twinckler

The beautiful sail with window was bought through Graham, and, yes, it's a cat rig. Sails great on all points ;D, is fast, holds a fairly sizeable crew, and it's a blast.

After more than a year building it, my Spindrift 11n "Dipsea Doodle" sails with two sons and their dad demonstrating the effect of sailing it. The boat demonstrates the effect of scraping it against the dock.

It does for me and my Spindrift 11.

Thanks, guys, for the insight and advice. I now feel better about the prospects of sailing more on the edge and, if capsized, recovering to sail another day. If I can convince my wife to whip out the camera, I will post some action photos. Terry

Sure scared the bejesus out of myself this weekend when I rigged my newly finished S11N with its new sail and set out for an inaugural sail on this bay in my Alameda backyard. The boat flew across 10-15 knot breezes, but when I went for that first tack, I moved too quickly across and experienced the dreaded death roll I have heard these boats like to do. Darn near capsized it. Part of the trouble was how I rigged the traveler rope (from bolt eyes on the outside stern). The mainsheet kept hanging on the stern edges. Several times on that first sail, I shipped water as the boat tried to capsize (only on bad tacks - it took me awhile to get the hang of it, as the main sheet kept hanging on the tiller and rudder). So, to the group, I pose these questions: 1) Should I use Graham's hole-in-breasthook method of running a traveler to avoid hangups or is this just what happens with the boat? 2) If it capsizes, does anyone have experience with righting the Spindrift? Got hints? 3) Since I have the reefable sail with grommets for tack and downhaul, what's the best way to run those lines? Graham shows only the tack with its line snubbed from a jam cleat through the tack to the base plate. What about the downhaul? I have a black at the baseplate, put does the line best run through a fairlead thence through the grommet down to a tie off (strap eye) somewhere around the mast collar? Thanks, Spindrifters. Terry

WM has netting 24" high in rolls that are perfect for your use. We have a 42 foot sailboat we lived on with two toddlers for eight years. We put such netting around the entire boat, hanging it from the life lines and screwing it at intervals on the deck. Never lost a kid....