Reducing fancy gear, siren crying kids.

[Tally Ho]

This evening I took all 3 kids out on the boat to give their pregnant mother a break. All was well with sandwiches and pop. Wind was gorgeous S-SW 5-8 knots. Had the full main up and rolled as much genoa out as I could with too big a sail on the furler.

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This photo was taken with near flat calm, once we round out of the bay, there is high mountains on both sides of the lake which funnel that 5-8 knots into puffs of 15 to 20 in places. My 2 younger boys freaked out and began my favorite "siren cry." Well it had to come sometime.

The owner of the boat has many fancy, but old, gear on the rig to "ease singlehanding" that I admit I really hate. I wanted to get some opinions on that fancy schmancy stuff. My opinions are below, but I wanted to see if there was concensus.

First, I love the bimini, but the dodger really bungs up managing lines and single
handing. when I stand on the cabin house top to manage sail I am constantly in fear of stepping on it and tearing it. I hate the loss of visual clearance. The tiller is not long enough to stand on seats and see over dodger, and Im not tall enough to see over it from the cockpit.

Lines run back to cockpit: I get this from a perceptual safety standpoint, but in practical application they cause issues such as hockles and jamming when I douse sail. There is so much friction in the system I hate it with frequent up/down to remove jammed lines and hockles. With Lazy jacks the 2 make my likelihood of falling in the drink worse. I much prefer the lines to the mast with a pin rail with clear decks.

Lazy Jacks: I took them off tonight. Damn things are so frustrating with full batten main, they make me go up and down from the cockpit ten times in a blow, they really don't contain the sail, the dodger and bimini do a better job anyway. It requires me to be dead into the wind to manage the raising and lowering the sail, which in our area means I have to motor a lot to find a clear spot to do that with boat traffic.

Reefing gear: this is not a complaint. Finally got double line for single reefpoint in place. I like single point, but boat is not set up for it, double line works great.

Roller furling: I will admit when my son started the siren cry, it was nice to roll the sail in without going on deck. But I hate the damn thing. It is the reason I have never had it on any boat I have ever owned. The primary issue is that the sail is a 170 on a Harken mod 3 furler, the sail is WAY too big and that causes the drum to jam with line when there is still 5-6 wraps of sail on it. If it worked properly with a solid set up, I might grow to like it, but if it was my boat, I would have a hank on jib with downhaul set up. I guess I am old school.

These are all great problems to have after being down with engine and transmission failures all season. This is my 4th real sail on the boat, of course my persnickety bitching is starting right?

My wife does that siren cry thing if we heel more than 10 degrees or so.

You get an A+ for taking the kiddos out and giving mom a break. Before I bought a boat, I would take my boys camping for the weekend so mon had a nice break. And you get some quality time with the kids. Lately, if my wife wants to go out for a sail with me, I keep the boat as level as I can, and work hard to enjoy the fact that she is out with me, even at the expene of some ribbing from my sailing buddies who ask me why I was so slow and why I didn’t chase them down. Happy wife, happy life.

As far as the boat equipment goes, I think I have everything you mention in your post. I added the lazy jacks, she already had a furler, all lines run aft. I like these a lot. I don’t have a full-batten main. But my last boat did and I still liked the jacks. Yes, the battens can get stuck on the way up, but I needed a way to drop the main by myself.

I don’t have a dodger on this boat, but I had one on my pervious boat. I agree, it gets in the way. I normally took mine off once the weather got reliably warm on Lake Michigan.

My boat was set up for single line reefing, but it never seemed to work well. It over tightened the tack and the clew wasn’t tight enough. I added reef hooks on the gooseneck, and now use single line on the clew after putting the reef ring on the hook at the mast. Pulls the sail so much tighter. Yes, I have to go to the mast to hook the reef ring, but if I think I will need it, I do that before I leave the dock...

Enjoy those kids and keep giving Mom a break. She will always appreciate your effort.

Greg

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

@FDL S2
They might be too young to be handling winches. Rope burns, trapped fingers and overrides are a risk.

 

[jviss]

put one on each jib halyard

I think you meant "sheets," not halyards. In any event, too dangerous for young kids. Jib sheets are the biggest load on the boat.

 

[FDL S2]

@FDL S2
They might be too young to be handling winches. Rope burns, trapped fingers and overrides are a risk.

You're absolutely right, I didn't think of their ages.
My earlier experience was on a smaller boat and the kids were all over 9 or 10, I would have the kids "help" me when we tacked-basically we would let out the sheet with my hand over theirs and pull in the opposite sheet the same way. That way I could keep their mitts out of the winch and stop rope burn.
My girlfriend's daughter is 3 and she loves helping me steer and looking at the telltales on the sail and calling out when one flutters.

 

[FDL S2]

I think you meant "sheets," not halyards. In any event, too dangerous for young kids. Jib sheets are the biggest load on the boat.

Yeah sheets. I looked back at the pic and the kids are too young for what I was suggesting.

 

[uralite]

As usual I love to read the postings.

Pontoons, yup, I think we are at that stage, but a purchase is a NO GO. Ouch. I guess those are not the pontoons of my day. I may reconsider the lazy jacks, did not think of that method, thanks Stu.

FDL S2, I grew up on Lake Winnebago out of High Cliff Marina. My Dad had a boat there my whole life until about 2002. That is a crazy lake! 36 miles long, 8 miles wide, and 18 feet at its deepest! Nasty steep chop 4-5' really close together when it blows down on our end with prevailing south/southwest. Awful quick nasty squalls. And algae!! But as a teen I sailed all 4 corners of that lake single handed on my Dad's boat for weeks at a time. Did the HC to Fondy race a few times with cases of beer as ballast (a winnebago sailor must ration 1 case beer per person per day- when I was younger, those days are over now). Taught sailing out of Neenah Nodaway as a teen too. Nostalgia! Or one of my favorites was ice boating, hard water sailing at 100 mph!! All good unless you find a sturgeon spearing hole.

Have a good one guys. E

 

[FDL S2]

As usual I love to read the postings.

Pontoons, yup, I think we are at that stage, but a purchase is a NO GO. Ouch. I guess those are not the pontoons of my day. I may reconsider the lazy jacks, did not think of that method, thanks Stu.

FDL S2, I grew up on Lake Winnebago out of High Cliff Marina. My Dad had a boat there my whole life until about 2002. That is a crazy lake! 36 miles long, 8 miles wide, and 18 feet at its deepest! Nasty steep chop 4-5' really close together when it blows down on our end with prevailing south/southwest. Awful quick nasty squalls. And algae!! But as a teen I sailed all 4 corners of that lake single handed on my Dad's boat for weeks at a time. Did the HC to Fondy race a few times with cases of beer as ballast (a winnebago sailor must ration 1 case beer per person per day- when I was younger, those days are over now). Taught sailing out of Neenah Nodaway as a teen too. Nostalgia! Or one of my favorites was ice boating, hard water sailing at 100 mph!! All good unless you find a sturgeon spearing hole.

Have a good one guys. E

Don't forget the lake flies!
I've sailed the HC to Fondy several times also the trans Winnebago between Fondy and Neenah. Grew up on the east shore and ice boated some-still have some iceboat spars in my garage-runners hitting snow at speed will mess you up almost as bad as a sturgeon hole!
Great to see someone here familiar with my area.