"DSK" wrote

Bart Senior wrote:

ECHO has lots of momentum. Can you slow her down by making short, sharp
zig-zags with the helm?

No. It's a skeg hung rudder and doesn't respond all that well. Under
power I'd rate the handling as poor. The prop is far from the rudder
also. It's a 3/4 keel so turning is slow and ponderous. I would not
have attempted to sail it in, except the engine has been such a PITA,
and conditions were ideal.

... My main lesson learned was I should have put my #2 sailor on the
helm
and I should have been in the middle of the boat directing the show
where
everyone could hear me.

That can be good. The man on the helm doesn't have to be an expert
sailor but he can't be the type that freezes up. You'd be surprised how
many people do exactly that.

My #2 sailor, Kate, is a doctor and a good sailor. I think she would have
done fine.

No crew is ever perfect, nor is any skipper. It sounds like you did good
job of explaining what to do and kept the situation from leading to
problems or damage; that's good skippering. I hope you resisted the
temptation to rake them over the coals so that they'll be willing to go
out and do it some more.

I think my skippering was weak. They had difficult hearing me and
did not respond well to my instructions. I asked afterwards, and they
told me they heard me, but still didn't respond. I made a bad choice
by letting them continue to flake the main--that was time better spent
telling them in greater detail what I wanted them to do. So I should
have either yelled--not rudely, but firmly, to get them to stop, or else
locked the helm for a moment--the boat tracks well, and gone forward
briefly to get them on track.