Last Saturday (Oct 25) was a scheduled regatta for our sailing
association (includes several clubs in our area). The weather was warm
& unsettled, with a building south-southwesterly breeze blowing along
the axis of the river. We sailed the Santana 23 in what was to be the
first NYRA Winter Series Race and Wilkerson Cup combined. The wind was
expected to be strong with 3~4' chop... not our favored conditions!

In fact I expected to get knocked around pretty bad and to finish far
back in the fleet. But I did not expect the wind to continue to build
WAY past the point of being able to sail the race at all! To make
things more "interesting" we sailed short-handed, with just 3.

Disclaimer- our sailing association has written into the Sailing
Instructions that no race shall be started in sustained winds of over
25 knots. This takes the decision out of the hands of the day's Race
Committee and is a good choice... personally I LOVE heavy air and
would prefer to hold the race 'No Matter What' however many people
don't like the carnage!

I just bought this boat this past spring and have never sailed in
winds over about 12~15 before. It's a GREAT light air boat, so I
expected it to suffer a bit of knocking around in heavy. I was a bit
worried about breaking stuff, too... but was fully prepared to douse
sails & head in at the first sign of problems with the boat or rig.
Bill skippered the boat as we got sail set, invented a reef for the
main (there is just a random assortment of hardware on the boom
leftover from previous owners, but no real reefing system) and set the
small jib.

1- we need a second reef or perhaps a dedicated "heavy air" main!
2- a smaller jib might not hurt too!

The boat drove & handled very well, Bill wrestled with the tiller a
bit as the helm was heavy & unbalanced with just the main up. But we
went fast... often right thru big waves and out the other side.... We
would not have placed well in our class, since it's mostly heavy 30 ~
35 footers who would have driven smartly upwind in these conditions
and we would not be enough faster downwind to gain it back. But it
would have been a classic day of heavy air sailing.

The RC reported gusts approaching 40 and sustained winds of 30, and so
the race was abandoned. We sailed around a bit, getting a feel for
things and waiting to see what might look like it needed reinforcing
(I had my "break the boat" alarm on high alert)... answer is that the
mast needs to be tuned a little better for heavy air (esp tighten
check stays), but otherwise FINE!! And it was really fun. The helm
seemed very strong so I put up the jib more for control than to add
any speed.... in fact we were letting the jib flog about 90% of it's
area except for the times were going almost dead down wind.

We got used to the boat heeling 50 degrees plus (measured). The
knotmeter wasn't working properly so I have no idea what our speeds
were. We could make ground upwind but it was slow, the boat often blew
flat and skidded sideways, and then we had to make up that distance to
windward. It would have been tedious to race and we would have
definitely been last against the fleet of bigger heavier boats. Once
the boat came down to a broad reach & straightened up a bit, she
started flying. It's not a planing hull but we were leaving the stern
wave well behind. I'd guess we may have hit 9 knots but probably not
ten.

I was impressed with the way the boat handled the conditions, with a
double reefed main and some extra crew for ballast we would have done
quite well. The Race Committee reported sustained winds around 28~29
knots and gusts over 35. The waves were in the neighborhood of 3~4
feet with some 6 footers thrown in (they just came over the top of the
boat).

The long rudder foil gave the boat very firm control (assuming you had
the strength to wrestle it) even when heeled far over and out of
balance under main alone. The one problem we had was that the mast
pumped like crazy when the sails flogged, the backstay was full on and
I might have needed to tighten the check stays.

There are a few small improvements in the boat, a new boom vang which
should be much easier to trim (this is a huge & much-neglected weapon
racing down-wind), twings for the spinnaker sheet, a slightly improved
backstay tackle, and somewhat less "bitey" non-skid in the crew
seating areas. This was at the insistence of Kathie, I'm somewhat
reluctant to reduce our grip on the boat... last Saturday I almost got
thrown off several times! Obviously a real reefing system should be on
the horizon, I'm gathering info on potential new sails, and I have a
new set of self-tailing winches which I hope to install fairly soon
but not before this Saturday.... when we will have another race....

Sorry, no pics. I don't want to ruin my camera and we were too darn
busy anyway!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King