full keel are slow to weather?

[Paul D.]

I have partially reefed the genny coming into dock or up to the mooring and we have a pennant on the tack.

One of the things that I think many folks do is over trim the main. On our full keel boats, especially with old baggy mains, excessive heel and weather helm can be substantially reduced by letting out the main till it luffs and then just trimming it a tad.

It sounds simple but I catch myself still overtrimming sometimes in an effort to get the most on a beat. With a fresh breeze or even just a moderate one, the genny drawing and the main eased, I don't seem to have much weather helm, even with older sails, and the boat does very respectably.

Someday though, a new and flatter main with just the right draft and three reefs points!

Paul

[Steve Laume]

With my current yankee jib and staysail forward visibility is very good. What is very hard to see is the telltales on the yankee. I have to climb way up on the leeward side to be able to see them all. Forget about seeing where I am going. I just want to get there as efficiently as possible. When I was sailing the Typhoon with hank on sails it was a different story. Sailing around a mooring field with the big genny kept you moving around just to see where you were going. The biggest surprises came when you were out in the open and not constantly checking the blind spot. It is amazing how something can sneak in from that one area you cannot see. Things can get close pretty quick while you are not watching them. As far as high or low seating is concerned, I still like the high side. Dogs possessing a sixth sense for the ability to find the most comfortable spot in any domain have taught me the comfort spot on my boat. My current sea dog, a Chocolate Lab, that can be an absolute nut case on land is usually on her best behavior on the boat. She always goes for the shady spot under the dogger on the lee side. Part of tacking our boat is moving the dog, or making room for her on the other tack. She prefers a starboard tack as it gives us the right of way and there is a little more room for her on the port side with the offset companion way. So there you have it. The most comfortable spot is on the lee side. Okay so I got a bit off topic. Whatever that was to begin with. Although sailing can be very relaxing I always view it as an active sport or pastime. If you are going to have a big genny you need to move around a lot to keep a proper watch. If you just want to sit there and not be bothered. Fly a smaller sail that you can see under and don't worry if it is a bit slower, Steve.

[Neil Gordon]

Dogs possessing a sixth sense for the ability to find the most comfortable spot in any domain have taught me the comfort spot on my boat. My current sea dog, a Chocolate Lab, that can be an absolute nut case on land is usually on her best behavior on the boat. She always goes for the shady spot under the dogger on the lee side. Part of tacking our boat is moving the dog, ...

It must be a chocolate lab thing. Roxanne is the same... snuggled under the dodger on the leeward side. She tends to like laying her head up against the winch so I need to watch for whiskers when trimming.

It's not hard to train your dog to tack. Pick a breezy day when you'll be nicely heeled and can tack briskly. In your best command voice, even if you are alone, say, "Ready about" and them "Helm's alee!" If done correctly, the dog will fall to the cockpit floor as you tack through the wind. Two or three times and on "Ready About" your pup will wake up, yawn and switch to the other side as you put the tiller over.

[Steve Laume]

So Neil, I have trained my dog to tack simply by observing the direction I turn the wheel. The tiller tends to confuse them as you are pointing the big stick at the wrong side. Labs are pretty tuned in to which way the stick is going. One more for the wheel in the tiller vs wheel debate. It may be a bit far "fetched" though, Steve.

[Warren Kaplan]

My best recollections of dogs on boats comes with dreams of packing it all in and getting myself a clam boat.

I used to watch 50, 60, maybe 70 clam boats at a time all over Great South Bay of Long Island when I was a young fella.....and most of them had Labrador type dogs, sprawled out on the bow of the boat sleeping in the sun while the poor bastard in the cockpit got charley horsed raking up those clams.

By the way....those dreams had me coming back as the dog on the clam boat...decidedly not the human!!

Alas, all those dreams are gone now, along with the clam boats, as they have dwindled down to a precious few. I see Great South Bay just about everyday now and there are days when there are no clam boats at all out there. Dunno if they'll ever come back.

[Steve Laume]

Warren, I spent my early summers in Delaware, on Indian River Bay. I used to feel for clams with my feet and then dive for them. I would dump them into the Sunfish cockpit and sail them home. When I got enough I sold them to a wholesaler. There were a bunch of truly commercial clammers on the bay. They all had heavy, flat bottomed, wooden, "clam scows". Those guys worked very hard. They would use either bull rakes or tongs. Whatever they used it was pulling and lifting all day. They too are all gone now. So what I am wondering is, are there a whole lot more clams in the bay now than there were when we were younger? In any of the harbors we visited this summer there were lots of clams, Steve.

[Neil Gordon]

So Neil, I have trained my dog to tack simply by observing the direction I turn the wheel. The tiller tends to confuse them as you are pointing the big stick at the wrong side. Labs are pretty tuned in to which way the stick is going. One more for the wheel in the tiller vs wheel debate. It may be a bit far "fetched" though, Steve.

Nice try.

Roxy is well aware of which way the stick will go. As I cock my arm in "pre-toss," she knows well that the stick goes THE OTHER WAY!