Christmas day sail

Almost didn't go out. Jim (of s.v. Gout) convinced me. Here I was on a nice sunny Christmas day in my boat. How could I not go out sailing in it (the boat/the day)? How many people have that luxury? The wind was northish, light and patchy (not enough wind, I had thought), but we sailed well, Firefly and I. We went out about 12:30, got back by 3:30.

Passed Phil coming in as I was going out. He was still under sail; I was just setting mine & dousing the engine.

  

The upwind sail was excellent, except I found that the new boards chatter on the windward side—presumably because they're too thin and don't fill the slots. They do slide in and out really easily, which is nice. Thinking they might be too thin yet, I had brought a nice long wedge with me. Putting it between the the top of the board and the case didn't help, of course, 'cause they're so long and the torque is all from below. The plan is to flood-coat the weave, then finish with a layer of gel coat. That may make the boards thick enough to stick in the slots enough to keep them from chattering. If not—maybe another layer of 6-oz cloth?

The following video shows the new daggerboard on the starboard side, as well as the jib sheet lead and cleat set-up. My one wedge is installed here as well. The sheet leads and cleats work great, by the way.

This photo might show the setup better than the above video does, with less drama:

This video lets you hear what the chattering sounds like and also see my extension tiller attachment which needs tidying up:

What I discovered this time sailing was NO LEE HELM! Yay! Don't know why it was different. Because the boards are a few inches longer? The helm was mostly neutral, with the occasional slight weather helm. Definitely no fighting with the tiller here.

I got out to the middle of Baynes Channel, between Ten Mile Point and Strong Tide Islet, past the far weed bed, and realized the current was taking me out very quickly and the wind was dying, so I headed back. On the run back, once out of that current, I had my pb&j sandwich and bemoaned the fact that I'd taken my espresso pot home in some previous act of insanity. Had all the fixins but the pot, and I wasn't going to make just any old coffee in a regular pot, dammit!

On the run back from Ten Mile Point I took the boards out. I wanted to see if speed or handling would be different. Of course I didn't notice much on the run itself (no way to compare), but as I turned the corner into the space between A and B fingers I noticed she wasn't responding well to the tiller. Then I noticed she was drifting into someone's lifted outboard prop, so I quickly slid the starboard daggerboard in, and made it past. She still seemed to be drifting! Over-steering worked. The main came down just before we reached our slip, and we barely had enough way on to turn in to the slip. The mizzen had been de-powered as we were coming by the gas dock, by pulling the boom up against the mast with the topping lift.

The run home to the barn:

A nice way to spend Christmas day!