Howdy!
{:^)
I ain't no ex spurt... But, HU ;) taught me...
You gotta pull that genny sheet in all the way taught, before genny fills up
with air, preferably as soon as wind moves across bow. Sometimes, you gotta
help it as soon as clew hits mast... Which requires lotsa muscle. nimble feet
and four fast long hands...(four fast long hands?) Once it fills up with air,
it's VERY hard to trim without a winch. Specially if wind is anywhere above 6
MPH... Sometimes I luff genny a bit so I can trim without a winch. Mostly I
use it only when wind is guaranteed to be under 10 MPH or very steady with no
gusts. I prefer Lapper for all around use. Of course, I realized this
(recalled?) after I spent $500 on new genny. Potter 19 reacts immediately to
any gust of wind with a genny up there... If not careful, you can even enjoy
a knockdown along the way. Which is good for washing down side rails and
cockpit in a hurry... {:^)>
A loooonnnnnnng time ago I almost lost a finger on a CAL 25 trying to muscle
in a genny (thumb slipped between line and winch)... (During a race and close
hauled - Much Younger, Testosterone filled Macho He Man figgered he could
trim a full 160 % 200+ sq ft genny by pulling on sheet... )That was a couple
of hours before Spinnaker lifted me completely off foredeck and flew me 20'
in front of boat because I refused to let go of sheets after launching
spinnaker... My first sailboat race introduced me to Hardnocks University
(HU), Black and Blue, Arms on Slings, College of sailing (BBASCS). Or Humble
Pie College (HPC?)... as it is regularly referred to... That is where I
learned that foredeck of a moving sailboat is no place for a man/woman that
wants to retain pride and reach old age... Hence, my love of roller furlers,
stern mounted anchors and electric winches...
Welcome to Hardnocks U. Will you be joining the Black and Blue College of
sailing?
You get your MS (Master of Sailing) when you enter the love/hate period of
sailing. ("I am selling this sailboat as soon as I get to the dock!" When
you get it home you change to: "Wow, I did have a good time, Or What? Maybe I
won't sell it after all")
This summer I got my 3rd. MS. I went through three periods of "I am selling
this sucker as soon as I get home" and 3 periods of "I love my Potter. Ain't
selling it!" I am on the idling period now... Looking fwd to some steady
wind, cool, non-stressed weather sailing...
{:^)
Along the way I got a Master in Trailer Towing (MTT) degree (pronounced Mommy
Tee tee) degree for trailer towing above and beyond the call of duty... You
get that one when a wheel falls off trailer at high speed and your trailer
passes you on the way to your destination.
I hope to never get my Doctorate in Sailing (DS?) I hear you lose a leg and
an eye, get an engraved eyepatch and a free parrot with that one...
{:^)
Solar Totally Fried (SF?)
BTW:
:^)
Isn't it a bummer when genny sheet snags on main halyard cleat? I could just
rip that cleat off mast with my teeth and slice genny into little strips I
could chew to a mush, so I can spit the damn thing on the ground...
sometimes... Sometimes... Oh... Forget it!
In a message dated 11/7/99 11:08:53 PM Pacific Standard Time,
JBlumhorst@aol.com writes:
<< HI Webgang,
Yesterday was the first time we ever flew our new 150% genoa. We never had
such a large sail before. It's a danged tent compared to our other sails.
In retrospect, maybe a race wasn't the best time to try it, but I'm the kind
of person who just can't leave a new toy unused.
So, ignoring the wise counsel of my hubby/firstmate, I rigged our crispy
new
genoa for the SCA Cruiser Challenge.
Our first four tacks were a disaster. We didn't make it through the tack. If
you don't get the genny through the foretriangle quickly, it gets caught on
the mast and backwinds. Oops. One particluar tack was so bad that I though
we
were going to do a 360 the wrong direction. Ooops. How embarrassing :^ (
especially in the middle of a race.
On our second or third tack, I really stuck her in irons. The only way I
could get her out was to backwind the jib and the main, throw the tiller
over
the "wrong" way and back her around. My husband looked at me like I was
crazy
and asked me what I was doing. I said I was going to back her up to get her
out of irons. Certain that I was losing my mind, he asked incredulously
"you're going to sail backwards in the middle of a race?!!"
Yessiree folks, there I was, sailing backwards during a race. :-) During the
first few minutes of the race, we passed the same boats three or four times.
Funny how that can happen when you sail backwards or put yourself in irons
by
wrapping three feet of the genny around the mast.
By the 10th tack or so, we had figured out that we had to release the
working
sheet much earlier than we do on our smaller headsails and pull the new
working sheet much faster. After a few successfull tacks, David decided to
go
below to be ballast up in the front of the boat and let me tack it alone,
now
that we had figured out how to do it. At 195 pounds, he makes much better
ballast than I do at about 105 pounds.
On my first solo tack with the genoa, I released the working sheet and
started furiously trimming the new working sheet as the boat came through
the
wind. As the genny bit into the wind and filled, it yanked all 105 pounds of
me off my feet and I flew through the air -- and I let out a loud scream of
surprise.
Alerted by the highest pitched note he's ever heard me "sing", my husband
lunged from the cabin and caught me by the back of my belt as I flashed past
the companionway, thereby saving my butt (quite literally).
After we stopped laughing, we both agreed that he should trim from then on,
at least until I get the winches installed.
Downwind, the ring for the wisker pole was way too high up for the
decksweeping clew of the genny, so I asked my hubby to stand in the
companionway and hold the pole. He liked that about as much as the day the
vang broke and I asked him to hang on the boom and be a human boom vang.
I love my hubby... he is so good humored about the weird things I ask him to
do sailing. He actually sat there and held the pole until his arms just
about
fell off. Then he drove for a while so I could go forward and jury rig some
line to use as a pole ring.
The genoa is really cool, and I think we're going to love sailing it. But
the
first day was pretty funny.
Fair winds, Judy B
>>