There’s also a very intimate connection between man and water. I’m not talking about the water we drink, but the ocean, the lake, the river, whatever source of water a man feels close to. In order to fulfill a man’s desire to be on or near the water, we sometimes use boats. My boat of choice is a sailboat.
Category Archives: Single-handed Sailing
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The first time I dropped anchor
I intended to do some sailing until I arrived and to my disappointment I saw the flags hanging lifeless from the marina flagpoles. Oh well, another boat work day, I guess. Work days are good, but sailing days are better.
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A headsail downhaul line
There’s many times I go out sailing single-handed and because of that I continually seek to improve the safety of how I do things. My latest project was to install a downhaul line for the headseail.
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A boat I don’t know on a lake I’m not familiar with
….and then I sat there for several minutes….wondering if I was even going to go out. The wind had picked up to about 12 or 13 mph and for the first time in a long time I was apprehensive about going out sailing. What if something happened out there……I’m in a boat I don’t know on a lake I don’t know….
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A milestone….or hourstone?
I turned the boat into the wind and set the tiller tamer to hold course. As I stood up, I noticed I was slightly off the wind, so I moved the tiller ever-so-slightly. I heard a small “pop” and watched as the line holding the tiller fell away into the cockpit.
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Slight Mishap
The mishap occurred about twenty minutes before I became aware of it. I pointed into the wind, hoisted the mainsail and the jib. As soon as I fell off the wind a bit and the jib caught air I realized my mistake.. Twenty minutes before, while at the dock, I had rigged…..
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Under Sail
The winds were about 12-15 mph sustained with gusts to around 20 mph. I used a full main and the 155% genoa
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I should have reefed
I got everything rigged up and was able to ‘back’ out of my slip unassisted by the outboard motor… I just let the wind push me out. I motored out into the lake and with the south wind, I set up on a beautiful point of sail somewhere between a beam reach and a broad reach on a port tack.
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Friday Afternoon Sailing Video
Just a little video compilation of my afternoon sailing outing.