An invitation: Lessons from the 2006 sailing season

[Joe Myerson]

My 2006 sailing season ended yesterday, when I reluctantly dropped Creme Brulee off at the yard and stripped the last of the gear from the boat. The season was, as always, too short; Lynne and I only took one two-day mini-cruise. Otherwise, I was mostly daysailing, usually singlhanded.

I've recently been going over my logbook/journal for the season, trying to see if I could extract any useful knowledge from my experiences of the season. Here, if anybody's interested, are two useful observations. Please feel free to post any more significant lessons that others may have learned from the 2006 season.

1) Sheet-to-tiller steering:

I did get a chance to do a bit more experimenting with sheet-to-tiller self-steering, and I found that I can make it work quite well when sailing upwind. The key, based on my own observations and some comments from Monsieur Didereaux, was to eliminate the tiller lifting that plagued me last season. (This is obvious; any energy that goes into raising and lowering the tiller can't go into moving the rudder laterally, but it took me a while to see just how much this was affecting self-steering.) As I was reluctant to mount something permanently on the deck or in the coaming, I wired two deck straps to the forward stanchions of my pushpit, right in line with the top of the cockpit coaming, which was just about in line with the two cam cleats I had mounted on the tiller.

Until yesterday, I had only tested the self-steering in steady, moderate breezes. Yesterday I set up my control lines, ball-bearing blocks and surgical tubing in a light southwest wind. Even though it was cold, the wind suddenly turned into an autumn version of the Buzzards Bay smoker: within less than a half-hour it was gusting to more than 20 knots.

The boat handled the gusts quite well, rounding up nicely and then settling into a new tack based on the increased velocity and different direction of the wind. This went on until the breeze became too strong for the full mainsail, at which point the boat simply stalled out. By that time, the wind was too strong to continue sheet-to-tiller steering, so I disassembled the self-steering stuff, hove-to and reefed.

Next year, I'll try experimenting with using the jib sheets and sailing off the wind.

2) Reducing the smell in the locker under the port settee:

Based on a discussion in this board, I opted for the simplest solution to this particular 25D problem: I put two "Stick-Up" air fresheners in the locker. At the beginning of the season the cabin reeked of Stick-Up scent (definitely an improvement over the smell of waste), but by the end of the season, I could only smell it faintly when I opened the locker As for the head odor, it was minor.
Of course, I also pumped out the holding tank fairly regularly.

I'm sure that others, who probably got to sail more and farther, will have drawn more exciting conclusions from the season. Maybe this will start a useful thread.

Until next season,

--Joe

[Al Levesque]

Perhaps even less exciting: I finally resolved to tie my engine seawater inlet valve open while running. After years of skipping it I finally had much white smoke and soon afterward, overtemp alarm. When I checked, sure enough, the inlet valve handle had been shaken down about 30 degrees. Fully opening it cleared the overtemp and smoke problem. Now I have finally learned the lesson.

[Carl Thunberg]

1. Never, ever, EVER run a lantern up a halyard (anchor light) without a downhaul attached.
2. Boon Island Light (York, ME) is a terrible destination. Don't go there.
3. Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is worth the trip. I've never seen so many whales! It was the highlight of my season.
4. Don't even think about anchoring on Monhegan Island.
5. The staff of the Star Island Conference Center go skinny dipping after they get out of work, and they're not shy. That was the second highlight of my season!

[Steve Laume]

It was a great season that is not over yet. Well I guess we can safely say the summer season is but now comes the cold water sailing.

My never ever is to leave the companion way hatch and the window in the dodger opened when conditions get blustery. On a port tack, a large amount of water in the form of spray, will enter the boat directly onto the NAV area and into the deep locker next to the ice box.

The pretty little CD-10 rows and tows like a dream but is a demon in disguise. It was at the heart of nearly everything that went wrong this summer. It broke away by severing it's painter. It was near to shore with very windy conditions. It was an off shore wind. It filled itself with water after spitting out it's drain plug, at night on the way to Block Island. Some how it tossed it's anchor and rode overboard while keeping all other gear nicely tucked inside. Stuff like bailers and cheap PFDs that I didn't care about. It wrapped it's FLOATING painter around the prop shaft while I had two crew members in the cockpit. One was supposed to be backing down to set the anchor and the other was watching the dinghy painter. I was on the bow with the anchor and couldn't imagine what had happened to the engine. It must have done some other nasty stuff that I might have succeeded in forgetting.

What I learned most is what a great choice I made and how much I enjoy my boat. For all the little faults or misadventures I had with the dinghy I can't seem to remember anything that went wrong with the big boat. We are blessed with a great boats and a very impressive message board, Steve.

[Neil Gordon]

1. Three Cape Dory 28s in a regatta is a good thing even if the other two finish in front of me.

2. You really can pick up a mooring by yourself.

3. LIQUIDITY steers equally badly in reverse in even numbered years as in odd numbered years.

4. It's never too early to start planning the 2007 season.

[Joe CD MS 300]

Carl,

Did you have any trouble getting a mooring at Monhegan? When was it? I was trying to get over there this season but never made it.

Joe

[Boyd]

Lessons from this year.. which isnt over for me yet.

1. A SpeedSeal is worth more than its weight in gold.

2. When replacing the raw water impeller while hove to offshore in 6'-8' seas always put the tools in the sink and not on the floor.

3. Note to self... need to invent a way to keep the heavy engine compartment lid restrained in the cabin during engine repair offshore.

4. As a single hander, keeping watch while repairing the raw water impeller in the middle of heavy freighter traffic, is really stressful. Note to self, find a better solution, like crew.

5. I need to buy a second GPS as backup for the first one which has been known to fail intermittently.

6. If something failed intermittently for no apparent reason, It will again, at the worst possible time. Stop and figure out why before the second failure.

7. Old, stale, and weak batteries will cause a GPS to fail intermittently for no apparent reason.

8. You can sail without any insturments at all when you have to. Note to self, get new insturments.

9. Fix all topside leaks when first noticed. Dont wait till the leak ruins some really hard to fix plywood below.

10. All lines have to be lead to the cockpit. Since the autopilot will not steer the boat in heavy weather this is a most inconvienent time to go forward.

11. The whisker pole installed last year was probably wasted money. Since I bought it there has never been a time when the wind was that far aft of the beam. The money would have been better spent on a new Autopilot.

12. Have a spare of every engine part that could possibly fail and every tool you own on board.

13. When the alternator wire breaks, get two spares next time. See number 12 for the list of necessary tools.

14. If you pass a fuel dock, fill up even when your precise calculations tell you that you dont need the fuel to get home.

15. Never leave the dock with just one water tank filled. A women guest on board triples the normal water usage. Lack of fresh water can lead to mutany.

16. Mysterious changes in engine performance are almost always caused by clogged filters and not some more complicated failure.

17. If the boat stops mysteriously off shore despite wind in the sails and the engine running, Dont look up for the Alien Space Ship, look below for the tarp wrapped around the keel, it will save you a lot of time.

18. The year is not over yet. There is still time to relearn things I forgot from last year.

Boyd
s/v Tern
CD30 MkII
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

[Zeida]

BOYD, I'm printing your list and pasting it in my nav station!

[Didereaux]

Boyd! Priceless

Carl, I'm following you around next year just for highlights! LOL

[Carl Thunberg]

Joe - The moorings at Monhegan are owned by lobster men. As you know, lobster men tolerate us - barely. I think one of them is owned by Hardy Boats, but I'm not sure. I didn't even try to pick up a mooring. I actually was able to set the hook, but the achorage was highly exposed and it would have made for an uncomfortable night. I gave up pretty quickly and sailed back home to Poorhouse Cove in John's Bay. It made for a long day, but a long day on the water is something I can tolerate.

Dider - Yeah, you should have seen my 12-year old daughter's eyes bug out of her head. I'll never forget the look on her face. It was a tortured mixture of shock and curiosity.

[M. R. Bober]

Allow me to post this on behalf of a sailor, let's call him Joe (it's his name), who might not want to remember--but would certainly wish to advise others of--an incident this summer during the Chesapeake Fleet's cruise.

When the head won't flush and you have pumped and pumped just to clear the bowl and the charter company suggests pumping out the holding tank, be very CAREFUL when opening the holding tank's pumpout cap. Consider a toxic geyser in your cockpit....

Mitchell Bober
Sunny Annapolis (where Joe wasn't singing in the rain),MD

[Dick Barthel]

1. Never, ever, EVER run a lantern up a halyard (anchor light) without a downhaul attached.

Carl,

Could you expand this idea a bit. What happened to cause the "never, ever, EVER"?

The reason I ask is I've been looking into a Dietz Hurricane lamp specifically for that purpose and I'd like to know what I should watch out for.

Thanks,

Dick

[Dick Barthel]

I got a good idea from a veteran sailor to eliminate that ungodly tangle of lines in the cockpit - throw the excess jib sheets and main sheet down the companionway. I find it to be particularly useful when singlehanding. I'm thinking that maybe it might not work as well if you don't have self-tailors though. It falls into the its so simple why didn't I think of that category.

Dick

[Neil Gordon]

I got a good idea from a veteran sailor to eliminate that ungodly tangle of lines in the cockpit ...

Being a rather traditional sailor, I haven't led my main halyard, jib halyard, spinnaler halyard, downhauls and reefing lines back to the cockpit. All I have is a main sheet, two genoa sheets and the furling line. (Okay, so I'm not "hank on" traditional.) I don't find it major work to coil a genoa sheet.

Lines down the companionway trade clearing the cockpit for a significant tripping hazard on the stairs and in the cabin. I'll pass on this one.

[Carl Thunberg]

Dick,

Funny you should ask. Yes, there's a story behind this one. The lantern weighs less than the halyard rope weighs. It's basically a scale. The heavy end wins every time. If I had simply attached a downhaul to the lantern I could have simply pulled it back down. Since I failed to take this seemingly obvious precaution, the lantern was stuck at the top of my mast. So there I was, in Wood Island Harbor (Biddeford, ME), far from home with two more days to go before reaching my destination in John's Bay. I had to sail both days under main alone. Talk about weather helm!

Of course being your basic cheap self-reliant Yankee, when I got to my camp, I put an extension ladder in my dinghy and brought it out to the mooring, wedged it against the engine lazarette, tied it off and sent my loving wife up the ladder

So, I repeat Never, Ever EVER send a lantern up a halyard without attaching a downhaul first. But you'd never make this mistake would you?