As is sometimes the case, 2 of my 8 crew were no shows for racing yesterday. Of course it was "blowing the dogs off the chains" wind--8-20 knots!
Short-handed we struggled with a chicken/reaching chute during the first race (total disaster on douse!) so we did the next 2 races without the kite (and the drama) by poling out the 155 but ensuring a last place in our spinnaker class (although not by much). We did do a successful dip-pole jibe with the kite guy trimmer handling the topping lift while the kite trimmer flew it with sheet and guy (after the guy was tripped) until the pole was made on the new tack. However, other similar boats raced reasonably well with their kites with only 6 crew so I am trying to figure out what I might do on deck to allow us to fly a kite in a breeze with only 6. Here is my usual crew line-up: Helm Main trimmer Port trimmer Starboard trimmer Mast Bow Pit (missing yesterday) Tactician (if we have 8 crew). I have starboard and port kite halyard 'parkers' for kite hoists but all lines run to the cockpit. There are no winches or other 'stoppers' on the mast. The pit controls cunningham, outhaul, vang and topping lift (cam cleats mounted above companionway) and all halyards. There is a port and starboard winch with rope clutches aft on each side of the cabin top, accessible to the pit. The downhaul runs down both sides of the cabin top and is captured by a cam cleat just forward of the primary winches so the guy trimmer can control it. Upwind, the pit tails for the headsail trimmers. Downwind he deals with the topping lift, kite halyard (along with mast) and roller furls the headsail, etc. and if thought to be useful, brings the board up. The helm (me) is pinned behind the wheel and cannot (and in my case should not!) assist anywhere else. I am trying to come up with rigging ideas that would make it easier to fly the kite with on 6--aside from lots of practice which goes without saying! One of my thoughts is to run the topping lift differently so that the mast can control it and thus take the pit out of the pole control business. Any suggestions from the list on either rigging or personnel duties with only 6 would be appreciated. Charlie Nelson Water Phantom C&C 36 XL/kcb cenel...@aol.com
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