I left yesterday in perfect conditions for Newtown, the Isle of Wight. As the conditions were so favourable, I spent most of my time ‘noodling’ about on my own, trying to get the gist of how best to handle things singlehanded.
Sailing alone is hard. It’s also harder when the boat is not really setup for it. My main track is on the cabin roof, the winches don’t self tail, needing to jammed on what seems the wrong side (in terms of ease), and hanking on sails (as opposed to just rolling them out on roller reefing systems) when the wind is up, and you’re running backwards and forwards from the tiller trying to keep nose onto the wind is a pain in the ass. Even things like the fact I don’t have a lazy-jack mainsail bag, mean dropping the sail is every bit that: Dropping it on the deck and having it howl around with a life of its own.
But back to my Newtown trip. I sailed over and into the river succesfully, and tried to lay anchor for the first time. I came in at dead on low-water, meaning I needed to figure out how much chain to lay, keeping in mind the now rising tide. It’s the little things that get you, like forgetting to work out how much chain you actually have. Well, I know now, and I’ll also endeavour to make metre-marks on the chain so I know how much I’m paying out. I’ve always been nervous about the theory of anchoring - To me, it just seems impossible that the anchor will actually dig into the seabed properly. As such, I woke up reguarly during the night to check the boats nearest me for movement: My nightmare was the anchor letting go, me hitting a boat downwind, and having the opportunity to test my 3rd party insurance.
I work up this morning to a howling wind. I don’t have a wind speed indicator, but I would guestimate 25-30knots, maybe gusting more. I thought my smallest headsail and a reef would do, but I came out of Newtown and nearly (ok, it felt like it) inverted the boat. Struggling to keep the nose into the wind, I put another reef in, and tried again: Not as bad, but still way too much heel. The contents of my ‘house’ found its way onto the lee side of the cabin… In the end, I dropped the damned mainsail altogether, and of course spent way too long trying to tie it down. Everything takes so long to do by yourself. I kept creeping towards the Newtown gravel bank, which I naturally wanted to avoid. I didn’t fancy grounding at the minute, and motored well away to keep flailing about with my sail.
In the end I was getting 8kts of speed over the ground, around 2kts of it was tide, yet I only had my smallest foresail on. As I came closer into the ‘precautionary area’ of the Solent, I began to worry. I navigated into Newtown with the chart in my hand, but today it was just too difficult. The seas were choppy, and the tiller needed constant attention. Yesterday I had been playing about by laying hove-to, and I wished I could do it again and just work out what I was doing. I couldn’t though, having only the headsail up and no main to counter it. I went into a mild panic, crossing the big ships channel, and getting closer to another hazard: A large sandbank in the middle of what seems like a very big piece of water. I decided to turn around under motor, and to drop the foresail and work things out. This is the bit where I wished I had roller reefing. Nose into the wind, the bow breaking into waves, I sat down and pulled the headsail down, while getting almost entirely submerged into oncoming waves.
Eventually it was all down, and I motored back on course, and continued on. The lifeboat RIB on its way to Cowes came past and asked if I was ok - I must have looked like drowned rat, the mainsail tacked on and flapping about enough to catch their attention!
The moral of this particular story is, sailing a boat that is not setup to be sailed by one person is hard.
But fun!
nick.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Hey Nick,
I’ve been learning to singlehand myself, but don’t envy you the lack of gear. I hope you are on the look out for a used furler, tiller pilot, and self tailing winches? You can make it without any of them, but I wouldn’t want to get caught in big weather without them. Then again, maybe I am just soft? The tiller pilot alone might make the biggest difference freeing you up to work the deck.
Lee
July 17th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Hi again, Nick.
As an old single-hander myself, I appreciate your struggles. I agree with Lee about the tiller pilot. At least get some bungie cords you can rig.
As far as the lazy jacks, they are easy to rig for almost no money and are well worth the effort.
Rig downhauls for both the main and foresail. You can attach a small block at the base of the mast and the forestay and have a light line that can be clipped to the head of each sail. You can point up a little bit and haul each sail down to the deck quite quickly. A couple of bungies will secure the foresail just inside your lifeline stansions and your lazy jacks will take care of the main until you get it tied down to the boom.
(run the downhauls - and as many other lines as you can - to the cockpit if you can.)
If you can’t afford self tailing winches, check out the rubber “tailers” they sell that snap on the upper flange. They’re not as good, but I’ve been told they’re better than nothing.
You’re doing exactly the right thing. Get to know yourself and your boat as well as possible BEFORE you go.
Good luck to you.
Jim
July 18th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Hi Nick
Really pleased to read about you being out on the water at last - it took a long time to get there and the learning curve is steep but you’re doing really well.
David
July 19th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Thanks all for the comments - Lee, I’m trying to work out some kind of self-steering, whether it be a tiller pilot, or a windvane. It’s a real hassle not being free to work on deck, and something I desperately need to sort out.
Jim, good ideas on the downhaul and the rubber tailers. I really need to do something about sail management on deck, because when the wind picks up, any wind caught in the sails becomes really difficult to handle on your own, especially when the boat is careering around on it’s own course without any self-steering.
Thanks David! It has taken a while, but I’m so glad to be out there.
July 20th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Hey Nick,
I’ve been asking around about the Winchers and they’ve been getting pretty good reviews. Considerably cheaper than new self tailers.
http://www.boats4sale.co.nz/wincher.htm
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35055
Lee
July 27th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Have you thought of using the inverted duvet cover technique on the headsail? Make a hole reinforced by a cringle on the botton of each sail bag and throuugh this feed a rope 5ft long with a stopper knot each side. When the jib comes down, with the sail bag inside-out, tie a knot around the belly of the sail with the hanks still attached. Push the leech onto the bag and then undo the hanks. The sail bag should now fold over and your luff/hanks will always be at the top of the bag for quick deployment.
For the main I use Swedish lashing instead of sail ties. Much faster and more control, again re-deployment easy with just one pull.
August 1st, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Tudor,
Can you explain what “Swedish lashing” is? I’ve never heard of it, and can’t find any reference to it on the web –it sounds like an interesting and efficient way to control the doused main.
Also –what’s your opinion of a downhaul for the jib? I like the idea of being able to release the jib halyard and pull the jib down with a downhaul from the cockpit –on the other hand, doing it from the cockpit instead of at the mast means you can’t control the jib as it comes down (it might blow overboard, etc.). Plus, the idea of having to thread the downhaul through the hanks with each sail change seems a bit of a pain. Just my impression –curious to know your thoughts on the utility/ease of use of a downhaul for the jib.