Birdseye
Well-known member
I wonder why boats which sail fast to windward offend the sensibilities of some. Yet few raise an eyebrow at the sight of a bilge keeler out in a shallow harbour; both boats are simply doing what they are designed to do.
There are many people, neither retired nor gentlemen of leisure, who love sailing but find it hard to get away for more than a w/e plus Friday. Thousands of Solent sailors fit this category. Faced with a SW prevailing wind, any trip in a direction from St Vaast to Dartmoth usually requires a chunk of close hauled sailing; just exiting the Western Solent requires windward work.
Like the bilge keeler these sailors naturally gravitate towards boats designed to fulfil this function, they may for example choose an Xc45 over say a Southerly. Some of them spend a good bit of money on sails, others scrounge the discards in Cowes. Many will possess sail select chart like North’s “Sailect” and have the necessary gear to handily switch multiple headsails.
These folk are not unaware that as the waves build it becomes progressively more comfortable to sail off the wind and that is always wet on deck above 20kts TWS. And of course one must be careful moving around down below in a bumpy sea.
Most of these people are perfectly happy to sail like this for one day; they can look forward to the sleigh ride home the next! And it’s not only the fast boats; each summer w/e all sorts of UK vessels tip up in Alderney, having bashed into headwinds all the way. Most wear big smiles on their faces. I’ve no idea why it winds some peeps up so much.
What on earth has this disussion got to do with bilge keelers? And it seems to me that the only person to get wound up here is you. Well maybe not the only one since Dan seems a bit excised.
That you are happy to spend 24 hours or so bashing to windward on the (easy) trip from the solent to france suggests to me that you are a younger sailor. I wouldnt be surprised if you had come to yachting in the last 10 years or so. Excellent - I remember well the days when I was relativley new to sailing and young enough to ignore the discomfort. But now I have gained wisdom. I dont pee into the wind. I reef rather than sail on my ear. I use the autohelm rather than spend boring hours holding the wheel. And I dont sail to windward on a long trip if waiting a day or so will give me a nice beam reach.
Maybe I have become a gentleman!