An amazing four days of wind and sailing


I'm writing this in San Fransisco, and let me tell you, the 'city by the bay' has NOTHING on us for quality sailing wind. OK, at least not in the last 4 days. Starting on last Friday, we have consistent breezes in the 15-20 range. Consistent not only in speed, but in direction. It has been absolutely top-shelf sailing. The ability to hold a beat for the entire length of the lake and not have to adjust for a wild shift, gust, or lull has been a real treat. It this picture, I'm driving from the rail while Jackdaw makes 6.2 knots to windward. Good Times!

Strong winds are nothing to be feared if you know how to adjust your sails to match conditions. On this particular day, the wind was 15-20, so I sailed with a full main, but had flattened it using backstay pressure and lots of outhaul. These types of adjustments are common on fractionally rigged boats. If your boat is a masthead sloop, think about a reef, which would have been the next step for me. If you are on a scow, hang on tight!

For sloop sailors, it is also good to know if your boat will sail well with just one sail up. Some will, some will not. If yours does, dropping a sail is another way to enjoy the really windy days. Practice on lighter days to check, and see what sail works best. The ability to go to windward  (and tack) is the key thing to check. On Sunday, my wind gauge showed a breeze of 20 with gusts to 30. For Jackdaw with 2 novice guests on board, that was a day for just a reefed main, until the breezes dropped later in the afternoon and the jib came out. Everyone had a blast, and it was no stress sailing.

If your boat can go to windward with just a main, it makes a GREAT way to get back to the buoy in a blow. Approach from downwind, and feather the main as you approach the buoy to scrub off speed. This is amazingly controllable, and having the jib out of the way means that your foredeck person will not get flapped to death by the luffing jib while they go for the buoy. Roller furling is worth its weight in gold in this situation. Interested in learning more about roller furling? See this post HERE

Also, props to my buddy Glen who took the pix of Jackdaw in the breeze. I have lots of pictures of my boat, but not many of her in a blow. I figured it would be Glen to deliver, because he is the guy you can rely on being out when the big winds come up. So, I figured that I had to return the favor. Here's Glen, with his toe in the water.



Lets hope the winds keep up!

Comments

  1. PiaAugust 18, 2010 at 12:51 PM

    Another windy day today! Bummer I still "need" a skipper.

    ReplyDelete
  2. kevinb_Mn@yahoo.comAugust 19, 2010 at 8:40 AM

    we all need to send notes to the parks people to fix the tenders. The all have problems with the oars.

    ReplyDelete
  3. clayAugust 19, 2010 at 2:02 PM

    I'll send an 'official' note from CLH.com as well!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aunt PatAugust 29, 2010 at 9:16 AM

    The tenders are a problem. Although it was a great idea to lock them, most of the tenders on Lake Calhoun are full of sand and no longer functional. Once again, Lake Calhoun is down to three (3) tenders.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Keeping an eye on swimmers

Image
Maybe it's just me, but it seems there are a LOT more people free-swimming across the lakes. I'm sure it is people training for the triathlons, and I didn't give it much thought until last night, when we almost ran over one. We were reaching at about 5 knots, sitting on the low side to induce some heel when we quickly slipped by a swimmer. We didn't see him, and he didn't hear us. I don't know who was more surprised, but I DO know who was in more danger. There was over 20 boats on the lake last evening. Under these conditions, swimming in the open water is just dangerous. I knew the MPRB was thinking about setting up open swim areas, but was pretty sure they had not done so. I called them, and they confirmed that open swimming was illegal, and pointed me to THIS page on their site. In addition, that told me I should call 911 to report swimmers. I'm not sure that I'll do that, but I would really hate to hit one, or even come close. I don't know
Read more

Vandals On Lake Harriet Strike Again

Image
I have to report that sadly, a boat has been damaged by mindless vandals again on Lake Harriet. Unbelievably, it has happened to one of the boats that was heavily damaged in last August's attack. This time, they broke into a forward hatch, climbed in, and after drinking some beer they brought with them and smoking some pot, ransacked the boat. I LOST a boat in that last attack, so writing this post makes me feel ill. And as bad as this all is, there are several factors that make this even more disturbing. 1) It could have been prevented. The MPRB tenders were NOT locked up last Friday night, and the punks used the tender to row over to the first big boat that could get to. Like Annie mentions in her email, if you DO NOT HAND the tender to another buoy holder, you must lock it back up. No exceptions. You now see what can happen if you do not. 2) Unlike a pure theft of property, these attacks are almost 'mindless'. They want in more then they want you stuff, but they wil
Read more

DNR map of Lake Harriet

Image
The Minnesota DNR publishes a bottom contour map of Lake Harriet. Although not really intended for ship navigation, it shows good anchorage locations and is handy to have on-board. It also shows that unlike Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet is uniformly deep, and that means that is is mostly free of the nasty Milfoil that plagues its sister lake. The full-size map in PDF format is HERE . FYI, a map of Lake Calhoun is  HERE .  If you own a Garmin handheld GPS and are interested in a FREE depth chart of the lakes, be sure to see this post HERE .
Read more