Finally made it!
Its been a crazy year! New house, school, organ-playing, organ-fixing, ministry stuff, and other "responsible" type things have prevented me from getting out in the sailboat.
Until now! I got a whiff of the waterfront for the July 3 fireworks and so, even though I really still did not have the time to do so, just had to go sailing on July 4, and did.
What a wind! About 20 miles per hour, gusting into the high 20's, so I reefed the mainsail and stowed the jib and single-handed without a hitch over to the boathouse (making one of my finest single-handed, high wind landings yet if I do say so) to pick up Becky. The plan was to then sail over to North Beach to pick up Noelle and possibly Sarah. Tried and failed to coerce George and Paul C into it.
Well, with a south wind we headed west from the boathouse, and about halfway to the breakwater, I heard a bang and the tiller went limp... I looked back and the rudder had come disconnected! I leaned over to try to hitch it back up and saw that the plywood that holds it all together had disintigrated where the lower hinge attaches. Meanwhile the boat is zigzagging all over the place as I try to regain control. Becky really kept her cool! We were on a port beam reach with a south wind headed for the breakwater, a heading we obviously did not want to remain on for very long (breakwaters break boats too). It took about 5 tries, but with Becky's help on the sail with me barking out instructions as best I could we got it to come about (its hard enough to come about from beam reach to beam reach in high winds WITH steering). I was holding the bottom of the rudder with one hand and the tiller with the other and had just enough steering to vaguely point the boat in an easterly direction, with quite a bit of zig-zagging. Good thing we had the wind from the side, if we had to climb upwind I'm not sure I could have held a heading. I suppose that would have been unlikely, we don't have an east wind very often.
My plan at first was to run it up on the beach, fully knowing that that would likely destroy the boat, as well as be fairly humiliating, but at least it would be safe for us. But the speed kept getting faster and faster and I started to realize that suddenly going from 8 knots to zero might not be so healthy for us either. With the beach maybe 20 yards away I began trying to instruct Becky on how to drop the sail, which in retrospect is what I should have planned on to begin with, once we crossed the channel. She did manage to get as far as uncleating the halyard, which allowed me to run forward and yank it down. Now we were without sail upwind of the docks, and were able to just coast in and all was well. If we hadn't been able to drop the sail in time, my backup plan was to dump the boat somehow and bail out, probably by pulling the sheet in tight.
So... that was exciting! Were we in serious danger? It sort of seemed so at the time, but we both had life jackets on as everyone should when sailing in a small boat in high winds, and the water temperature was in the 60's and we were not far from land. We were in danger of ending up in the water, but that's about all. I was certainly in danger of wrecking the boat, as well as our digital cameras and phones and whatever else we had with us. At least one of the historic shipwrecks at the bottom of Lake Champlain, the General Butler, is attributed to broken steering gear in high winds. But I must say it was a pretty good feeling to have all that happen and coast relatively calmly back to the dock! I'd even say it was fun! A real adrenaline rush, that's for sure.
So... now what? This boat is on its last legs and will be replaced soon anyway. The thought of replacing it now has crossed my mind and in fact I've contacted a couple of sellers from Craigslist about boats for sale in the 16' daysailer category. We'll see. I can fabricate a new rudder using new plywood and the old hardware and most likely will, and perhaps run the boat for the remainder of the season. Will keep you posted! Meanwhile, I'm grounded until the yoot retreat is over, at least. One way or another, whether in a "new" (to me) boat, or in a repaired Tanzer, I will sail on for the rest of the summer.
Pictures? Well, when all that happens you're not really thinking "oh, we've got to get a picture of this!". :-P Just have these two "before" pictures:
Its a beautiful thing! A classic Saab pulling a classic sailboat to a historic waterfront on a windy day!
Horizontal flags are always a good sign if you want to sail:
Until now! I got a whiff of the waterfront for the July 3 fireworks and so, even though I really still did not have the time to do so, just had to go sailing on July 4, and did.
What a wind! About 20 miles per hour, gusting into the high 20's, so I reefed the mainsail and stowed the jib and single-handed without a hitch over to the boathouse (making one of my finest single-handed, high wind landings yet if I do say so) to pick up Becky. The plan was to then sail over to North Beach to pick up Noelle and possibly Sarah. Tried and failed to coerce George and Paul C into it.
Well, with a south wind we headed west from the boathouse, and about halfway to the breakwater, I heard a bang and the tiller went limp... I looked back and the rudder had come disconnected! I leaned over to try to hitch it back up and saw that the plywood that holds it all together had disintigrated where the lower hinge attaches. Meanwhile the boat is zigzagging all over the place as I try to regain control. Becky really kept her cool! We were on a port beam reach with a south wind headed for the breakwater, a heading we obviously did not want to remain on for very long (breakwaters break boats too). It took about 5 tries, but with Becky's help on the sail with me barking out instructions as best I could we got it to come about (its hard enough to come about from beam reach to beam reach in high winds WITH steering). I was holding the bottom of the rudder with one hand and the tiller with the other and had just enough steering to vaguely point the boat in an easterly direction, with quite a bit of zig-zagging. Good thing we had the wind from the side, if we had to climb upwind I'm not sure I could have held a heading. I suppose that would have been unlikely, we don't have an east wind very often.
My plan at first was to run it up on the beach, fully knowing that that would likely destroy the boat, as well as be fairly humiliating, but at least it would be safe for us. But the speed kept getting faster and faster and I started to realize that suddenly going from 8 knots to zero might not be so healthy for us either. With the beach maybe 20 yards away I began trying to instruct Becky on how to drop the sail, which in retrospect is what I should have planned on to begin with, once we crossed the channel. She did manage to get as far as uncleating the halyard, which allowed me to run forward and yank it down. Now we were without sail upwind of the docks, and were able to just coast in and all was well. If we hadn't been able to drop the sail in time, my backup plan was to dump the boat somehow and bail out, probably by pulling the sheet in tight.
So... that was exciting! Were we in serious danger? It sort of seemed so at the time, but we both had life jackets on as everyone should when sailing in a small boat in high winds, and the water temperature was in the 60's and we were not far from land. We were in danger of ending up in the water, but that's about all. I was certainly in danger of wrecking the boat, as well as our digital cameras and phones and whatever else we had with us. At least one of the historic shipwrecks at the bottom of Lake Champlain, the General Butler, is attributed to broken steering gear in high winds. But I must say it was a pretty good feeling to have all that happen and coast relatively calmly back to the dock! I'd even say it was fun! A real adrenaline rush, that's for sure.
So... now what? This boat is on its last legs and will be replaced soon anyway. The thought of replacing it now has crossed my mind and in fact I've contacted a couple of sellers from Craigslist about boats for sale in the 16' daysailer category. We'll see. I can fabricate a new rudder using new plywood and the old hardware and most likely will, and perhaps run the boat for the remainder of the season. Will keep you posted! Meanwhile, I'm grounded until the yoot retreat is over, at least. One way or another, whether in a "new" (to me) boat, or in a repaired Tanzer, I will sail on for the rest of the summer.
Pictures? Well, when all that happens you're not really thinking "oh, we've got to get a picture of this!". :-P Just have these two "before" pictures:
Its a beautiful thing! A classic Saab pulling a classic sailboat to a historic waterfront on a windy day!
Horizontal flags are always a good sign if you want to sail:
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1 Comments:
wow - what an adventure! well done, captain andy. :) i miss sailing on lake champlain. maybe next time i'm up in VT you'll have a new boat by then. ;)
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