Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

Well I guess this means Jaysen will not be buying one of these and leaving it up here for shared use

Thanks for the education on something I know very little about. Anyone who has sailed around the world has the right to some pretty strong opinions as they are formed by lots of experience

You know what they say, opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one.
It is a fact that in sailing, almost any topic can start an argument. Light or heavy? Dyneema or stainless rigging? Hard vang or soft vang? Paper charts or electronic? Bruce or plow or Rocna? Ketch or sloop? Cat or monohull? Flat bottom or wineglass-shaped? Lines led aft or kept forward? Heave-to, fore-reach, set a sea anchor, run warps in a storm? Full keel or fin keel? Skeg or spade rudder? Each one of these positions has legit reasoning behind it. So you certainly don't want to take my word as gospel. In my defense I would say my opinions are generally conservative in terms of safety and also in terms of being not far off the mainstream. Both in book study and my experience at sea, I have found that by now most stuff, except for the continually changing world of electronics, is informed by lots of sea miles with lots of boats. This was not true for Slocum. He had no one to advise him.
I do have some opinions, it's true. For example, I wouldn't be comfortable on long voyages with a boat that couldn't sail its way out of trouble, which is why I'm not partial to motorsailers, though many a circumnavigation has been successfully completed by them. That said, it comes down to the specific boat and how it's outfitted, and most importantly by a long shot, the skipper. There is just no question I'd rather be on a dodgy boat with a great skipper than a brand new, perfectly outfitted boat with a fool.

Yeah... the bank said "oh god... that's uglier than ... you" (for the record I just got back from a hairraising offshore adventure that did not include much sleep). Let's call that a hard no. and I'm with T on the motor sailers. Not a thing for me. But then they can make it from HHI to CHS in less time than it too us to realize not everyone can read a chart plotter.

Y'all look up the weather between Charleston and Hilton Dead Island between 4p friday (local) and 5a saturday (local). 25 boats entered, only 8 started, only 4 finished. Las Brisas may have been dead last, but we FINISHED. I'll try to whittle it down to a few good paragraphs.

Needed to have been in a nice comfortable pilot house. would have made finishing last more.....................civil

Civil left when I lashed myself to the starboard pushpit at 9pm. “Captain what’s my job”
“Big guy stays on the high side all night!”
“Same tack to finish?”
“Yes. You ok?”
As I’m square knotting two sail ties around me to the stanteon “rule 1: stay on boat; rule two: stay on boat; rule 3: go to the rail and aim for distance!”
“Right!”
“You’re out of buckets below. I can hit the water from here.”
“I knew you were good for this!”

They check on me several times. No fish were fed.

For those that can figure them out, here are the published SI for the race (PDF file). Synopsis: 62.7NMi with most of it open ocean, full safety gear required, good luck!

Scoring not posted but we had 2nd place in D fleet... only 2 boats and the competition was a beneteau 531.

Well, you didn't puke, so...yer a winner!

terrulian wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:16 pm Well, you didn't puke, so...yer a winner!

I broke no rules! they did laugh at "rule one and rule two" when they realized I used two ties.

Tony, I just "mathed" our time and I'm coming up with a 5.5kn speed for the course in a j30 (16:05:00p s, 03:53:13a f). That's with 8-10@8sec and 20-30 winds. That seems super slow I recall the SOG being well over 7 and into 8 on the course. isn't the math still Dist/(fin-start)? I'm not trying to calc out the actual SPI adjustment just out boat time...

Well, it may seem super slow but are you counting the distance of the course or the actual distance sailed? One leg had to be to windward, and you can multiply the distance on the windward leg by about 1.5 to get the very rough distance sailed. That's not counting leeway, which would be considerable in those conditions, particularly if you were overpowered some or all of the time. What you need for this is a gps readount which will give average speed over the distance sailed, not the designated course. I'd be amazed if you weren't going much faster than that downwind.

This was a "destination" not a leeward/windward. I don't have the GPS but the chart/course plotter should have actuals vs course. I was just going by course. we only changed direction at the markes. No tacking or gybing to make way.

Overpowered is an understatement. As we rounded the outside channel markers to head south we watch several boats go "flat". They all quit. We already reefed the main before we left the dock and had jib at 2/3. had a few close calls to the captain said to focus on staying 15deg via letting wind spill. Beam reach the whole way but we ran with a lot of sheet out to keep us in control. I think that's what was going on. It was a hard to grasp all the details of them huddled while we were still trying to get the boat settled.

I actually questioned my own sanity at one point and tried to say something but God thought I was wrong and filled my mouth with saltwater before I could say anything out loud. I kept my pie hole shut after that.