I had a wonderful time sailing my P15 "Lather" on Charleston Harbor last
weekend. Saturday afternoon we had gusty wind around 25 mph and 2-2.5 ft
swells. One of my passengers had never been on a sailboat before. He got a
bit more than he bargained for! Hope he'll sail with me again under more
tranquil conditions.
At one point, I think I managed a sustained plane for maybe 30 seconds
undtil a largish swell stole our momentum. I'm not sure how to tell, but the
wake of the boat looked alot more like that of a motorboat than what I
usually see.
I noticed a couple of things to which I'd like to hear others' responses.
I noticed I had to keep the tiller pulled hard to leeward to keep the boat
from weathervaning in strong winds. When the wind slackened somewhat, the
required pull to hold my line was less. Is this normal? Did I have the sails
trimmed improperly?
My jib seems to luff quite a bit on both the luff and clew when it's pulled
in tight. If I let it out a bit, if fills out and looks good, but I don't
think it's set quite optimally. Could it be that the sail has stretched a
bit? Can I do anything about it?
I've got many more questions but I'll save them for later.
Regards,
Cap'n Capsize
aka
Jake McLeroy