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Novice21

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Oh dear...

I will expose the full extent of my ignorance in the hope that someone may be able to help.

But first, an annecdote:

A couple of summers ago I went wind-surfing with the kids. All I did was fall off, climb on, fall off. Asked the 'instructor' what I was doing wrong (leaning to far/standing in the wrong place/??) His answer was 'you keep falling off.' This I knew. Today's boating was about as successfull, I am hopng for better advice though!

The annoying thing is, 5 years ago I went on 4 weekends school sailing and HWMBO was there for 3 of those, while we both did our comp crew and generally fell in love with sailing. At that time I had a basic understanding of wind and sail and how they related, and what to do about it. Or I thought I did, maybe it was an illusion.

We went out today and I don't know what HWMBO's excuse is, but my brain froze. We weren't even able to be sure just where the wind was! (No such posh technology as crow's feet on Maestro). We attempted to tack (probably) down the river, this was fairly successfull in one direction, but when we tacked the only place we could get wind in the sail was at 180 degree angle to the first tack, with the result that we just sort of sailed across the river, back and forth, without getting anywhere. Why?? What were we doing?? Am I too stupid to ever get out of the Roach?? I should be feeling chuffed that we sailed rather than motoring, but I'm just feeling daft and fed up.

Other boats were managing it, we must have given them a chuckle /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Help? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
For a first time sail you got the sails up.... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif


Magnificent!
What an achievement.

The technical bits will all fall into place shortly...

along with help from the sailing guys on here.


My first mobo trip was just as scary. the boat decided where it wanted to go and after a few panic changes of course i got to learn about prop walk......


It only gets better from here.....and possibly more expensive....its what we do.....
 
A couple of things spring to mind:

1- In flat water I'd suspect that you didn't have a centreboard completely down and were therefore making a lot of leeway, however,

2- You were sailing on a tidal river - what was the water doing? With a current of a couple of knots your ability to fill the sails is somewhat limited, so you might not have been as 'bad' as you suggest.
 
Chrissy,

First of all just tie a long thin strip of cloth on one of your shrouds, that will give you a good idea of where the wind is coming from.

The tide comes through the Roach at a good knot and a half and the river is pretty narrow so if you were into a light wind against the tide then there is a good chance you could go nowhere fast. There were a couple of RSA races at paglesham last year where nobody could sail up to the line for the start.

Next time you go why dont you get one of the RSA people on board. I don't think Heather or Richard have functioning boats at the moment. I am sure they would love to go out on Maestro.
 
Aww, thank you for your nice comments. I have had a glass of wine now and chilled. I should have mentioned, for balance, that I saw my first genuine seal, and we picked up the buoy first time when we went back /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

You (pl) are right, we got the sail up and sailed: excellent.
I too had thought about tying something somewhere to indicate wind, I will certainly do that.
I need to understand better the tide as it affects our sailing, I will work on that.
I probably need to be a bit pro-active about getting help on board. I tend to feel guilty for depriving someone of a weekend's real sailing!
 
Well personally I think anyone actually getting on a boat and getting the sails up for the first time and then returning in one piece and actually picking up the buoy first time around (or even at all) deserves a "star of the week" badge! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Hello charlesd /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The traveller is fixed except we haven't put the block back in place, we are just usung the stoppy things.

One baby step at a time...

Have you been out on wakatere?
 
If you have sticky-out ears, like mine, one of the best ways of determining where the wind is is to revolve your head until you can feel the wind equally on both ears, whether from in front or behind. Then you can work out the best angle of attack. You may have been pinching the boat by hardening in the sails too much to get it moving at the beginning of the tack and then drifting off the wind due to lack of steerage. With practice and experimentation you will find out what is best for Maestro.

Having said all that when I was up the Roach in Jessie I noticed I was doing some pretty inefficient tacks, over the ground, particularly as I approached the big bend going downstream, so there may be some quirks of the current in that area which mean that although you are pointing well enough the boat is carried on a strange track in relation to the banks.

Why worry? You are sailing, water chuckling under the bow, birds in their heaven, seals to watch.... fantastic!

Michael
 
Well if Saturday's wind on the Roach/Crouch was anything like it was on the Blackwater then it was out to get you. Sailing along in light wind from E then SE - near Osea the wind went home for a cuppa tea - nothing - 0 on the wind thing. Driftng along and suddenly 15knots from SW. That all settled down to a nice 10knots SW so up to Heybridge, gybe round ("that was a nice turn" she said /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif) back to Marconi and picked up a buoy for a tea stop. Sailed off the buoy, the wind came up - 8.6 knots SOG all the way to Bradwell. Very nice.

Sorry to Master Tinkles who was disconcerted by me heading straight for him as he came the other way /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
Hi
I saw you in the Roach between Wade & Roach bouys.
With your permission I'd like to make a few suggestions,. You are of course, free to tell me to p... off & mind my own business /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
1/ Folkboats dont usually like sailing under main only. If you have to use 1 sail the jib is better, but 2 sails best.
2/ More slack in the topping lift, it should be completely unloaded and flappy.
3/ A bit more tension in the luff will help to give some shape to the sail. Crude rule of thumb, winch it up until you get a vertical crease up the luff, then slacken it very slightly.
4/ Let the boat have her head until she gets moving, don't try to make her go where she wont. Try to keep a bit of speed on and everything gets much easier.
5/ Most important thing. Keep trying different things and have fun.
6/ Be suspicious of people like me giving unsolicited advice.
 
Aha! That all sounds good, and your advice is far from unsolicited, and very welcome! I feel that now might be the time to confess that we forgot to let the topping lift go at all...! It did pop into my mind at some point in the day, then popped out again /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif.

We have lots of tips to try out now (no sticky out ears though!), shame we have to go to work tomorow, i'd rather get out and have another go /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
Sounds like you had a ball !!. I remember a couple of years ago tackng back and forth across the Crouch against the tide, making just under 180 deg tacks and making no headway over the land at all as a result of the tide. What I suggest is take the advice given above, go out and try it again, and get the sails up again, and have fun ..... again. Its the old saying, there is no such thing as wasting time when you are messing about on a boat /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif .............. or whatever the saying is.
 
The wind was really peculiar - all over the place in direction and strength. You did really well not to hit anything!

In future, only bother tacking against the wind when the tide is with you in the Roach - it is so narrow that by the time you've got established on one tack and begun to speed up, it's time to tack again. (Just look at the tide tables to work out whether the tide will be with you in the river or against - it's as simple as that.) We've often taken twenty minutes to overtake a buoy, against wind and tide! The advantage of the Roach is that it winds so much there is always some part of it that you can sail and make progress in.

Well done - you need experience - you got some experience, you didn't hit anything, it was sunny!
 
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