Allegria
Today we took out Allegria, a 27′ Hunter boat, crewed by myself, brother Glenn (see below entry), and brother Scott. I’m a novice, and I’ve taken out boats over 20ft in length six times now. They have, between them, been out once on such a boat. Perhaps this should have served as a warning.
Winds were excellent - a remarkably steady 10-15kts, and probably the strongest I’ve sailed in yet. Allegria, it turns out, is a water ballast boat, with - if I’m not mistaken - a daggerboard style removable keel (this is nice if you want to put the boat on a trailer, which I don’t). By comparison, Catalina makes a wing keel (lead, Pb, heavy keel) and water ballast model. The wing keel weighs in at approx 1,000 lbs more than the water ballast. Right, on to the point…
Kurt, the dockmaster, tells me before we go out: “If this boat starts to head up on you, just let it head up, or let out the main and drop some wind. If you don’t…” The ellipses tell me that doom awaits those who fail to head up or spill wind.
We motor out and put up the sails. It’s a little tight in that area of the “creek” (bay off of the main channel), and so I have to loop around a little to get the bow pointed into the wind in order to hoist the sails. We hoist the main, and get ready to pull out the roller-furling jib (this is a nice feature of certain boats where the jib winds up around the forestay rather than clumping up on the deck). The boat turns and catches the wind. Grabbing the tiller, I try to compensate and point it back up into the wind, but it’s pointless - we’re heeling over gradually as the mainsail - full of wind - fights me and heels: 20, 30, 45 degrees. At this point, I accept that I have capsized the boat. (Who pays for that, then…?)
We’ve gotten good wind on the lake before and heeled a bit, which was fun. This, however, is not fun. This is bloody frightening! I’m freaking cussing! Kurt’s words run through my brain and I grab for the main sheet, snapping it out of the cam lock and letting it loose. The main sail swings out, spilling its wind, our boat still spinning in the water as it buoys back upright. Disaster averted. Deep breath. Many of them.
Once we figure out how to cut the engine (the kill switch was cleverly located where noone would accidentally hit it, or find it), we get the jib out properly and take off into the main channel at a respectable clip. This could be a good day after all.
Allegria didn’t turn out to be so bad after all. We did have about two more terrifying brushes with keeling over. This boat sits pretty high, and when you’re heeling at over 45 degrees, maybe it feels a bit worse than it actually is. Maybe. With such good wind, we were able to run down to Joe’s dock in good time - about an hour and a half.
Along the way I learned a great technique on such a boat - keep one hand on the tiller, the other hand on the main sheet. When you feel the boat tilting a bit far, unlock the cam and spill some wind. You can even keep it unlocked and trim it as needed.
Reaching our destination - mission accomplished! - we rolled up the jib and I solo’d with the main sail and tiller while Glenn and Scott jumped overboard for a swim. A couple lazy loops and they were ready to get back in, tired of treading water in the coolish water. They caught up with the boat and climbed the ladder. We headed back to the dock - upwind, and a mile or two away. This put our tacking skills to task, as well as the aforementioned two-handed technique (the sailing one), and we made it almost to the three islands before time constraints forced us to drop the sails and motor the rest of the way in. Glenn and Scott took the helm so I could photodocument.
This has probably been the single most educational trip of my sailing career. It’s the third kind of boat I’ve sailed this year, and its tendency to get squirrely under the wind taught me some valuable lessons about dealing with good windy days and a wet noodle for a keel. We got into some pretty scary situations. Thanks to my crew for being of sound mind and working well under pressure. Scott actually mentioned how great it would be to go on a sailing vacation. Yeah buddy!
Next weekend: My First Regatta.