An invitation: Lessons from the 2006 sailing season

[Dick Barthel]

Neil,

I am only talking about the the two jib sheets and the main sheet - none of my other lines are led back either.

As for tripping, it is a trade off of course but on a 25D the lines end up on the side of the companionway ladder and are not really in the way.

Dick

[Dick Barthel]

But you'd never make this mistake would you?

Carl,

The sad thing is I probably will make the mistake even after you've told me about it! Thanks for the explanation.

Dick

[Steve Laume]

Carl, I would have thought the lantern would have been heavier than the line. So you did make some mistakes. Sailing for two days with the lantern at the mast head. Lifting as much of the halyard with a fully extended boat hook might have been enough to tip the scale. The biggest mistake was sending your wife up there to retrieve it. You will suffer for that for the rest of your days. I would have been searching for a kid in need of an adventure (aren't they all). Offer them a ride in the bosuns chair. Hey while you are up there could you grab that lantern?
Dick, I only have jib, staysail and main sheets in the cockpit. The roller furling line gets coiled immediately and hung over the fishing rod holder. I have thought about a bag or a pin rail for the main and staysail sheets. That would keep the dog from laying on them when you wanted to trim. There is the tripping hazard to throwing the lines down the hatch. What I would really worry about would be a tangle down there when you couldn't leave the cockpit to deal with it. Murphy would have the main sheet get tangled on a windy day while you were involved in a jibe, Steve.

[Carl Thunberg]

I really didn't set out to hijack this thread. Steve, trust me, I tried absolutely everything to get that $@&# lantern down before resigning myself that I had to sail with the lantern up at the top of the mast. I tried the boathook idea, plus a few other more desperate ideas that I won't go into.

My girls wanted nothing to do with the bosuns chair. A CD25's winches aren't very big and don't offer as much mechanical advantage as a larger winch would. There was no way my wife was going to be able to crank me up the mast and she insisted on the ladder to get her 2/3 of the way up. She just didn't trust the winch. (Interesting that she trusted that ladder more.) Needless to say, this was not my finest hour. My wife has been amazingly kind about not rubbing salt in the wound. Of course, I didn't bring any of this up at the CDSOA Maine Cruise. Don't tell Dean, Cathy, Nick, or Allen about this, okay?

[John D.]

Because if so, and if you could get that Cape Dory moving fast, and I mean really fast, then wouldn't relativity make that lantern heavier and heavier?

(sorry, your Isaac Newton quote triggered the thought and I couldn't resist).

[Mark Yashinsky]

#17 about tarps, alien space ships, and the boat mysteriously stopping. Any details?

[John Danicic]

What I learned this sailing season.

Anytime you anchor with a contrary swell that is forecast to weaken, it won't.

Paralleling two sets of in-series, 6 volt batteries need to be connected directly, terminal to terminal to properly charge. No short cuts to terminal strips to save cable, otherwise one set will be just a little bit undercharged then the other set and soon....dead batteries. Ask me about this and I will draw you a picture.

A simple bag for the main sheet and staysail sheet attached to the cabin wall makes for a neat and tidy cockpit.

If you move quickly along the deck in bare feet, your toe will catch a Spartan portlight and hurt like hell for the rest of the trip.

Cetol is fast to apply, no really, it's waiting for the rain to stop that takes the most time.

Sailing for an afternoon with a guy who tends a spinnaker on a competitive racing yacht will teach you more about your rarely used asymmetrical then you will ever learn in your own, blundering way.

Always double your maintenance budget. Always.

R134a refridgerent works just fine in a refrigerator that says, "converted to R409A" so far.....

Alcohol stoves can bake bread. Real bread. Nothing smells better then a Cape Dory cabin with bread baking.

Occasionally, not often, just in some years, you can dive and touch your anchor in Lake Superior and not die or turn dark blue.

When the price of marine Diesel hit $4.00 a gallon, cigarette boats owners tended to stay at anchor and sun bathe rather then joy ride around anchorages.

Getting a friend's free, used head sail will make you want to get a new headsail. There was a reason he got rid of it after all and bought a new one.

The biggest thing I learned this season was, the better the sailing season, the shorter it seems. The memory lasts like the taste of a fine wine. Savor it, dream about it and plan for the next sail. Winter is long here but Spring does come again. I do like to end on a positive note.

Sail on.

John Danicic
CD 36 - Mariah - #124
Lake Superior

[Jack Carr]

Carl,

Next time you run your lantern up the mast in Wood Island Harbor (Biddeford Pool's outer anchorage), I have a suggestion. Bring the boat into the inner pool at low tide to the Biddeford Pool Yacht Club fuel dock and tie up. At low tide you can use a long pole to reach the top of a CD25 mast from the dock's upper deck.

[tartansailor]

Need to prepare a "loading list" so I can find stuff; (like rain gear) when needed and not think that it was left ashore.

Get the 2007 tide tables for my venue and pencil in the days I can leave in the AM on an outgoing tidal current, and save at least an hour getting to the inlet. Thats about 10 days a month.

Get an effective transducer bottom paint.

Dick

[Greg Kozlowski]

Leaving in 50 knots is OK when you know that it's a Katabatic wind blowing down on you off the lee side of a high sided Greek island in the Agean... the wind WILL come down to a usual 30 knots once you get out to sea...

But hang on to your hats!
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