Nice Father's Day

Sunny and windy. That’s rare up here. Usually our month of summer is August and every day is warm and windless. Beautiful but not very good for sailing, I’ve noticed.

Yesterday had 15 knots of wind, no clouds, and temperature in the mid 70s. Very nice. I got a nice little cockpit table for the binnacle guard for father’s day so I went out and installed it, lounged a bit, then the rest of the family came out and we went for a sail.

It was a little too windy for everyone to be really comfortable. Had the first reef in the main but it was still a bit much to unfurl the 150 genoa all the way. I tried various amounts of furl but it really doesn’t set well enough when furled to be useful in anything above a beam reach. Below a beam reach the apparent wind goes down enough so that the full, unfurled sail is not too powerful.

The alternative, of course is to change headsails. What a great idea. Scamper came with four head sails (plus two spinnakers) so there’s certainly a choice. All of the headsails are set up to go into the furler so I haven’t wanted to do too many sail changes.

The headsails for a 34’ boat are pretty big, especially for an older, IOR-influenced design with great big head sails and a tiny blade of a main. Storage and weight become an issue quickly. I carry the 150 genoa on the furler, the light-air spinnaker, and a storm jib that hanks onto the baby stay. Yesterday, it would have been nice to have the 130 or even the 100 but once I start carrying several bags of sails there’s suddenly no place to sleep.

Racers like to keep it light and cruisers tend to bring heavy supplies and gear on board but it will take MANY cans of Dinty-Moore to weigh as much as three or four headsails.

For cruising I may keep the 130 on the furler and plan on motorsailing in less than five knots of wind. The 130 might furl down to 100 or so and be able to keep it’s shape but I’ll have to experiment. That would let me sail to windward in 20 to 25 knots of wind without changing sails. From there on up the storm jib on the baby stay along with the third reef in the main would be pretty comfortable.

After the sail yesterday I stayed at the boat a while and took off the rest of the fresh water cooling system. Heat exchangers are pretty heavy. I also drained, cleaned, and filled both water tanks. I have no idea when the last time that was done but there was quite a bit of brown sludge in the bottom of the tanks. Pretty disgusting. Bleach and a bit of Joy did a nice job on that though. I’m now on my fourth gallon of bleach since I bought the boat last fall.