wrote

I think you're thinking too much!

You can say that again. The boat is out of the water, my kid is sick
so I can't go work on it, and it's raining.


It's actually good form to let the boat come up to speed before
taking in that last bit of sheet.

Agreed. But, you're thinking like a racer and I'm thinking like the
one armed paper hanger singlehanding around in narrow busy waters. I
get help a lot of the time but often end up short tacking home up a
narrow channel while the tired kids read down below. I lose more
speed trying to crank and steer at the same time than I would bearing
off a bit with the jib too tight, but I need the boat to point.

--

Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
wrote


Agreed. But, you're thinking like a racer and I'm thinking like
the one armed paper hanger singlehanding around in narrow busy
waters. I get help a lot of the time but often end up short
tacking home up a narrow channel while the tired kids read down
below. I lose more speed trying to crank and steer at the same
time than I would bearing off a bit with the jib too tight, but
I need the boat to point.

Hmmmm. Time to start the engine.
--
JimB
http://www.jimbaerselman.f2s.com/
for opinions comparing Greek cruising areas

"News f2s" wrote

Hmmmm. Time to start the engine.

Why? It's very satisfying to do and excellent exercise. That's why I
want to end up with exactly the right jib sheets.

--

Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
"News f2s" wrote

Hmmmm. Time to start the engine.

Why? It's very satisfying to do and excellent exercise. That's
why I want to end up with exactly the right jib sheets.

Bit like doing an inverted spin. And needing exactly the right
instruments and a tail end parachute before trying it :-)

Don't worry, I'm just getting old and doing things the easier way
nowadays. Good to see you're still full of **** and vinegar. Or is
it testosterone? I keep forgetti . . . . where was I?

Ah, yes. "There's old pilots, and there's bold pilots, but there
ain't many old, bold pilots". Quite a lot of old, bold sailors out
there though. Nahhh - wrong thread, sorry!
--
JimB
http://www.jimbaerselman.f2s.com/
for opinions comparing Greek cruising areas

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 11:24:27 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Hmmmm. Time to start the engine.

Why? It's very satisfying to do and excellent exercise. That's why I
want to end up with exactly the right jib sheets.

Single handing a 30 something in close quarters is a nice bit of
seamanship when you get it right but I'm not sure it passes the
"prudent man" test.

"Wayne.B" wrote

Single handing a 30 something in close quarters is a nice bit of
seamanship when you
get it right but I'm not sure it passes the "prudent man" test.

I think that's an amazingly broad application of the concept of
prudence. It's kind of hard ultimately to argue that anything with
un-necessary risks like boating is prudent at all. After all, there
are 500 channels on TV now.

The individual balance of skill and challenge and current conditions
is much more significant than such a blanket judgement.

That said, I'll admit to probably having to compensate a bit for some
genetic deficiencies in the prudence genes. When I was an instructor
and member at the Boston Harbor Sailing Club, I used to do things like
pick up a girl who had never been in a boat before and go out on a
busy Sunday afternoon and set a spinnaker. Jibing a chute in those
conditions with someone who just knows how to "hold this" is a real
character builder. BTW I'm sure BHSC is a much tighter ship now but
this was very early days.

I'm not a risk taker in any other aspects of my life and was a very
conservative pilot doing the same thing, balancing my abilities
against the challenges. In 44 years of sailing I have only once
returned to the dock with a boat that needed repair due to decisions
or actions of my command. That was one of the BHSC Solings with a big
hole in the port side and my first, only, and current wife sitting
there asking if this kind of thing happens often. It was only about
three hours after I met her.

Boston Harbor used to (and probably still is) be full of hot shots who
like to port tack five feet from your transom. The stand on vessel
has an equal duty to maintain a steady and predictable course and this
was the one time my judgement about the conflicting duty to avoid a
collision despite right of way came up short. By the time I realized
that he wasn't going to do the hot shot transom pass, it was too late
to take any action. I did learn something though, if you don't see
the helmsman's sunglasses bobbing up and down under the Genoa, assume
they don't see you.

The OG (other guy) later claimed that he had the right of way since he
was proceeding in a marked channel and I was crossing it. Since the
channel was a big ship channel of about 50 foot depth surrounded by
20 - 30 foot deep water, the insurance company laughed at him.

I'm pretty careful and cautious actually and I've mellowed a bit with
age. I did sail up the Royal River for the first time on a dark windy
night and a falling tide alone without an engine and dock under sail
last fall but it was the prudent thing to do at the time. You can
read why he

http://www.points-east.com/

in the June issue of "Points East".

Little things are important. Flaking each lazy sheet down with one
hand while you steer with the other even though it's only 100 yard
tacks up the Peaks Island channel is the kind of thing that is more
relevant to the prudence question in my mind than whether you turn on
the engine.

--

Roger Long

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:32:19 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Boston Harbor used to (and probably still is) be full of hot shots who
like to port tack five feet from your transom. The stand on vessel
has an equal duty to maintain a steady and predictable course and this
was the one time my judgement about the conflicting duty to avoid a
collision despite right of way came up short. By the time I realized
that he wasn't going to do the hot shot transom pass, it was too late
to take any action. I did learn something though, if you don't see
the helmsman's sunglasses bobbing up and down under the Genoa, assume
they don't see you.

Thanks to level racing to the mark, I've developed a pretty good (but
certainly not infalliable) sense of boats-as-vectors. I won't hesitate
if I have the right-of-way to yell "HOLD YOUR COURSE" if I'm getting
close or shaving a transom. I used to use air horns as per COLREGS but
hardly anyone seems to know that. You can tell what sort of fellow
sailor you are dealing with in the last 50 metres. The panicky type
need immediate reassurance, and the racers (current or ex) watch your
boat for about four seconds and then resume SOP and don't even turn to
look at you. I had one fellow murmur "Nice one" as I cut his wash,
because we both knew I'd called it (for once) properly and had
executed a close maneuver in a crowded lane.

I find most collisions happen at the start, frequently in front of the
RC. No one knows quite why G.


Little things are important. Flaking each lazy sheet down with one
hand while you steer with the other even though it's only 100 yard
tacks up the Peaks Island channel is the kind of thing that is more
relevant to the prudence question in my mind than whether you turn on
the engine.

Good habits count, certainly, and keeping a clear field is doubly
important when single-handing.

R.

rhys wrote:
On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:32:19 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Boston Harbor used to (and probably still is) be full of hot shots who
like to port tack five feet from your transom. The stand on vessel
has an equal duty to maintain a steady and predictable course and this
was the one time my judgement about the conflicting duty to avoid a
collision despite right of way came up short. By the time I realized
that he wasn't going to do the hot shot transom pass, it was too late
to take any action. I did learn something though, if you don't see
the helmsman's sunglasses bobbing up and down under the Genoa, assume
they don't see you.


Thanks to level racing to the mark, I've developed a pretty good (but
certainly not infalliable) sense of boats-as-vectors. I won't hesitate
if I have the right-of-way to yell "HOLD YOUR COURSE" if I'm getting
close or shaving a transom. I used to use air horns as per COLREGS but
hardly anyone seems to know that.

I'm sorry, what sound signals in the Colregs apply to port/starboard
situations? Which apply to sailboats?

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:06:35 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:


Agreed. But, you're thinking like a racer and I'm thinking like the
one armed paper hanger singlehanding around in narrow busy waters. I
get help a lot of the time but often end up short tacking home up a
narrow channel while the tired kids read down below. I lose more
speed trying to crank and steer at the same time than I would bearing
off a bit with the jib too tight, but I need the boat to point.

Do you have hanks or furling? I single-hand a 33 footer through some
channels near here and find that I'm glad I've still got the ability
to point high.

I also pre-wrap my winches and transfer the handle prior to tacking. I
basically cruise like I'm racing, because I get more out of the boat
that way. But then I like racing OTHER people's boats, absorbing
tactics, and bringing it all back to a more fruitful cruising
experience.

"Thinking like a racer" and the Chinese fire-drill approach aren't
mutually exclusive. To watch me from a distance I tend to be very
still except for the head on a gimbal action of checking sail trim and
the local traffic. Then there's 15 seconds of prep, 15 seconds of tack
and 15 seconds of prep for the next tack. Then it's back to Captain
Bobblehead (with appropriate breaks for beverage maintenance).

The dodgiest parts of singlehanding for me are raising the main if I
don't feel like putting the tillerpilot out and docking, thanks to
prop walk.

R.

"rhys" wrote

Do you have hanks or furling?

Roller furling. I would have preferred it if the boat had come with
hanks because I wanted to give my kids a chance to learn foredeck
work. (Remember how beat up I got here over how "irresponsible" that
was.)

"Thinking like a racer" and the Chinese fire-drill approach aren't
mutually exclusive.

Hardly a Chinese fire-drill. The key is to be deliberate, organized,
and thinking ahead. I just meant that I would be willing to give up
the speed gained by letting the boat accelerate under a slightly
fuller jib in order to be spend the time I would be flattening looking
for traffic and verifying the new course. If stiffer jib sheets would
let me do that, I would put up with their being harder on the hands.
As you or someone up in the thread pointed out, my crusing rig is
probably so flexible that the sheets are not going to make that
difference.

--

Roger Long