Friday, October 23, 2009

A Lifes Work - S/V Restless

Bob Kingsland spent 28 years building Restless, a 50 foot 40,000 lb steel sailboat. One of his his college aged daughters, who was not alive when he started the project, helped put pictures from the build on a website, S/V Restless. I like boats, and I love sailing, but this boat is more than just a sailboat, it's a life's work. The boat, the workmanship, the quality, is astounding. His philosophy for the build was, "One of my primary objectives was to see something that made me smile every place my eye came to rest. As a result, not a square corner exists anywhere in the boat, neither in the metal work nor woodwork." It's no surprise he has a degree in anthropology because this boat will outlast him by a decade, and says more about the builder than it says about design or utility.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Last Sail of 2009

Well, it's that time of year for us Yankee sailors. You can see the posts on any sailing message board. They usually involve a short sweet sail, some reflections on the season and the impending sailing hiatus. Well, this is not that kind of post because my last sail was not that kind of outing.

After two weeks of wet cold weather in MN, forecasts were calling for a sunny 60 degree day with 10-20mph wind for Sunday. I had considered sailing last week in 35 degrees and snow (with 15mph wind) because I figured it would be the last chance to get out on the water this year. I'm glad I waited for this weekend.

I got to the ramp and rigged without incident. There were a lot of fishermen out on the water, but not many sailboats. I paid my $15 and got the boat wet. While motoring I rigged up my cajun tiller tamer (line wrapped around the tiller a few times). I motored South, directly into the wind, weaving my way through the fishing boats while the whitecaps crashed against the bow, sporadically sending spray back into the cockpit. It was time to raise sails, so I tensioned the tamer, but it wasn't holding well, which was going to make life hard. I tried a couple extra wraps, which helped, but didn't want to hold as well as it used to. I raised the main. My sail doesn't have reef points, so I reef it by wrapping it around the boom. I had reefed it back on shore, but given the wind, I decided to twist it around another turn. I pressed down on the halyard clutch lever and hurried back to the tiller. The halyard slipped a bit, they're too weathered to hold in the clutch in heavy wind, a problem that will be remedied next spring with all new running rigging. So I went forward and cleated off the halyard instead of using the clutch.

It was time to raise the 110 jib (my smallest headsail). I moved forward again and started raising it, got most of it up, but a hank got caught on the thicker portion of forestay where the turnbuckle attaches. Sh*t, I'll have to go forward. Sh*t, I have to go aft quickly first, or I'm gonna gybe. My tiller must be too wild for my tamer today. Then it's up onto the foredeck to free the fouled hank, and back into the cockpit to raise the jib the rest of the way. I got it all the way up, but the sail was flogging loudly. I looked at the sheet, and the jib downhaul was wrapped around it, sh*t. My jib downhaul is short, just enough to cleat it off when the jib is up so that there isn't a bunch of extra line cluttering the deck/cockpit. I got the jib sheet tensioned, unfortunately I rigged the boat wrong and the sheet was caught around the wires for my masthead light and they were trying to rip my through-deck wiring socket out of the deck. Ok tiller tamer, you're in charge again. I got everything routed correctly, with minimal damage to the socket. Back to the cockpit quickly, since were veering off course again.

Ok, main is up and halyard secured. Jib is up and the sheet is routed correctly. Jib downhaul is still flailing in the wind. Well, that's not really a critical item. I tacked back and forth a few times. The wind was strong, two other sailboats were out. One was heavily reefed, the other only had a 130 jib up. Eventually I was going to need to bring the jib down, which would involve going forward to either pull it down, or to get the downhaul rigged again. The downhaul was still attached to the halyard, but it had pulled out of the block at the bow and was just flapping in the wind. So I got as far from a lee shore as I could, which wasn't very far since I was sailing in a river. I hove to, went forward, and re-rigged the downhaul. Back to the cockpit.

The rest of the sail was good, 2-4 foot whitecaps, a few other sailboats found there way out of their slips, and the fishermen headed back to shore. I worked my way to windward. I'm sure I sailed about 12-16 miles, but only made about 3 miles to windward. I dropped the main and sailed downwind with just the jib. Got back to the dock, pulled the boat and went home. I had a rough start, but a good end to my last sail in 2009.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Book Review: Return To The Sea

After reading Webb Chiles' A Single Wave I was left wondering why he sank his last boat Resurgam. Return To The Sea was his latest book, following A Single Wave, and I thought it might have an explanation as to why he sank Resurgam, unfortunately it did not. Return To The Sea records the completion of his fourth circumnavigation. Chiles is growing old, he admits living much longer than he had expected. He doesn't seem to be in search of challenge and adventure like he used to be. Instead heading out to the open sea is like returning to the comfort of home for him. While I really liked A Single Wave, Return To The Sea was a bit dull. He does make some interesting observations about life and different cultures. It wasn't a bad book, but I felt a little let down after no explanation was given for his intentional sinking of Resurgram.