Thou shalt single-hand...
With our social distancing directives, if I want to go sailing it needs to be done solo. Single-handing a 26 foot sailboat is certainly doable, but being cautious, conservative and prepared are essential. The big worry: what happens if you fall overboard? If the boat is trimmed up and sailing or motoring along, you may never get back aboard before hypothermia sets in. Por otro parte, since my design goal is to transform her into a square-rigged sloop that can be single-handed, the more I go out sailing alone, the more likely the design will evolve in that direction.
Today was a perfect day for a conservative, cautious day of single-hand sailing; the weather was gorgeous which meant others would be out on the water, and the winds weren’t forecast to get above 15 knots.
I started sailing north towards Seward Park with just the genoa. I had always assumed she was a leeward slug because of her shallow keel and light ballast, but she points amazingly well upwind, even with just the foresail out. This bodes well for the conversion, since one of the first things that will happen is that the mainsail will come down for storage and the boom and all associated rigging will be removed. I think I’ll be able to keep the genoa rolled up on the forestay and available for use, but this assumes I can figure a way to coil and store the jibsheets so they don’t interfere with the lines and rigging of the square sail.
Eventually I felt comfortable enough with the conditions and my competence to raise the mainsail as well. I made it to the north end of Seward Park with views of downtown Seattle and then turned south and enjoyed a quiet, leisurely downwind sail back to port.
Today was a perfect day for a conservative, cautious day of single-hand sailing; the weather was gorgeous which meant others would be out on the water, and the winds weren’t forecast to get above 15 knots.
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| Looking south towards Mount Rainier |
I started sailing north towards Seward Park with just the genoa. I had always assumed she was a leeward slug because of her shallow keel and light ballast, but she points amazingly well upwind, even with just the foresail out. This bodes well for the conversion, since one of the first things that will happen is that the mainsail will come down for storage and the boom and all associated rigging will be removed. I think I’ll be able to keep the genoa rolled up on the forestay and available for use, but this assumes I can figure a way to coil and store the jibsheets so they don’t interfere with the lines and rigging of the square sail.
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| Wind, sun, contrails... |
Eventually I felt comfortable enough with the conditions and my competence to raise the mainsail as well. I made it to the north end of Seward Park with views of downtown Seattle and then turned south and enjoyed a quiet, leisurely downwind sail back to port.
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| Looking past Seward Park to downtown Seattle |