John wrote:
Is there a better group than this for sailing? The ones I found were pretty
dead.

Maybe they just seem that way because this one is so lively:-)


Yesterday I went out to sail my 13' boat, for what might be about the last
day this year. It is pretty narrow with big sails (a Starwing) and the wind
was rather stronger than forecast, about 15-20. That is way too strong for
me, so I didn't use the jib. In hindsight I should have reefed the main,
but that takes too long.

Might have been a bit much for a 13 ft boat, to be deliberately out
in?? But if you enjoy it then you need to approach it a little better,
the "drive" needs to be as close the the bow & centre of the boat as
possible & you need to reduce sail so the amount of heel is managable,
heel moves the centre of force outside the boat itself, especially in
smaller boats.


Had real problems on jibes and tacks. On tacks the boat would just stall
out, and I had to wait for a wind shift to help me out. That never happens
with my jib up. Any tips, or is it just a problem with not using the jib.

All the above, it's a small boat with not much displacement (read mass) so;

(i) it has not much inertia, when trying to come about in the stronger
wind & presumable the wind waves caused by same,

(ii) it can easily loose it's way & effectively stop, with just the main
up, even when it's not sheeted on, it's drag acts like a weather vane,
keeping the the bow from swinging,

(iii) if you had dropped the main & used just the headsail, then you
would probably still have finished in irons, because of the lack of
momentum & the conditions, however she would have fallen off much
easier/more quickly, hopefully in the direction you intended:-).

The jibes were much worse. The boom swung around violently, and the boat
nearly capsized twice. Again, I have never had that problem; but I have
also never had an unreefed main out in wind like that. Any tips for this
one? (I mean, other than "Learn to sail")

Again, with just the main up you are pushing a small boat from behind &
with the combination of excessive heeling & the main sheeted well out
the driving force is way out to one side (i.e. the centre of pressure &
therefore effort is what?? 4 or 5 ft outside the lee gunwale??) so it
tends to roundup much easier than when pulled along by the headsail. If
you really must use just the main, try sheeting it in hard as you jibe,
after it swings then slowly let the sheet pressure off & feed it out.


Finally, when I was just trying to sail straight, I was pretty much hiked
out as far as I could go. What do you do in that situation with an even
stronger wind gust? Without the jib, I steer a bit into the wind; with the
jib all I can think to do it let the main out to shed wind. Is there
anything better?

You already know you should have reefed, letting the sheet out till you
spill wind is not good, because as mentioned above your centre of
pressure moves too far outside the boat, tending to make it try to
roundup every time there's an even small gust in the wind, which you see
as the boat steering all over the place.

K



Thanks much.