Sailing to wind

[csoule13]

The past weekend was glorious sailing on the upper Chesapeake. Low teens easterlies made for a fun reach for the first half of the day, with some practice time broad reaching and heaving to. Some tinned oysters and crackers for lunch, and it was time to head back.

At which point, the wind shifted to the north.

Being sailors, my old man I figured it would be a wet and energetic beat back to the marina. 90 minutes later we had made roughly 200 yards north, still staring at the same blue water tower on the shore. Sailing as close to the wind as possible, we were at headings or roughly 330 and 90, which yeesh, seems like a pretty abysmal angle for close hauled.

So trying to figure out what could be improved, what was just the conditions(we were fighting wind, waves and tide all coming out of the north), and what are just some 15 yr old sails that aren't helping(helllo, Annapolis Boat Show!)

We finally just motor sailed home, and got to learn that the YSM8 isn't going to get you very far very fast bashing into 2-3 ft swells on the Bay. Lots of learning over 7 hrs on the water, so still a fun day.

[mgphl52]

Yep, most everything you mentioned could slow you down and/or drive you to leeward. The two most important things I've learned are a clean bottom and fresh sails.
As for the Annapolis Boat Show, I would also suggest checking out Precision Sails.
They should soon be having a good sale coming up. Even though they are not a "local" sail shop, I cannot praise their customer service enough!
(If you want the gory details, PM me.)

[psjanker]

We were on the bay from last Friday thru Sat afternoon traveling from Pax River to the Bush River. Experience the same Winds. We motored sailed out to the middle of the bay off the Pax river and then enjoyed a nice long tack to the north. Second Long tack took us up the Chester River to St Michels where we spent the night.

Next day we motor sailed to the Kent Narrows which allowed us a good angle to Pooles Island just at the mouth of the Bush River.

Secret seems to be keeping in a reef the first day with more northerly winds which seemed to allow us to point higher....it was a wet ride especially since CHASSEUR doesn’t have a dodger.

Saturday’s ride was a function of positioning ourselves up the Chester river so we had a better angle for the anticipated winds. It made Friday’s trip longer (12 hours total) but cut significant time off our second day. It was also more fun than slogging pass Annapolis and the Bay bridge with less favorable angles.

It was not a function of good planning but rather the fact that all of us had visited Annapolis by boat several times but none of us had sailed to St Michaels. Found a great hurricane hole right in front of the Perry Cabin which was spectacular....venue was used to film the movie “Wedding Crashers”. Free live music entertainment until 10 pm, since we had apparently crashed a Wedding ourselves.

V/r

Pete

[psjanker]

I also gave up with trying to point too much into the wind. I accepted a longer route for 6 knots of speed and used the extra time by employing my tiller pilot and starting up the grill!

Pete

[Nebe]

I find a double reefed main or no main at all and a full 135% Genoa is very helpful in powering into chop as opposed to a 90% jib and a full main.. ( this is on my CD27)

[Paul D.]

I certainly find powering into wind in a chop being helped by reefing early. Femme's mainsail is pretty old and the Genoa new, so I tend to favor using the latter. I sometimes daydream about how she would sail with a new main, and I hope that dream comes true soon. But I still believe our boats, by nature of their design, like a good early reef for any power when the wind pipes up.

Case in point: When racing my brother in his CD36 a few weeks ago, the wind piped up to about 26kts, a fine strong breeze. While it was rising, at about 16kts, I noticed Femme was heeling excessively and moving rather slowly. I tucked in a reef and away she went. I think the combination of less sail area and flatter sail really makes a difference earlier in a rising wind for our hull designs.

Now considering what just happened in the Golden Globe race, I try to imagine the proper sail set up for 70kts!

[Neil Gordon]

I find a double reefed main or no main at all and a full 135% Genoa is very helpful in powering into chop as opposed to a 90% jib and a full main.. ( this is on my CD27)

Reef the main first!