So as a new sail boat owner and with my previous experience on a sailboat as a crew only we have been enjoying our 1976 O’Day 25 the past couple of months. My wife just loves going out to the lake and sailing, she is always asking to go. We are pretty good at getting in and out of our slip, this is no small feat given we tied up on the starboard side between 2 other boats. With my wife (on tiller) and son (13) and daughter (10) line handling, this actually goes pretty well now and we have a good rhythm and technique. Under sail my wife loves being on the tiller but has not wanted to adjust or learn the sails. My son has sat a few times to learn the jib handling but if nothing is going on he wants to leave the cockpit. He has had a fair amount of time on tiller, under motor sailing and liked that. My daughter is enthusiastic but still a bit small to handle the lines in anything but light wind. She got some significant time on the tiller this weekend, under motor heading back and did very well.
This Saturday weather was not promising (rain and cloudy), but there was a mid-morning to mid-afternoon window of nice medium breeze (9-10 kts, gust 15-16 kts) and my wife asked if we could go to the lake. The stead winds of 9-10 we had been out in before, gust were higher than the last time out when we had 10-12 kts. I review 3 weather predictions and wind speed forecasts plus check radar for storms and fronts, the clouds cleared up about 10:30 and we were under way with an S-SE wind on a broad reach out of the marina. Normally we sail the wide open lake area up under a bridge around Guntersville and turn around and come back, this is our usual 3-4 hour sail and one we are pretty comfortable with now. However we saw some other sailboats heading up river past a light house I was told about and we decided to give it a go. After a few jibs we were maintaining a broad reach with GPS indicated speed of 4.7-5.2 kts.
We continued up river into the narrow part that leads to the dam that forms Lake Guntersville on the Tennessee River, the cliffs on our port side were amazing and the small islands on the starboard were beautiful. Very relaxing but looking at the time I figured we should come about and start beating back to the marina. We have come about several times before in the larger lake area with no issues and a bit of heal and everyone knew to prepare. As noted above I usually run the sheets for both sails, but this time I had my son taking the lazy jib sheet and my daughter preparing to release the working jib sheet while I was on the main and wife on the tiller. When everyone was set and ready I gave the command hard about for my wife and my daughter released the working jib sheet while my son took in the lazy jib sheet. I guided the boom and maintained control of the main sheet. However we healed a lot more than expected and my wife could not stop the turn so we weathered into the wind. At this point we ended up still rotating and the main swung back across and caused us to heal over again. I dumped the main out and we were back upright with all the sails making a lot of noise from luffing. The both headsail sheets were all out so the jib was fluttering everywhere and we were pretty much bobbing around in circles. Needless there was a lot of commotion and yelling over the noise. My daughter was not happy, my son thought it was cool, wife not having a good time. I ordered kids into the cabin while the wife and I got the boat underway with the motor. I was pretty upset, not with anyone but myself because I lost the boat and couldn’t get it back and communicate with everyone. With my wife finally able to hold her into the wind I went forward to drop the main and jib. Once the sails were down my wife asked to go below and rest in the cabin, she took the first nap on the berth underway due to the exhaustion of the terrifying events. My son had gone full teenage moody and was sulking in the cabin too. In the heat of the bobbing and boom moving uncontrolled I was telling him what to do but he didn’t understand the terms and at that point we were not in a teaching mode so I needed him out of the way. My daughter was back in the cockpit so I started giving her the tiller lessons to get us back. I still felt we should after a bit bring the sails back up but it became apparent that my wife and son were not interested anymore. With that my daughter got some solid time on the tiller and she was doing well enough that I felt comfortable leaving the cockpit and going forward to clean up the sail mess and lines for storage. After an hour or so under motor we made it back and had a great docking with no drama or issues.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading post situational analysis and I know I made several mistakes.
I’m still a bit gun shy about moving from a broad reach / run to a beam reach safely. My reaction is to let the main and jib out to luff when the heal gets too sporty for family fun. I’m pretty sure this is just terrible seamanship, and I plan to get some experience help and look at a family lesson with a local instructor. Feedback welcome, I know I will probably take some grief but do appreciate any help. Our plans for next time out or to get my son on tiller under sail and my wife and daughter on sails. Right now I just don’t feel comfortable going forward under sail to adjust anything until I know they are good and I won’t get thrown overboard.
Big post I know, This might be a terrible thing to admit I let happen but I have a couple of weeks till we can sail again so as an engineer I plan to study and learn everything I can.
This Saturday weather was not promising (rain and cloudy), but there was a mid-morning to mid-afternoon window of nice medium breeze (9-10 kts, gust 15-16 kts) and my wife asked if we could go to the lake. The stead winds of 9-10 we had been out in before, gust were higher than the last time out when we had 10-12 kts. I review 3 weather predictions and wind speed forecasts plus check radar for storms and fronts, the clouds cleared up about 10:30 and we were under way with an S-SE wind on a broad reach out of the marina. Normally we sail the wide open lake area up under a bridge around Guntersville and turn around and come back, this is our usual 3-4 hour sail and one we are pretty comfortable with now. However we saw some other sailboats heading up river past a light house I was told about and we decided to give it a go. After a few jibs we were maintaining a broad reach with GPS indicated speed of 4.7-5.2 kts.
We continued up river into the narrow part that leads to the dam that forms Lake Guntersville on the Tennessee River, the cliffs on our port side were amazing and the small islands on the starboard were beautiful. Very relaxing but looking at the time I figured we should come about and start beating back to the marina. We have come about several times before in the larger lake area with no issues and a bit of heal and everyone knew to prepare. As noted above I usually run the sheets for both sails, but this time I had my son taking the lazy jib sheet and my daughter preparing to release the working jib sheet while I was on the main and wife on the tiller. When everyone was set and ready I gave the command hard about for my wife and my daughter released the working jib sheet while my son took in the lazy jib sheet. I guided the boom and maintained control of the main sheet. However we healed a lot more than expected and my wife could not stop the turn so we weathered into the wind. At this point we ended up still rotating and the main swung back across and caused us to heal over again. I dumped the main out and we were back upright with all the sails making a lot of noise from luffing. The both headsail sheets were all out so the jib was fluttering everywhere and we were pretty much bobbing around in circles. Needless there was a lot of commotion and yelling over the noise. My daughter was not happy, my son thought it was cool, wife not having a good time. I ordered kids into the cabin while the wife and I got the boat underway with the motor. I was pretty upset, not with anyone but myself because I lost the boat and couldn’t get it back and communicate with everyone. With my wife finally able to hold her into the wind I went forward to drop the main and jib. Once the sails were down my wife asked to go below and rest in the cabin, she took the first nap on the berth underway due to the exhaustion of the terrifying events. My son had gone full teenage moody and was sulking in the cabin too. In the heat of the bobbing and boom moving uncontrolled I was telling him what to do but he didn’t understand the terms and at that point we were not in a teaching mode so I needed him out of the way. My daughter was back in the cockpit so I started giving her the tiller lessons to get us back. I still felt we should after a bit bring the sails back up but it became apparent that my wife and son were not interested anymore. With that my daughter got some solid time on the tiller and she was doing well enough that I felt comfortable leaving the cockpit and going forward to clean up the sail mess and lines for storage. After an hour or so under motor we made it back and had a great docking with no drama or issues.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading post situational analysis and I know I made several mistakes.
- I’m still too new at being the most knowledgeable sailor and have trouble communicating in an emergency. Nobody onboard but myself can react without instruction. I read and study a lot and have asked them to read also but that has fallen on deaf ears.
- I did not realize the wind speed on a broad reach was that high, going from the open waters into a narrow area with the cliffs enhanced this as wind tunnel effect.
- We should not have tried to come completely about in one maneuver. Instead I believe we should have navigated to a beam reach under control first, trimmed for a bit and then a close hauled starboard track, trimmed for a bit, then tacked to port close hauled to reverse our course.
- I think I dumped the main too fast and caused us to lose forward momentum and thus get banged back and forth weathering.
I’m still a bit gun shy about moving from a broad reach / run to a beam reach safely. My reaction is to let the main and jib out to luff when the heal gets too sporty for family fun. I’m pretty sure this is just terrible seamanship, and I plan to get some experience help and look at a family lesson with a local instructor. Feedback welcome, I know I will probably take some grief but do appreciate any help. Our plans for next time out or to get my son on tiller under sail and my wife and daughter on sails. Right now I just don’t feel comfortable going forward under sail to adjust anything until I know they are good and I won’t get thrown overboard.
Big post I know, This might be a terrible thing to admit I let happen but I have a couple of weeks till we can sail again so as an engineer I plan to study and learn everything I can.