First sail of the season

[capt jake]

Had wonderful time today with our friend Barry! It was a long time over due for both of us.

My stas'l worked out pretty darned good! Too much of a bother to fly it in conjunction with the lapper though. In heavier air, the stas'l worked out better than expected!!!

I will let Barry comment on the outfitting and what not. I am beat and heading to bed.

Have to work with Devlin tomorrow. Speaking of which; where to you run into your boss??? On the water of course!! "So this is why you are not working today!" Sam was bring a boat back from Seattle. I saw two boats in the distance on a direct course to intercept us. They wen't backing off and I was beginning to wonder what was up. The broke just of to port and one circled in front of us. I saw a hand wave and a familiar face pop out. It was Sam! Small world. :) I asked him why he wasn't working, he said he was; he was bringing back the boat. Again ,I asked him why he wasn't working. ;)

[capt jake]

a few more

[capt jake]

and the final ones. To of them are evidenlty too big to upload. That's strange, I never change teh settings on the camera. :?

[adla]

lOoks like tons of people made it out this weekend! Nice shots! must be nice to have Barry around - !

a.

[umop_apisdn]

Nice whisker pole! A good use of indigenous materials in your boat. ;-)

Regarding the pictures too big to upload, maybe it is the file size that is too big. JPG compression compresses some images smaller than others. Maybe those pictures weren't very compressable. I took 125 pictures at a friend's wedding this weekend, all outdoors, all with the same camera settings. File sizes varied from 1.1 megabytes up to 2.4 megabytes.

Where did you go sailing?

Noel

[Barry Pyeatt]

Yes indeedee! A wonderful Spring day to be on the water here in the South Sound. Temps in the low 70's, wind out of the North zip to about 10 at times. Most of the time very light with some patches where we got going pretty darned well for long runs.

For a first outing to try his staysail (clubfooted and furling) plus a change in his line locations a bit it all went quite well. The staysail works extremely well and is self tending. Easy to tack with and control. It is smaller than the standard jib and is attached to the eye the standard clubfoot attaches to normally. He has the clew on a traveller rod which really makes a difference in how well the self tending part of it works out.

We ran for awhile with the lapper and the staysail together. Once you get the hang of how to tune them both to work together and really watch the wind and your heading and trim it was fine. Not a particularly significant difference other than a degrading of performance in the lapper by having the staysail there. Eliminate or furl the staysail and the lapper does a better job of pulling in light to moderate air. In heavier air, the staysail worked well with the lapper furled and the staysail set. Nicely balanced and should work out well when he has a need to reef down.

Always a joy to go sailing with Capt. Jake. Fire Escape is one fine boat and it just keeps getting better as he works on refining its rigging for the conditions in South Puget Sound. We always seem to have some good light (very) to non-existant wind conditions when I go out with him so we get lots of ghosting around experience in tidal currents. Always fun and interesting. 8)

We sailed out of Zitel's Marina on the South coast west of Nisqually across the passage and up between Key Penninsula and Anderson Island to McNeil Island. Covered about 10-12 miles working upwind into a flood tide and then coming back with the flood until it shifted to ebb about 3:30 this afternoon and then the wind died. :roll:

So we were out for about 6 hours.

[capt jake]

Ya like the wisker pole eh? A redwood walking stick that now has a new use. It was a great day, and yes it is nice having Barry around.

[Guest Oyster]

To of them are evidenlty too big to upload. That's strange, I never change the settings on the camera.

Have you given any consideration on loosing any weight, or at least purchase a wide body lens?

Nice set of photos and great to see you are keeping the grass from growing up under the boat.

[capt jake]

Ya must be poking fun at my wrinkles. It's hell getting old. :shock: I was hard on myself for a good number of years as well.

[Joe(Cold Spring onHudson)]

Looking good man

[Barry Pyeatt]

I caught one of both the lapper and the staysail flying together. Tricky to get them both pulling together. Just the slightest change in trim or wind or heading and one or the other quits being efficient. Lots of hassle and constant attention needed as they are just too close together to work well. But they sure look cool.

[Steve Day]

Jake,

Always a pleasure to see those pictures showing your brightwork! That boat really looks nice!

Your experiments with the staysail and the jib are interesting. Keep working with that boat and enjoying the great sailing up there. Also, keep sending the pictures. We all enjoy them.

Steve