I looked out the window and saw the weather I knew I had a problem. Rain can have a dramatic impact on the local Vancouver pussy. It can make him shy and unresponsive. Given this I realised I may be short crew for the race; but I didn't realise how short!
All kidding aside team SEA WEASEL is great and has been stretched lately with allot of races and the weather was miserable so I can't blame them; also some of them had real good excuses. So I sat on the dock looking at the boat and the prospect of getting a 12 point hit on our standings if we did not compete (DNC). "What the hell." I thought and went for it single handed.
While I have motored my boat single handed plenty of times I had not gone out in 10 knots of wind to race sailing the boat single handed before. I only knew what I had read. Preparation was everything. I spent most of the time at the dock rigging absolutely everything so that I could manage everything from the cockpit. Luckily the WEASEL has all the lines lead aft. I scrapped the idea of using the kite as I was not rigged up yet with steering from the bow. I choose the 110% as it would be easier to handle by myself and I knew there was some wind out there.
Finally I was ready to leave the dock. Luckily the new docking setup I had arranged worked like a charm and I was able to back up and leave without fussing with fenders and dock lines. Motoring out was of course easy as pie and when I got out into the bay I saw there was a fair bit of wind and tons of mist mixed with heavy rain. I put on the nav lights just to be on the safe side and motored out towards the committee boat.
The first test was going to be to put up the main. I throttled back and pointed her into the wind. I had pre-loosened all the sale ties before leaving the dock and quickly went forward and removed them. The sail went up halfway before it got caught up on one of the hooks on the boom. I was able to get forward and quickly clear it. The sail went up the rest of the way with out issue as did the jib.
I was then able to get in position for the start and stopped the engine. Unfortunately the one thing I did not prepare for was the start time. The only clock was in the cabin and impossible to see. I was out of position and missed the first two horns and the flags. I was racing back when I heard the one minute horn. Out of position I was late by about 3 minutes crossing the line.
Beating up wind was fairly easy except I had the jib cars too far forward and I was unable to point well. I managed 5.5 knots but I could have done much better. I rounded the mark and bared away. I stayed on a broad reach and gybed once to hit the downward mark. I was now grotesquely behind everyone else who had there kites up. As I rounded and headed back to the pin at the start for my half leg I saw the others were catching up to me. I rounded the pin at the start just ahead of the first boats in the division. At this point I had it down and finished up the race race in 8th. This meant a savings of 4 points and a retention of my 6th out of 11 place in the division four standings.
Dropping the sails was easy; I simply blew the lines when pointed into the wind and cleaned the sails up when I got back to the dock. The docking was the best I had done and the docking rig made tie up a sinch. In the end I walked away extremely happy with the experience. I have to say that I owe allot to Rick's suggestion of using a bungee line to tie off the tiller. I followed his advice and had a bungee line that could be clipped on to tie of the tiller. It provided resistance and pulled back to keep the tiller centered. The setup worked like a charm; I was able to go forward and skirt the sail (which is freaky) and handle everything no problem.
All kidding aside team SEA WEASEL is great and has been stretched lately with allot of races and the weather was miserable so I can't blame them; also some of them had real good excuses. So I sat on the dock looking at the boat and the prospect of getting a 12 point hit on our standings if we did not compete (DNC). "What the hell." I thought and went for it single handed.
While I have motored my boat single handed plenty of times I had not gone out in 10 knots of wind to race sailing the boat single handed before. I only knew what I had read. Preparation was everything. I spent most of the time at the dock rigging absolutely everything so that I could manage everything from the cockpit. Luckily the WEASEL has all the lines lead aft. I scrapped the idea of using the kite as I was not rigged up yet with steering from the bow. I choose the 110% as it would be easier to handle by myself and I knew there was some wind out there.
Finally I was ready to leave the dock. Luckily the new docking setup I had arranged worked like a charm and I was able to back up and leave without fussing with fenders and dock lines. Motoring out was of course easy as pie and when I got out into the bay I saw there was a fair bit of wind and tons of mist mixed with heavy rain. I put on the nav lights just to be on the safe side and motored out towards the committee boat.
The first test was going to be to put up the main. I throttled back and pointed her into the wind. I had pre-loosened all the sale ties before leaving the dock and quickly went forward and removed them. The sail went up halfway before it got caught up on one of the hooks on the boom. I was able to get forward and quickly clear it. The sail went up the rest of the way with out issue as did the jib.
I was then able to get in position for the start and stopped the engine. Unfortunately the one thing I did not prepare for was the start time. The only clock was in the cabin and impossible to see. I was out of position and missed the first two horns and the flags. I was racing back when I heard the one minute horn. Out of position I was late by about 3 minutes crossing the line.
Beating up wind was fairly easy except I had the jib cars too far forward and I was unable to point well. I managed 5.5 knots but I could have done much better. I rounded the mark and bared away. I stayed on a broad reach and gybed once to hit the downward mark. I was now grotesquely behind everyone else who had there kites up. As I rounded and headed back to the pin at the start for my half leg I saw the others were catching up to me. I rounded the pin at the start just ahead of the first boats in the division. At this point I had it down and finished up the race race in 8th. This meant a savings of 4 points and a retention of my 6th out of 11 place in the division four standings.
Dropping the sails was easy; I simply blew the lines when pointed into the wind and cleaned the sails up when I got back to the dock. The docking was the best I had done and the docking rig made tie up a sinch. In the end I walked away extremely happy with the experience. I have to say that I owe allot to Rick's suggestion of using a bungee line to tie off the tiller. I followed his advice and had a bungee line that could be clipped on to tie of the tiller. It provided resistance and pulled back to keep the tiller centered. The setup worked like a charm; I was able to go forward and skirt the sail (which is freaky) and handle everything no problem.
2 comments:
Oh my lord! That's kick ass dude!
I can't believe you single handed the race yesterday... next thing you know you'll be saying you don't need your crew! (;
"Thats right you ungrateful crew. I don't need any of you! (crying). You can't quit me I quit you!"
It was actually allot of fun but it would be more so if I had crew and had a shot at really competing rather than playing with myself. Although I reallylike playing with myseld.
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