I'm up to 75 days of sailing this year. Until yesterday, I
hadn't sailed any of my own boats. I decided to fix that
by starting with some sailing my two Sunfishes, one of
which I picked up at the end of the season last year, and
hadn't even tried yet.

I dragged both of these boats, Patriot and Threat down
to the beach and launched them. My companion was
a very bright 13 year old boy, who did very well sailing
a keel boats the previous two days, but seemed to let
his attention wander when it came to sail trim. I decided
to fix that. Nothing like a dinghy to keep you sharp!

Thursday was fairly light. I found a few deficiencies with
the new boat (Threat). I decided to bob the tiller a few
inches, so I can sit on the back deck on light days. I plan
chuck the wooden hiking stick and replace it with a nice
hiking stick. The first things I plan to replace are the
main halyard and main sheet. Later on I'll install a couple
of carbo blocks (illegal for racing, but I like them) and a
stand-up ratchet block and swivel base with a cam cleat
like the other boat has. Most people don't like cam cleats
because if the main can't be eased in a hurry, over you go.
I set mine up on Patriot, to be easy to release. It's easy
to hold free of the cam cleat, and I can still use it when
I want to.

The sail on Threat is pretty, orange and red, and doesn't
have any holes, but is a bit blown out--fine for light air, but
a bit too full for heavier air. I will try tightening it up a bit to
see if it is worth keeping. I'll probably install a hiking strap
and a few other goodes also. I'm working on a double braid
eye splice for the new main sheet as I write this.

After yesterday's sail, I told Alex that if you haven't capsized
you haven't had fun. I was happy we had not capsized
yesterday, but I was hoping for more wind, because he was
ready for it.

Today's sailing started light, and kept building. Winds
backed from the South to the East, and the quickly to
the North. While the water was fairly flat except for
a few tidal standing waves, and yacht wakes, it was
gusty with clear foam trails on the water by the end of
the day.

My companion capsized, I think because his main was
cleated on a gybe. I decided to practice heavy air gybing
and demonstrating a few. I spent some time doing Man
overboard recoveries of sports bottles that floated away.
Later on I found myself in the water--somewhat relieved
that I could do a prop check (relieve my bladder).

Alex capsized twice more in the next half hour and at one
point I found myself upwind of him and decided to do a quick
gybe before he started moving again. I wasn't quick enough
and found myself on a collision course. My only option to
miss him was to sail by the lee, my main got a bit
too far out, and soon found oscillating. I started to roll over
and watched my boom slam down in a classic sailor's
death-roll. Four of my sail fasteners popped off.

After this we started tacking back up wind, which took a bit
of time as Alex had difficulty keeping the boat close to the
wind, with Threat's too full sail shape and his light weight to
keep the hull down. I was sorry to get out because hiking
out with my weight, I could really get the boat moving close
hauled.

The water was warm, it ws overcast, so the sun was not
strong, and the wind was great. I'll rate this the best day's
sailing I've had this year.

Does anyone else have any good death roll stories?