Keeping the Sun Off

It's a gorgeous day, so why be inside?

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We at inside often when the weather turns on us, so when the warm bright sun comes out to shine, we enjoy being in its presence as we enjoy the splendor it brings. The issue is we are both very pale and burn to a crisp in a few minutes!

Maddie has found a lovely solution to keep the sun off of here while still enjoying the light it brings as she reads her book in the cockpit. She has make a tent out of a blanket. The blanket casts a shadow on her while not laying on her. This lets the breeze flow through the setup and keeps her cool and shaded! 

Sail Balance when Running

The goal with sail balance is to have your sails steer the boat, and the rudder simply help hold the course. 

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In balanced sails will pull the yacht hard upwind or down, meaning that if the sails are not set to the course, your rudder will have to fight them the whole way there. 

When running, it feels pretty tempting to ease the mainsail all the way out. This will present the most sail area to the wind, pushing you downwind, but it also does something unwanted.  

The mainsail will become a large area of sail to one side of the boat, and will try to act as a lever arm, pushing the boat to turn in the opposite direction. If the main is on the port side, the boat will try to turn to starboard. If the main is to starboard, the boat will twist to port. 

This problem is called weather helm, and usually corrected by easing the main, or reducing its area. Since the main has been eased as much as possible at this point, the only option left is to reduce its area.  

As the main comes down, the desire for the yacht to veer upwind will minimize and the downwind pull of the headsail will keep the yacht right on course.  

Yes, this yacht could go faster if it were also flying the mainsail, but it would have to work on keeping the helm straight as it traveled. Sometimes, slowing down and reducing sail area will make the entire journey easier and more pleasant. 

Next time you are setting your sails, consider which direction you want to go and set the sails that would be most advantageous in reaching that goal, strike any sail that will make your life harder and enjoy your voyage! 

Heaving To (For Convenience)

There are many reasons to heave to, usually all related to stopping the boat to fix something that has gone wrong.  

It could be that the weather has become too powerful to safely navigate, or that your gear broke and you need to stop and tend to repairs. It could also be that someone fell overboard and you need to recover them! 

All of these situations involve something that is not good happening, and heaving to to let you fix it.  

There is one pleasant reason to heave to: because you want to. 

If you are granted a weather window to leave an inlet but are faced with an upwind destination, you could either tack forever and work like a dog; or heave to and wait for the right winds. 

Heaving to will pretty much stop you in the water, making you slowly slip sideways through the sea. This means that you will move slower than if you ran, or lay a hull (which would be the equivalent of running under bare poles). 

Heaving to also keeps your sails ready should you drift into something and need to get away from it. If you were laying a hull, you would need to hoist the sails and set them, whereas heaving to would only require that you set the sails. 

Once the weather you want comes around, you will then scoot right along without having to work very hard. This will put you further along and makeup for the day you sat waiting still in the water. 

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Waiting for Wind

Sometimes the best wind to get to your next destination is not the same wind that you need to get out of your anchorage. We were very happily moored in Fort Pierce, FL. ​

We were on a mooring ball and the conditions were comfortable, even in foul weather. But, we want to get to Miami, which lays about 120 miles south of Fort Pierce. ​

To get to Miami, we really need the Northerly winds brought down by a cold front. These systems will bring powerful winds that will blast you towards your destination with very little sail flying. We have sailed this way successfully since Charleston, SC, flying only the storm jib and trysail.​

To safely leave the Fort Pierce inlet, we needed a nice calm day when we could ride out gently with the current. So, we slipped out of the inlet and out into the Atlantic Ocean, where we were met with a gentle southerly breeze. We tried tacking a bit to make some miles south as we wait for the cold front that will arrive tomorrow., but to no avail. We tacked for over 2 hours, and only moved a few miles from the inlet. The palm trees that line the inlet are still very clearly visible and the work seems to be in vain. ​

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So, here we sit, on a gorgeous day, hove to. three yachts are dialing past us, flying only their massive genoas, as they ride the downwind passage to their northern destination. We, on the other hand, must wait for tomorrow to make our miles!​

Neighbors at Anchor

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This morning, we awoke to a new neighbor!  

I am a huge fan of bowsprits and bumpkins because they add sail area to a yacht without allowing you to overload the boat with useless clutter!

This boat has a rather short waterline length with long overhangs that are composed of spars. The bowsprit moves the headstay forward of the stem, and the bumpkin moves the backstay aft of the transom.  

If these spars did not exist, the yacht would need to have a longer deck to reach the stay positions, and a longer deck means a longer hull. A longer hull means more interior space, and more interior space will give the opportunity to store unnecessary items that will weigh down the yacht and degrade its sailing capabilities. 

Having spars increase the LOA without a longer hull removes the temptation to keep more stuff on board. It also helps lower the cost of building the boat because a spar is easier and cheaper to build than a larger hull. This will give the yacht a larger sailplan on a smaller budget, and that means that he can sail in more conditions with greater ease.