No surfing excitement, but...

Post by **Tim** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:20 am

Here's a nice picture from yesterday's pleasant sail. Thanks to Nathan for this photo.

Post by **dasein668** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:29 am

Here's a pic of Dasein from a bit earlier in the sail. Pic courtesy Tim. Actually, I think it's really courtesy of Heidi.

Tim, is that other boat there the Pearson 28 that I embarrased?

Post by **Tim** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:20 pm

dasein668 wrote:Tim, is that other boat there the Pearson 28 that I embarrased?

hehe...yeah, that guy didn't stand a chance! He was parallel with me at the tip of Clapboard, too.

Post by **dasein668** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:36 pm

Yeah, I got a laugh. We came up from behind him while still in the lee of Clapboard. I came up on him so fast I actually startled myself, and we blew by him close to leeward like he was standing still. His wind shadow didn't even help him out! He had a very perplexed look on his face as he kept looking up at his sail then mine.

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:08 pm

dasein668 wrote:He had a very perplexed look on his face as he kept looking up at his sail then mine.

Was he holding a red-tipped cane at the time? Yeesh, even from the distance of that photo you can see that his main is undersheeted and his genoa is choked!

But then again, this was Father's Day, right?
We went out for an afternoon on the inlaws' trawler, and I swear it seemed like every single sailboat we encountered was committing some form of sailtrimming sin.

Or maybe I'm just becoming a sailtrim-snob because my only sailing this year has been on race nights.

Post by **Tim** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:17 pm

It seems like basic sail trim should be so...well...basic. But on most boats, it's atrocious. It's fine to go out and relax, but still. At least pretend to pay attention to the sails!

The #1 cardinal sin I see: sails that are too tightly sheeted when the boat is sailing anything but closehauled. We passed a boat Sunday afternoon that was sailing a very broad reach, but the sails were trimmed just about for closehauled. Let your sails out, people! Sail 'em fat! Oversheeting is much more common than undersheeting.

Here's another sail trim picture from bizarro world. I saw this one on last year's cruise. His traveler is all the way to windward, with the main sheeted tightly, but he's sailing just about dead downwind. (Pardon the pink tinge...that's what my camera does when the batteries are suspect.)

Post by **dasein668** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:56 pm

Tim wrote:The #1 cardinal sin I see: sails that are too tightly sheeted when the boat is sailing anything but closehauled.

One of the first things that I learned from my first sailing mentor (Tom, of Palawan) was "when in doubt, let it out."

bcooke · Post by **bcooke** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 10:25 pm

IMHO, the fact that the other guy had his sails up at all means that the wind must have been between 10 and 15 knots. Below 10 and sailboats are too slow and everybody motors to their destination. Above 15 knots everyone pulls down the sails because the boats are "careening out of control". Sail trim? Who has time to learn that stuff? Someone could get hurt touching those things. Safer to use the engine.

Man, I don't know if I want to sail with you. You guys are going to chew me up this summer and I won't be able to check in on the forum to defend myself. Brutal, every one of you.

-Britton