First solo sail on the ICW

[jeepbluetj]

Guess with no way on you'd turn downwind. Pretty much couldn't help it. Pretty much need to do that almost anyway or it's all leeway till you get some way on.

My boat sails OK on just the main - commonly raise the main, shut off the engine, and unfurl the jib while sailing. I've sailed out of the harbor on just the main a few times when I've forgotten to open the fuel valve. Just enough gas in the carb to get me out to the main channel. Since I've usually got the main ready to go with crew on the halyard- i'll launch the main.

It also sails OK on just the jib. Sails best with both sails out - kinda what you'd expect from a masthead sloop.

If I was constrained for some reason to sail with just one: main upwind, jib downwind.

Contribution or post pad... Hard to tell the difference

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by jeepbluetj

Guess with no way on you'd turn downwind.

You would sort of think so but if you sheet in the main all the way, the boat will turn to weather. (jib down or luffing) You can also backup and set sail/direction that way.

Think of a windvane. (mainsail)

These are the things you learn from racing. Cruisers rarely get to test their skills against 15-20 boats exactly like theirs. Or do a start where you are almost dead in the water a foot or 2 from the boat beside you with 20 boats on the line.

You learn a lot fast or get cussed out for hitting someone's shiny boat and scratching his gelcoat

Best example I can find. Spithill is actually blocking the wind or getting more of it than Dixon so is better able to maneuver. (and) Dixon is too far off to luff him up.

After Spithill backs up, he uses the jib to turn him off the wind and leaves the main out. This at around 2:00 on the race clock. He doesn't have a lot of boat speed so it's more jib than rudder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1hYEuJWjW8

[jeepbluetj]

Originally Posted by thomm225

You would sort of think so but if you sheet in the main all the way, the boat will turn to weather. (jib down or luffing) You can also backup and set sail/direction that way.

'Cept the thread at that point was asking "how would you tack with just a jib."

Of course the answer is "momentum, same as when you're flying a jib, main, staysail, mizzen, or whatever collection of sails may be stuck on the boat at the time."

Then it became "You can't if there's no way on."

Well. Ok, of course in that case, you'll end up being blown off. Till you had some way on. Then you maybe can tack. Kinda what my point was. Or launch the main and sheet it in. Or turn on the motor. Or lasso a whale or something*.

The rest is kinda basic physics: lateral effort, force, etc...

Oh, and not everybody on CF hasn't raced. Lots have I'm sure. Gosh, imagine the fun discussions we could have about mark room and overlap. That'd be even more entertaining than guns, anchors, or multihulls.



* humor. Do not do this. It's not nice to the whale. They don't like it.

[thomm225]

Thread drift but awesome aggressive sailing from start to finish.

It came on youtube after the Spithill/Dixon video above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGxy...QwHbcoTzNwsKpg

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by jeepbluetj

Well. Ok, of course in that case, you'll end up being blown off. Till you had some way on.

No, you don't need to have way on, you will learn that maybe with experience.. (check the race video above prestart. btw, boat on starboard tack or leeward has rights) but you really don't need to as a cruiser unless your engine dies then it helps.

But some cruisers want to argue what they have never tried whereas I try an learn things from them I've never tried

Sheet in the main will point you into the wind. Then you have a choice depending on which why you want to go and how you are facing the wind. You can backup just a bit, turn the rudder and go from there


Btw, how would you get a beach cat off the beach with all sails up, and an offshore breeze of say around 18 knots and not spill your prerace beer?

[jeepbluetj]

Originally Posted by thomm225

No, you don't need to have way on, you will learn that maybe with experience.. (check the race video above prestart. btw, boat on starboard tack or leeward has rights) but you really don't need to as a cruiser unless your engine dies then it helps.

But some cruisers want to argue what they have never tried whereas I try an learn things from them I've never tried

Sheet in the main will point you into the wind. Then you have a choice depending on which why you want to go and how you are facing the wind. You can backup just a bit, turn the rudder and go from there


Btw, how would you get a beach cat off the beach with all sails up, and an offshore breeze of say around 18 knots and not spill your prerace beer?

Read my post again. Read the thread up to it. I'd suggest that a bit of work on reading comprehension would reveal the conversation at hand was "JIB ONLY." I guess you could sheet in the boom, but it won't do diddly squat without a sail up. Even a silly cruiser that has never been on a race boat would be able to figure that out.

Wow! You know about beach cats? Golly, that's awesome. Never would have guessed. Last beach cat I was on I just pushed it out and sailed the thing away. Of course that was in mexico and we were pretty smashed - all inclusive included the beach cat. We were also not racing. Yes, you are indeed far more experienced at racing beach cats than almost anybody alive. We get it. Really, we've got it for 1700+ posts. But that doesn't mean you should assume that folks on CF have never been in a race start. I'd guess that the majority of members knew who had rights in that video. Does it matter at all to the subject of if you can sail with a single sail on the ICW?

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by jeepbluetj

Of course the answer is "momentum, same as when you're flying a jib, main, staysail, mizzen, or whatever collection of sails may be stuck on the boat at the time."

I'm sorry, you are still wrong.

You do not need momentum. You are siding with the majority and hoping if you are with them, you are correct. You are not.

I'm simply amazed that with all the videos and information I have given so many still aren't seeing it.

I didn't respond earlier because I started reading the book Moneyball and couldn't stop. It's similar to this. (available information is disregarded due to traditional thinking)

I didn't just race beachcats in some lake with a few locals. Well actually I did and won the regatta against 16 other boats of the exact same design after only 4 years racing against folks that had been racing for 20.

Then I moved to the beachcat sailing mecca of the US, the gulf coast.

There I finish DFL for a while but finally got back on top after maybe 300 races

Actually had a fluke win here and there, but I'm talking consistent top 3-4

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by jeepbluetj

Does it matter at all to the subject of if you can sail with a single sail on the ICW?

Well, yes it does. The guy was asking if you only had one sail to use for all purposes which would it be? You learn this quickly when racing a sloop rigged beachcat

By the way, how would you get a beachcat off the beach when the wind is say 18 knots blowing offshore, and you have your sails up? (Maybe you learned it when hammered drunk on your one beachcat outing)

Also, you have to do this without spilling your prerace beer!

Was the beach cat you took out anything like this one? Beachcats have changed a bit from the Hobie 18 mentioned above or an old Tornado. We don't use the jibs to get us through tacks these days especially since many don't have jibs. Btw, these boat sell for between $20,000-$30,000

https://vimeo.com/139221229