In sports they often talk about the sophomore slump, well, I guess it’s true for sailboats as well. Here’s a recap of the measly three times I got out on my boat this summer.
Memorial Day weekend: my boat arrives at Lake Manitou with a jib boom and jib sail and plenty of excitement for trying out new gear somewhere other than Geist reservoir. The wind was so-so on Friday, though I did make one very important discovery: adding a jib sail requires a wider leeboard, otherwise it’s about like I have no leeboard at all. On Saturday there was really good, steady wind and I managed to sail for about three hours, even using the jibsail somewhat. Sunday sailing when mom and dad arrived was limited to short 20min excursions with a very finnicky Indiana-style wind (coming and going from every direction imagineable)
July 4th weekend: Well, on July 3rd when I arrived there was marvelous amounts of steady wind, but a pretty crowded lake. I had a wider leeboard to try out, but as I was wrestling with the Jack Dee alongside the pier getting her rigged up the large wake from several motorboats lifted my jib boom over the pier and slammed it down repeatedly. I didn’t notice the crack that this had created that run the whole length of the boom at that time. Rowing out (and really heaving to, considering the wind was blowing straight into the dock) I basically pulled the starboard oarlock off of the gunwale chine. During the half hour of sailing that followed my jib furler managed to go awry, nearly putting me in the drink, I was nearly rolled by the wake from several motorboats, and was overall very frustrated and unhappy when I got back to the pier. After a very quick fix (moving the oarlock to stern by about 20inches) and rewinding the jib furler I set out again and managed to sail for almost 4 hours of pure joy. I didn’t really use the jibsail until the last hour, and unfortunately the wind and heavy boat traffic contrived to keep me only on the south side of the islands, but I had a blast. Let me tell you: with the jib sail out and a stiff breeze I can really fly!
Sunday August 16th: A perfect day (especially because it was two days before my birthday). There was a steady, stiff breeze from the SSW and moderately heavy traffic. I managed three hours of sailing, mainsail only. I haven’t fixed the jib boom yet, and that may be a project that gets documented here in the coming months as I’d like to make it ornate (leave any suggestions for a figurehead in the comments). I sailed in the head of the lake, around the islands a little bit, and my grandmother even thought I had an engine on my boat I came by the pier so fast. The two DNR officers patrolling the lake even seemed to take note (or maybe it’s not everyday some bearded dude goes whizzing by on some rickety wooden scow of a sailboat belting out sea shanties…) I loaded the boat up and took her home with plenty to fix. Also, did I mention that most of this sailing happened with a rudder that was barely holding on? Yeah, that too.
Overall I can’t complain. Last summer I sailed much more, mostly because I was at summer school all summer and it’s a shorter drive to the lake than it is to home. Maybe last summer it was also the thrill of the unknown in piloting my little boat around the lake. Who knows… but I’ve got big plans for the future!
Hint: http://www.stevproj.com/IntroWkndrPg1.html -Oh yeah!
Arrr, I owe you scurvy dogs some eye candy:
Home port is in the background
