I took my mom and stepdad sailing for the first time the other evening. My mom
is very experienced at sailing, and her husband somewhat, and it turns out that
I was really grateful for that crew that day!
The sail started with me whining, because we were nearly becalmed. Sails
flopping - *boring*. I'd wanted to delight them with the frisky, speedy
sailing that my M17 "Ceto" can do.
It was strange weather that evening though - warm but with an odd fog bank out
in the open water that was shifting and blowing around. Where we were, it was
sunny. As we were just talking, wishing for wind, all of a sudden came a
perfect 12 or 15 k breeze, and we were happily whooshing along on a beam
reach. The breeze was all over the place though, and we chased it around, as
it veered wildly. Then we were becalmed again. Then we were zooming on a
broad reach for awhile. Then wing-and-wing. It was just weird. Then we
turned around to get back to the harbor, and it was the same thing - switching,
unstable breezes, but we were able to stay mostly close hauled, pointing up
well. It was fun and kept us on our toes.
We got close to the harbor, and I was just about to start up the outboard and
get the sails dropped when we felt this odd, sudden push of mist-filled wind.
Then, BAM, we were hit *hard* by a wall of wind about 30 k - working jib up,
main full up, both in tight because we'd been close hauled. My oh-so-helpful
mom called out "We're at 40 degrees!" Okay, yes we were laughing and
screeching like kids on a rollercoaster, but her husband George, at about 200
pounds, was on the lee side, and his rear was probably 3 inches from the
water. He climbed back to the windward side, as I rounded up to lessen the
heel a little, we eased the sheets and then we got pushed down to 40 degrees
again (thanks Mom, for calling it out! ha ha) I gave in and popped the main,
letting it swing out, as the wind was intensifying, and we were closer to shore
than I liked. We swung around and went into irons, which was a welcome
respite. We sat that way, for a few minutes,
way too much wind blasting my poor old sails, while I had George take the helm
and I got that outboard (Suzuki 4 hp) down and started faster than I ever
have. (It's a little hard for me to get that bracket up and down) I powered
us into the wind and my mom and George got the sails down. I've done a lot of
thinking since, working out how I would have handled that if I'd been alone.
Unfortunately, when my mom lowered the jib, there was NO halyard. At some
point, the wimpy little U-shaped shackle had just let go, and I guess the wind
pressure had been keeping the sail up. When we were getting the main up to
start this sail, I'd been dismayed to see that the same style shackle on the
main halyard was all bent and weakened. I'd had to bend it around to get it to
work. We hadn't noticed anything wrong with the jib shackle. Now we have to
learn how to get the mast down to replace it.
Are those thin U-shaped shackles the original hardware for the boat? I have a
hard time believing that they were - how would they have held up for 25 years,
then break in less than ten outings with us? I'm sure the previous owners
encountered odd powerful gusts here and there too.
Danelle
M17 #378
Ketchikan, AK
http://web.mac.com/anniesark9/Site/Sailing_Ceto.html
_______________________________________________
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
