Hi Tony:
Is this the first outing on your HC36? If so, you probably can't sit still with the anticipation of it. Below is a picture taken during my first sail after purchase and six months of work on the hard.
Re your questions about the sail plan, a lot depends on the conditions of course. But here goes:
- Since you haven't sailed on this boat before, then the one sail idea to start isn't a bad idea. For a masthead rigged boat (as are ours), you'll do better with the jib only, instead of the mainsail only. Many boats sail this way in San Francisco Bay if the skipper doesn't want to fuss too much for a short outing, or if the winds are really kicking up. I sometimes sail with just my 135 genoa. If the winds are moderate, and I let it out all the way on the furler, I hardly even notice the speed difference of no mainsail.
- My suggestion is to set the second reef on the mainsail before you leave the dock. Then after you get a feel for the boat with your 110 only, then use the mainsail reefed. This has been a really windy summer on SF Bay. So I've kept the mainsail on the second reef virtually all the time. For the central bay, where the wind is really piping, I'll also roll up the 135 genoa around the furler quite a bit. For spots on the bay where the wind is more moderate, the 135 is let out. But the mainsail stays on the second reef point --- because I've got to cross the +25kt "the slot" on the way home as well. The exception was today given a more moderate windcast. So I set the mainsail on the first reef. We were surprised instead with a rowdy 35 kts wind in the section south of Angel Island and north of Treasure Island. The boat nonetheless did fine with the genoa rolled back to appx a 90% size. Weather helm for sure, but not too severe.
- Presumably an inside jib sheet track hasn't been installed on boat and that you do have the moveable snap blocks for the toe rail? Let me know if you need some tips on this.
I don't know if this was necessary on your Catalina, but certainly on my HC36, when raising the mainsail, it really helps for the boom to be held above horizontal by the topping lift. Otherwise, raising the sail to the top and then getting enough tension on the luff rope to avoid scallops is very hard to do. The after the luff is tensioned, slack off the topping lift.
Have fun! Report back your experience.
rardi
ps: Regarding the cockpit floor hatch, I suspect that you haven't had enough time to do the permanent fix. Before you go out, at least secure it with a few screws. Then seal around the edges with duct tape. If you remove the duck tape with a week or so, the duct shouldn't leave too much sticky behind. But if so, the sticky will still be pliable enough to each come off with acetone.
