Solo sailing

Wind:  Northwest @ 12 knots, gusts to 18 knots

I went out for about 2 hours by myself last Saturday.  It was terrific.   Dragonfly is a great boat.   Sure, there is still plenty to do to make her better, but she is good enough for messing around.  We even took on the wake of the Newport – Providence ferry with no hull slapping and no water in the cockpit.

I’m also more comfortable handling her myself.  As long as the wind isn’t too unpredictable, it’s no problem.   I can let go of the tiller for short periods of time to handle the lines for the jib without coming to a complete stop, which means I feel in control.  It’s  a great feeling.

Here’s a plug for the wind data from the NOAA’s Narragansett Bay PORTS system.  I always check the wind before I head down to the mooring, and after my sail I can check the data for wind direction and speed.  I can even get live data from Conimicut Light on my cell phone on this page.

The power of the jib

Wind: South, 12 knots.  Gusts 18 knots.

Another sail yesterday, this time with by brother-in-law Q.   The southerly breeze really kicks up the chop down at the beach and we got rather wet paddling out to Dragonfly.  We started with main only, thinking that we’d raise the jib once we were safely away from shore.  Once we got going, I was a little nervous about raising the jib at all, because the wind felt pretty strong.

But tacking turned out to be rather difficult with just the mainsail.  We couldn’t point well at all.  The decision was made for us when the jib went over the side and started dragging in the water.  I figured we should raise it and leave it rather loose, letting it shake off the water, then I was going to lower it and put it away.

But lo and behold, the boat started behaving much more predictably with the jib up.  Once we had boat speed the ride was much smoother, and we were able to tack much more effectively.

What followed was some broad tacks down towards Colt State Park in Bristol, then over to a spot south of Conimicut Light, and finally a run back to the mooring.   It was a great day: good wind, nothing went wrong, and I learned something about the power of the jib.

It would be nice to have a standard jib for those days when the breeze is really brisk.  I don’t think I could single-hand with my current jib in winds above 15 knots.  I haven’t taken time to figure it out yet, but I probably have a 130% genoa as my only foresail.  It’s probably the most versatile foresail to have, but on breezy day the smaller jib would be welcome.  Particularly when kids are on board.

Father/son sailing

Wind: North, 13 knots.  Gusts to 18 knots.

I took my son out for a sail last Sunday.  We had nice wind out of the north.  An northerly breeze makes it very easy to get off the mooring.  I pull the mooring line down the length of the boat to get Dragonfly moving, then just push out the boom and start running downwind, which is directly away from the beach.

My son took the tiller while I raised the jib.  Unfortunately we caught a gust before I got back to the cockpit and we heeled quite a bit.  That scared him a little and he never quite relaxed for the rest of the sail.

So it looks like I’ll need to be more careful the next time we go out together.  In a decent wind, we may need to leave the jib down below.  Anybody have any good ideas to help a young sailor regain his confidence?  Leave a comment!