Sanity Claws; AS29 gaff NOT a health hazard
(My previous attempt to post this failed. I've been through looking
for naked ladies but alas, found none, so I assume it's my server
eating things again. Anyway, third try:)
-----------------------------------------------
There are a whole lot of conceptions and misconceptions to do with
the AS29 that I may have wittingly or unwittingly contributed to.
This
sanity check is a plain statement of my present views and their
limitations.
Sailing time in the last few months has been mainly getting to
competent with the AS29 (except for Flying Tadpole's brilliant
summer racing, vilely robbed of well-deserved placings by her now
crippling class-based handicap whereby she has to finish 10 minutes
before the race start to get any final position higher than 6th...).
I am not yet expert with the AS29 but I'm now reasonably
competent on my home waters
(http://www.ace.net.au/schooner/mlakes.htm). Note that these are
=not= open sea and definitely not ocean. Most of the
sail-training has been single-handing; quite a bit at night.
The AS29 has her quirks, mainly to do with getting the sail
balance right, but they're not overwhelming. The mizzen one plays
with frequently to get the right helm balance and get the boat
pointing properly--if wind and course are constant, it's possible
to just set and leave, but usually the course is reptilian and
the winds variable. The AS29 is still very much a fin-boarded
sharpie and the price one pays for the responsiveness at the
tiller is a desire to leave the rails and sniff the flowers in
variable wind and sea conditions.
The long boom and the huge-looking sail of the as-designed gaff
main =are= daunting at first. They're exceptionally daunting if
there are no reef pendants and nettles rigged... But I have yet
to even connect a head with the boom, let alone be knocked
overboard; and reefing turns out =not= to be an heroic operation
from whence few men returneth if the lines are all rigged and the
boat is reefed when one first thinks about it. The first reef
has to go in early (12 knots for me at present). It's not
till winter, when we get days of gentle zephyrs that don't turn into
howling sea breezes at lunchtime, that I'm able to put the whole sail
up!
In reefing, there is a problem which I've yet to solve in
persuading the boat to lie at least sort-of head to wind.
Whatever I do, she decides she's really a catboat and wants to
lie almost broad off. This is no problem with two present --one
keeps sailing her on the mizzen while the other reefs the main.
Singlehanded, the reefing gets done in stages (tack and clew,
course correction, then the nettles, course correction, then
reset the peak and go.)
My point, however, is that the whole business of reefing, and the
size of the boom/sail, turns out not to be the daunting problem
it first seems. And the feeling of exposure, perched on a
heaving deck well above the cold water, is very much reduced by
the flap and beat in the wind of my harness line, on its
catenary to a strong point or the nearest jackstay.
Compared to reefing the smaller lug of the Martha Jane, having
sailed with Graham CHeers, I find the normal gaff-rig reefing on
the AS29 as a lot quicker and simpler, despite the much bigger
sail, gaff, boom, all the rest.
My view of the standard AS29 rig is now very different from that
of my finger-chewing early days. I'd scratched my head and
thought about chinese lugs primarily for their ease of continuous
reefing on the go, mainly due to what I now realise was a blue
funk brought on by the sheer size (enormity?) of the AS29 main.
Now, with about ten miles of confined waters to get through from
marina to where the lakes open out, I really would not want to
sacrifice the spectacularly high pointing the AS29 is capable of
under the as-designed gaff rig.
I may change my mind if ever I get off the lake into the open
sea, but that's how I see it for now.
Tim & Flying Tadpole
for naked ladies but alas, found none, so I assume it's my server
eating things again. Anyway, third try:)
-----------------------------------------------
There are a whole lot of conceptions and misconceptions to do with
the AS29 that I may have wittingly or unwittingly contributed to.
This
sanity check is a plain statement of my present views and their
limitations.
Sailing time in the last few months has been mainly getting to
competent with the AS29 (except for Flying Tadpole's brilliant
summer racing, vilely robbed of well-deserved placings by her now
crippling class-based handicap whereby she has to finish 10 minutes
before the race start to get any final position higher than 6th...).
I am not yet expert with the AS29 but I'm now reasonably
competent on my home waters
(http://www.ace.net.au/schooner/mlakes.htm). Note that these are
=not= open sea and definitely not ocean. Most of the
sail-training has been single-handing; quite a bit at night.
The AS29 has her quirks, mainly to do with getting the sail
balance right, but they're not overwhelming. The mizzen one plays
with frequently to get the right helm balance and get the boat
pointing properly--if wind and course are constant, it's possible
to just set and leave, but usually the course is reptilian and
the winds variable. The AS29 is still very much a fin-boarded
sharpie and the price one pays for the responsiveness at the
tiller is a desire to leave the rails and sniff the flowers in
variable wind and sea conditions.
The long boom and the huge-looking sail of the as-designed gaff
main =are= daunting at first. They're exceptionally daunting if
there are no reef pendants and nettles rigged... But I have yet
to even connect a head with the boom, let alone be knocked
overboard; and reefing turns out =not= to be an heroic operation
from whence few men returneth if the lines are all rigged and the
boat is reefed when one first thinks about it. The first reef
has to go in early (12 knots for me at present). It's not
till winter, when we get days of gentle zephyrs that don't turn into
howling sea breezes at lunchtime, that I'm able to put the whole sail
up!
In reefing, there is a problem which I've yet to solve in
persuading the boat to lie at least sort-of head to wind.
Whatever I do, she decides she's really a catboat and wants to
lie almost broad off. This is no problem with two present --one
keeps sailing her on the mizzen while the other reefs the main.
Singlehanded, the reefing gets done in stages (tack and clew,
course correction, then the nettles, course correction, then
reset the peak and go.)
My point, however, is that the whole business of reefing, and the
size of the boom/sail, turns out not to be the daunting problem
it first seems. And the feeling of exposure, perched on a
heaving deck well above the cold water, is very much reduced by
the flap and beat in the wind of my harness line, on its
catenary to a strong point or the nearest jackstay.
Compared to reefing the smaller lug of the Martha Jane, having
sailed with Graham CHeers, I find the normal gaff-rig reefing on
the AS29 as a lot quicker and simpler, despite the much bigger
sail, gaff, boom, all the rest.
My view of the standard AS29 rig is now very different from that
of my finger-chewing early days. I'd scratched my head and
thought about chinese lugs primarily for their ease of continuous
reefing on the go, mainly due to what I now realise was a blue
funk brought on by the sheer size (enormity?) of the AS29 main.
Now, with about ten miles of confined waters to get through from
marina to where the lakes open out, I really would not want to
sacrifice the spectacularly high pointing the AS29 is capable of
under the as-designed gaff rig.
I may change my mind if ever I get off the lake into the open
sea, but that's how I see it for now.
Tim & Flying Tadpole