|
|
|
|
On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:29:41 GMT, (Mic) wrote:
On a sailing craft which purchase would be a priority an AutoPilot or
a furling (head sail)? And why?
How old and fit are you, and what are your local sailing conditions? I
rarely think of my AP and the concept of furling in the same frame of
mind, but I do use it when I am solo and tweak sails on the foredeck.
I also use a tiller tamer clamp thingie when under power to keep the
tiller amidships.
I use hank-ons because I like to sail fast and high and I like to have
options. Also, the exercise doesn't hurt. The downsides include more
effort, more sailbags, a wee bit more fuss. The upsides include better
and possible safer sailing, cheaper sailing (I buy barely used sails
from hotshot racers with slightly bigger boats and have them cut to
fit for a small fraction of new price), and probably my sail rotation
will last longer than your hypothetical furling sail, at least in the
top 20% of their performance ranges.
Furling is a convenience and a compromise. When I sail offshore and
spend days on the same tack, I won't hesitate to go furling (but not
the main!).
AP is a convenience, a safety factor when one is solo/tired, and
another expensive thing to break. They draw a lot of power and can't
steer as well as humans in a fair number of conditions. For "light
duty" reaching, they are fine.
Wind vanes are great and good in most--not all--conditions. I would
use a wind vane for voyaging with an AP for back-up. In voyaging
situations, it seems actual human helming is a small percentage of the
watch's work, because a well-found boat trimmed properly will tend to
steer itself, with a vane or AP doing small corrections. A radar in
"guard" mode and a sharp set of eyes for whales and flotsam does the
rest.
R.
|