Too much
After yesterday’s sailing episode Rebecca and I reminded ourselves that with the exception of the first couple of hours on our delivery trip, we have yet to sail Katana in anything less that 15 knots of wind! With the weather forecast to improve as the day progressed we patiently waited yesterday until after lunch to go out. Even as we were making our way up the bay though we knew it was still going to be too windy for us so we decided to experiment and see how she would sail with just the small, self-tacking jib up.
Results?
- Broad reach: prefect
- Beam reach: very uncomfortable
- Close reach/close hauled: not happening
The boat would jibe no problem but there was no way she would tack. With the main up she tacks beautifully but not without it, or at least not yesterday.
With the conditions that ugly (18 – 21 knots) we only stayed out for a couple of hours. We did however get some more docking practice, made even more exciting by the wicked cross wind. Fun stuff. Let’s see what today has in store for us.
We are just learning too and had trouble close hauling too. Now a monohull is different than a multi but I’m sure the basics apply:
When close hauling, your traveller (do multies have a traveller) should be on the opposite side of the boom.
Have your boom vang tight as possible when close hauled and let it out when reaching.
I was amazed at the increased performance of my pig of a boat. With your cat it should feel like a rocket taking off. Gotto go sailing now…Allan
Thanks for the tips Allan. We don’t have a boom
vang but do have a traveller and we have been setting it as you suggest. Sail trim never meant much to us before we owned a boat. Today we were out sailing and being passed by boats I think we should be able beat. Grrrr. Gotta fix that. 🙂
By the way, I am posting this from my iPhone while waiting for our chicken to barbecue, anchored out for the weekend!