Sailing the Core Sound 17

[fstauss]

I am just about ready to launch my newly built Core Sound 17. That places me at the next step....sailing the boat. I have never sailed a cat/ketch rig in the past and need all the help I can get. Listed are just some questions I have.

1. Which sail do I raise first when starting out?

2. Which sail do I lower first when sailing is over?

3. When overpowered by the wind I should let out the main first...correct?

4. Where should I be positioned when sailing single handed?

5. All my sailing will be single handed. Any advise for me on this subject?

6. Position of centerboard? How far down?

7. How tight should I make the snotter? Different for different wind conditions?

8. Rule of thumb for wind speed and reefing?

9. Can the boat be sailed with just one sail up? If so which one is best?

10. Capsizing. If it has happend to you what went wrong?

Lots and lots of questions. ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

[Tom Lathrop]

I am just about ready to launch my newly built Core Sound 17. That places me at the next step....sailing the boat. I have never sailed a cat/ketch rig in the past and need all the help I can get. Listed are just some questions I have.

1. Which sail do I raise first when starting out?

I always start with both sails up but if ou need to raise one first, it should be the mizzen.

2. Which sail do I lower first when sailing is over?

Lower the foresail (main) first.

3. When overpowered by the wind I should let out the main first...correct?

If you don't, you'll be sorry.

4. Where should I be positioned when sailing single handed?

Forward at the aft thwart position.  You will need a hiking stick to sail single.

5. All my sailing will be single handed. Any advise for me on this subject? 

Practice, practice, in different conditions.

6. Position of centerboard? How far down?

All the way until you learn to do different in different conditions.

7. How tight should I make the snotter? Different for different wind conditions?

Depends on wind and mast bend as well as position on the mast.  Tighter for beating and looser for off wind.  Its a major control and takes experience on your particular boat to get it right.

8. Rule of thumb for wind speed and reefing?

Different for each sailor.  Its your weight and your skill that determines.

9. Can the boat be sailed with just one sail up? If so which one is best? 

The boat can be sailed with either alone but not advised with the main alone.  Most people should be able to sail the boat a bit to weather with the mizzen alone and its a safe way to launch and come in to a downwind dock.

10. Capsizing. If it has happend to you what went wrong? 

Never capsized a CS or BRS but every one capsizes now and again if they push for performance too far or get careless.  These are fairly lightly rigged boats and capsizes should be rare.

Lots and lots of questions. ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ray Frechette Jr]

1. Which sail do I raise first when starting out?

2. Which sail do I lower first when sailing is over?

Both questions are related.  Any time you sail a boat with more than 1 sail you always want to raise the aft most sail first and lower it last.  The reason is that having the aft most sail up moves the center of effort to the back of the boat and weather vanes the boat into the wind.

3. When overpowered by the wind I should let out the main first...correct?

Related too.  All goes with sail balance.  Balancing the forces on the front and rear sail  equally.  If you are sailing across the wind and are overpowered and let the rear sail out the front sail has proportionately more force on it and the boat bears away from the wind.  As it bears off the sail is no longer at an angle to the wind but is now more square to the wind and consequently the forces on it become even greater.  So now you are more overpowered and that is when you go swimming.

Basically there are three things you can do when over powered,  You can ease sails,  , bear up into the wind, or hike out.  Easing the forward sail does two of these to an extent.  It reduces the force of the wind on the Main which moves the center of effort aft which tends to want to point the boat up into the wind some.

You can also use the rudder to point up into the wind, but consider your rudder a fine tuning device.  You can control your direction entirely with sail balance.  And if you really let out one sail or the other you can overwhelm the rudders ability to influence your direction.  End up just stalling the rudder so that it can no longer turn you.  If you ease the Main too much with Mizzen still in , this can occur and no matter how much rudder input you use you would not be able to point into the wind.

4. Where should I be positioned when sailing single handed?

Just aft of thwart seat , this trims boat for and aft better keeping transom form dragging in the water which slows you down.  In light airs under say 5-6 knts you want to sit on Leeward side to heel the boat over a bit which reduces wetted surface that causes drag, and helps fill the sails by gravity.  Stronger winds you will want to sit on windward side.

5. All my sailing will be single handed. Any advise for me on this subject?

Pick your days and reef early if in doubt.

6. Position of centerboard? How far down?

For now just put it all the way down until you have been out for a dozen times or so.  Ask again later.

7. How tight should I make the snotter? Different for different wind conditions?

Boy, you would learn that one a whole lot quicker sailing with someone who knows.

Here goes,  A loose snotter will allow the sail to make a fuller deeper shape which increases the power of the sail.  So in light airs you want to loosen it.  As wind speed increases you want to tighten it to flatten the sail a bit.  The more the wind, the more pressure resisting that tightening so you can in fact be putting very substantial loads on the line.

Also when you want to go to windward,  the luff of the sail is( Part near the mast) is very important to performance.  A full deep sail has that luff at a deeper angle than a flat sail.  So tightening the snotter flattens the sail and allows you to sail closer to the wind than you would with a  looser fuller sail.

8. Rule of thumb for wind speed and reefing?

Well I have been out with full sail in 20 knts of wind. The boat felt in very good control, but you do need to know what you are doing.  Things happen quickly and you can be in a world of hurt in a hurry if you make a mistake.

So early on I would recommend going out in around 6-10 mph winds only.  Up to 6 mph winds I would have full sail up.  Above that I would reef down.  Once you get more comfortable with sailing, then you can start out in reefed and shake out the reefs once under way.

As a  general rule I keep full sail up to about 15 knts unless I have full foulies on and am with someone who knows what they are doing too.  Then I will keep full sail up longer.

9. Can the boat be sailed with just one sail up? If so which one is best?

Do you have sail track and reefing points??

Or do you have a luff sleeve?  Original concept was to have luff sleeves which made reefing more fdifficult so you could reef by only deploying one mast and sail in a middle third step.

If you have track and reef points you really do want both sails up for proper balance.

10. Capsizing. If it has happend to you what went wrong?

I have never ever capsized any boat I sailed.

Now I have shipped aboard 40-50 gallons of water before and came real close to capsizing.

Take baby steps and build skills and confidence.  Learn how to use sails to steer boat and balance sail plan effectively.  Read books.  Sailing for Dummies is a great primer.  Learn how to heave too to sort things out on the boat and clear your mind ( Trim Mizzen sheet all the way in and let Main all the way loose.  Boat will sit nose to the wind and drift back at about a knt.  Even in heavy winds.) Lets you gather your thoughts, and even out the sheets so similar amounts of rope are on either end of the double ended sheets.

That is not an unimportant issue either.  You want to keep an eye on it.  You don;t want to tack the boat, get to the other side and find out you can't ease the main since there is no line to let out.  That would suck big time...

Tom got it all right on his response mind you but sometimes understanding the why to do's  helps you to follow the what to do's.

[Randy Jones]

Hi fstauss,

I was in a similar situation when I got my cs17 for about two years ago.  I made an organized effort to understand the sailing theroy and progressively build my boat handling skills.  Give youself lots of practice in moderate weather before you get caught in the heavy stuff.  Practice reefing in the driveway until the neigbhoors think you're strange. Get a handheld marine radio and consider a sailing dry suit if you're on cold water.  I hope you enjoy the process as much as I did.   

[fstauss]

Thanks all for the good advise. I used it all yesterday when I sailed the boat. The winds where I sail were a steady 10-12 mph with gusts higher. I reefed. The boat handled well. Quick and fast even with a reef. I'm very happy. The heaving to advise was great. I did it several times to collect thoughts or fix and adjust something. I found that I played much more with the main than I did with the mizzen. I basically just set the mizzen and did not mess with it unless a large gust hit the boat. This was probably wrong but I will figure it out. I will be off to the MASCF in St. Michaels MD next week where hopefully there will be a few other Core Sounds and their skippers.

Once again thanks for all the help, it was greatly appreciated.

[Gordy Hill]

Yah, Ok,  That's nice... Where are the pictures???

I used to pretty much ignore the mizzen as well. I'd check it occasionally, but most of my attention was on the lower tell tails on the luff of the main.

For those of us with limited skills I've found that a tighter, flatter sail in the wrong conditions is much more forgiving than a looser sail in it's 'wrong' conditions. I'd start out with a rather tight downhaul and snotter. If it was wrong  the boat would still sail and either the wind would increase or I'd have plenty of opportunity to tweak.

[Ray Frechette Jr]

Playing the main is what keeps you out of trouble.

It also provides most of the drive of the boat too so as a general rule trim the Main for optimum speed and so all telltales fly nicely,  then adjust the Mizzen after.  When heading upwind,  sheeting in the mizzen so you need to pull the tiller a few degrees over to the weather deck in order to maintain a straight course causes the angle of attack of the water over the rudder to cause lift to windward  and that helps you maintain a higher course over ground with less leeway slippage.

[Tom Lathrop]

Ray,

Your last sentence could take up a few chapters to discuss.  Some angle of leeway is absolutely necessary in symmetrical foils to resist side force from the sails.  The most efficient way to develop the required amount of lift is always debatable and is different for different boats, and skippers techniques.

What you suggest is to have a bit of weather helm and that is a good thing.  It gives the skipper a feel that is helpful in steering to windward properly.  Whether it theoretically results in a higher course made good is the debatable issue.  Never been settled to my knowledge.