Sailing Only with Main on Hunter19 Waterballast

[Nancy Thompson]

Does anyone have any suggestions on rigging and setting boom for sailing only with the main sail? I don't have anyone to sail with, and I am not used to sailing alone with 2 sails to put up. Therefore, for the first several daysails, I plan to use the main alone. Also, anyone who wants to sail with me on the Hunter, MacGregor Venture, 15 Mutineer, or 19 INtnl Streaker, in SW MI, Lake MI, NO IN, or NW OH please contact me at nthompson@voyager.net.

 

[Henry Scurlock]

You should be ok with your setup

Of course the 19 doesn't point real well under just the main. You'll really have to push it through your tacks. A few of outings under the main alone and you'll be ready for the jib. You may want to go with the reef tied in the main and the jib up.The biggest problem we've found is with the stock jib sheet cleats, they can be difficult to release under load.Have a good sail !

 

[Ray Bowles]

Nancy, main only was the way we learned.

We have a H26 and as I'm somewhat stoved up my wife and I learned to sail our boat with the main only for the first 5 trips. We had a chart of sail positions for all points of sail hanging on the bulkhead to look at. Once that was boring we took a small wind day and hung both sails. I controlled the jib by having 1 and sometimes (bigger winds) 2 wraps of jib sheets around the winches and held the sheets in my hand so I could release them right now. Worked well. If you learn the main sheet snap maneuver then you can unload the boom if needed. To do this you hold the main sheet line in your hand with about only 2" of slack. If you need to slow down right now! you simple snap the line in a up and down motion to free the line from the lower block jam cleat and extend the boom out to bleed off speed. I know this sounds sophmoric to many sailors but it was a very valuable trick for me. Good luck and maybe Reba and I can learn and share more of these basic moves from you. Ray