Lasers weather the storm.
Sorry about not putting up this stuff before. Maybe a month or so ago we had a little storm
that got everyone in our little fleet in some kind of trouble. Not serious, but suggests this review of what
you might do.
1
Safety position and for you old folks, that is
boat across the wind, boom out at 90 degrees and luffing, center board all the
way down. Boat not moving and you can
drop the tiller and think about what to do next.
.2
Turn the boat over and sit on the high side
balancing things so that upper mast is about half in the water. You won’t drift very fast and easy to sit
out a little thunder storm. When the
wind moderates, right the boat and sail home.
. 3
If it is a broad reach or a run back to your shore,
you can let the sail out in front of the boat and let it luff while quietly
going home. With standard length sheet
you need to take the knot out of the end of the sheet, let the end go through
the ratchet block and it will make recovery easier if you tie a knot in the end
of the sheet before it goes through the boom block. Do this knot stuff from the
safety position.. If wind moderates
before you reach shore and you change your mind, you can turn quickly into the
wind and recover the sheet at the boom block, trim and get going again.
. 4
If you need to go up wind, take the vang off. You may need to undo it completely so that
the boom can rise and then go up wind close reaching. With the boom up the top half of the sail can
luff and you sail on the bottom half. An
old friend of mine called that the “fisherman’s reef”.
.5
You can use the one above to get to shore if it is a
reach.
. 6
If you sail to shore and it is not where you want
to go, unplug the mast stuff, lengthen the out haul, turn the mast a few
times to roll up some sail. If you take the top batten out you can roll
put quite a bit of sail. Pug the boom
back in and adjust the outhaul.
. 7
If it is a hot day, turn the boat over and play
around in the water till the storm is over.
