can sail on main alone I sailed for another hour and went home Monday I ordered a new jib. I knew it was coming just glad it lasted most of the sailing season this year.

 

[David Hall22685]

Why bother

Glenn, if I have no wind, I never have to worry about turtling! If there is no chance of turtling, why bother foaming? When I taught sailing, one of the tests they had to pass, was to right a turtled boat. My bad days (if there is such a thing)are those with no wind (with one exception which I have cured with the new motor)! The good news was that I got to sleep on the boat for the first time (15 minutes). What the picture doesn't show was that it was starting to rain. I had a steady drizzle for the rest of the afternoon with no wind. Also, this was to be my fall colors trip, which living in south w(W)est Virginia is beautiful this time of the year. So I did get to enjoy the view. I just wish the wind had blown, even a little. Three hours of driving and prep time for two hours of sitting still doesn't seem right.On the positive side, I did get a chance to adjust my new bunkboards and put thirty more minutes of breaking in time on my new Suzuki 2.5 four-stroke. So the day wasn't a total loss.

 

[GuyT]

Bad day = you or your crew gets Seasick *o

When your seasick, its just bad.

 

[Glenn17427]

Travel time !

Hi David,Yes, travel time for a couple of hours of sail time is tough at times.I too must travel an hour to sail, rig time on my new boat takes me longer 40 min to set up as I'm not use to it as yet, once on the water, the travel time and set up time seems to fade away and for a while, nothing else matters.Glenn

 

[Doug]

When we daysailed/weekended

out of a yacht club, we tended to ‘go anyway’ because well ... it was a day when we planned to sail. One of the kind of surprising things we learned when we went cruising - 2+ years from FL to So. America and back - was that we probably did less or at least no more sailing in terms of nm/mo. When you’re in paradise, if the boat isn’t quite right, or the weather is iffy, or you’re just plain enjoying where you happen to be .... well, there’s no good reason to move and you don’t ‘go anyway.’ Still, as long as nothing critical breaks and no one gets sick or hurt, there are no bad sailing days.