The last ride may be the best!

[JeffM]

My uncle is here from Minnesota for his high school reunion (maybe 60th?) and asked for a ride--I didn't need persuading. He was a Sunfish sailor like myself (his home-built of plywood long ago) until he gave it to his daughter a few years ago. Beatrice Ann was today sporting her name on the transom in vinyl lettering, a compass recycled from my old Sunfish, and a sturdy handle on the aft deck to help me get aboard using the transom step. The keel I'd chewed up on rocky beaches was all patched up. Forecast couldn't make up its mind between 5kts and 5-10kt, but reality finally settled on 10-15kt. So I didn't get to show off the mizzen staysl, but we did get the fastest ride yet. We reefed at the ramp, but I quickly discovered I hadn't rolled the sail tightly: it stretched and bagged terribly and we had poor handling and made little progress. When the wind seemed to slacken a bit, I shook out the reef (got to learn to do that gracefully!) and we took off. We were 2 adults and 3 children, maybe 600lb total. We headed out of Oakland Beach, looped around Patience Island, headed for home on a broad reach with following rollers. We sailed a measured 2 nautical miles in only 13 minutes, for an average of 8kt! It was fun, but I almost needed both hands on the tiller to maintain course surfing down the rollers. My stalwart uncle got very wet; I joked that I'd try to put more water under the hull than over it. I wish I'd taken pictures, but we were much too busy!

[Designer]

It sounds like you had a great ride. I am curious about your comment on the need for two hands on the tiller. Did you have the rudder blade all of the way down? When you extend the line of the rudder cheeks down past the rudder blade, does the leading edge of the blade pass by the line extension by at least 1"? I have never had a heavy helm on that boat.

[JeffM]

Graham, that was my first experience with helm problems (of half-a-dozen or so trips). We were surfing obliquely down waves on a broad reach and a run, and the boat was slewing first one way then the other. It was this instability that had me a little concerned. I took a straight edge to the cheeks: no, my leading edge is only a half-inch ahead of them. Sounds like a need for winter mods.

[Brent]

Jeff,

I also find that the helm can be balanced by trimming the sails. If the mizzen is over trimmed ( to close the the boat centerline) the boat will want to head into the wind, if mizzen is undertrimmed the boat will bear off the wind. Either could manifest as pressure on the helm, especially noticeable as the wind builds.

In fact it is possible to balance the boat out in light conditions so that the helm is completely neutral, allowing me to take a hand off the rudder for brief periods to attend to other concerns.

This is in addition to having the rudder position set up for best balance as Graham mentions.

[JeffM]

Thanks, Brent. Although helm balance was not my main problem, I would find it very useful to get her to self-steer some. I bungeed the tiller on a close reach in light winds on one of my first trips and was able to putter about the boat for nearly 10 minutes before she went much off course. I haven't been able to repeat that, though--maybe it was a chance coincidence of conditions, sail trim, cb position, etc. I would like to be able to single-hand conveniently, but find myself often turning over the tiller to my son for everything from taking photos, to studying the chart, to putting up the staysl.