C
Colin Wightman
I'm not sure if this is actually a sail trim question or a helmsmanship issue, but I'll ask it here and you can tell me to go away if I just need to learn how to steer...We had a rolicking good time on Lake Superior with our C36 over the long weekend: after a day of light air and smooth water, we headed out to find 25-30 knot winds with higher gusts. On Lake Superior, that very quickly built 4-6 foot waves that are steep and close together...We wanted to sail a fairly broad reach (about 140 degrees, apparent) and ended up with no main, and only about a third of our genoa rolled out: the shape was ugly but we were flying at 7.5-8 knots so we didn't complain. The problem was that I couldn't steer a reach: As long as we were within roughly 15-20 degrees of a run things were fine, although the steering was very active. But trying to steer our desired course, 30-40 degrees off of the run (hence with the waves on our aft quarter), produced a nasty roll on some of the waves that eventually exceeded our fear/fun threshold led us to beat back to the marina to practice docking in 20 knot gusts So, Should I have put up some scrap of a main to balance the rig, learned to enjoy rolls that launch the cabin contents about, steer with more skill, or all of the above?