First sail in Ruthie, and lessons learnt!

[JesseLoynes]

Well, we got out for our first sail in Miss Ruth, a hillyard 6 tonner, on Sunday. It was superb. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Having got the mast stepped on Saturday, we were down at her berth by 6.15 on Sunday morning to get the genoa in place before setting off. We had to be out into Chichester Harbour by 7 as the tide was dropping, and although I was happy to re fit the main on the water, I couldn't see how I was to balance on the end of the bowsprit whilst fitting the genny!

Once out there we headed for Itchenor to ay our harbour dues and then made our way out of the harbour. We had a very peaceful sail/motor to Gosport where we picked up friends before heading back.

First lesson of the day: Don't try to cut bread whilst rolling through waves and holding a conversation! It resulted in a rather bad cut to my wife's finger and lots of first aid. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Once that was settled we had a storming broad reach back along the front to Chi harbour entrance. Here we tried to gybe and got the genoa well and truly snarled round the stay, several turns in both directions, and it took a good few minutes to try to sort out. Need to learn how to control that! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Then a lovely trip back to her berth. Overall, a fabulous day. Absolutely exhausting, but fabulous!

Can't wait for next weekend to get out again! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

P.S. Just need to make her look a little better now. Every time I see her I feel guilty that all I've managed is the mast so far. She deserves to be looked after a bit better.

 

[alistairedw]

[ QUOTE ]

Here we tried to gybe and got the genoa well and truly snarled round the stay, several turns in both directions, and it took a good few minutes to try to sort out. Need to learn how to control that!


[/ QUOTE ]
Last year I was returning from Cowes to Chi in a F8 and we had to gybe the genoa as we approached the bar. Skipper was very keen that we keep the genoa under control! He told us to keep lots of tension on the genoa sheet that you will be releasing until you have the sail well across with the new genoa sheet.

Back in Chi we saw a yacht which had failed to keep control of the genoa during a gybe . The sail was a real mess and they were not able to furl it away.

 

[KenMcCulloch]

Sounds very rewarding. I used to sail a 70' cutter-headed ketch and gybing was very entertaining, with only 1 central winch for the headsail sheets. The procedure was to put a rolling hitch on the loaded sheet, unload winch and secure sheet directly to a cleat, remove rolling hitch, then put the lazy sheet on the winch and start winding it in, once the main gybes ease the 'old' sheet off the cleat and the heads'l will come across nicely, adjust the new leeward sheet to trim the sail appropriately. The same principles apply in any fore & aft rigged boat, it just gets more complicated the more headsails you have.