The day before finals week is obviously the best day to go sailing. And it was a great day for sailing! My dad and I tested the Swan in the windiest conditions she's seen yet and she did quite well. I don't know if I've mentioned it in a previous post, but one slight flaw is that water sloshes in through the centerboard case when she's moving at a good clip and the centerboard is all the way down. If you raise the centerboard just a bit, the incoming water generally abates. Today we took a few waves over the gunnel to add to the water from the centerboard; nothing to worry about, just enough to keep our feet cool.
Videos from today:
Swan Sailing Big Wave I was a little concerned there was going to be a man overboard while my dad was filming this one. He was leaning back, sitting on the deck, with one hand on the camera and one hand (occasionally) around the mast. When we hit a few bigger waves, he was looking a little precarious, but he's an old salt and remained on board!
I dropped Daddy off at the beach and made some passes so he could take pictures and video. High tide allowed me to sail close to shore without scraping the bottom.
We practiced a jibe today, and experimented with tacking. The boat has a tendency to stall as the bow comes into the wind, unable to finish coming about. We tried letting the sail way out as we started to tack, which seemed to work better than pulling the tiller hard to the wrong side to steer backwards. It also helped to push the boom over as we came into the wind to force the sail to pick up wind and finish the tack.
I can already feel the wave motion in my body before even laying down. Guess I'm tired after a fun day. I have to make up for lost study time tonight, though. Biochem will be a rocking good time...
Great post! We felt like we were sailing with you. Wish we were. Boat is beautiful and looks like a fine sailer. Now back to the books!
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