People talk about god speaking to them in revelations to help guide their lives.
Yesterday for me it wasn't god, but the Coast Guard. I had gone out to mix it up a little in higher wind and higher waves, for you know, practice.
If you only sail when conditions are good, how will you know what to do when conditions are bad?
In truth, the conditions weren't all that bad - I had a nice blue sky at least high variable winds, and some waves. Under the GGB I found east bound incoming wind and waves meeting a strong ebb tide and a lot of liquid chaos. Here's the point when I had developed some ambivalence, and the Coast Guard added, "Pleasure Craft should stay in port."
I decided that was meant for me and I went home.
So, a couple of questions:
1. Does a below-deck ram autopilot do a substantially better job of dealing with the back-and-forth oscillations of trying to steer down waves in a following sea?
2. How bad of an idea is trying to intentionally broach one's boat for practice? I'm a little unclear on what qualifies as a broach. I think it involves a substantial rollover so that one loses control of the rudder and maybe even puts the mast in the water. So if I had a reefed main, maybe a completely furled jib, and clipped in to the cockpit, closed up the companionway, and put her beam-to some waves, I think I could get my boat over pretty far.
Will I be putting catastrophic stress on my rigging etc? On one hand "the boat is made to do it" on the other hand, I'd feel pretty dumb if I did this and folded my mast, and was left crying for help on a VHF hand-held.
Yesterday for me it wasn't god, but the Coast Guard. I had gone out to mix it up a little in higher wind and higher waves, for you know, practice.
If you only sail when conditions are good, how will you know what to do when conditions are bad?
In truth, the conditions weren't all that bad - I had a nice blue sky at least high variable winds, and some waves. Under the GGB I found east bound incoming wind and waves meeting a strong ebb tide and a lot of liquid chaos. Here's the point when I had developed some ambivalence, and the Coast Guard added, "Pleasure Craft should stay in port."
I decided that was meant for me and I went home.
So, a couple of questions:
1. Does a below-deck ram autopilot do a substantially better job of dealing with the back-and-forth oscillations of trying to steer down waves in a following sea?
2. How bad of an idea is trying to intentionally broach one's boat for practice? I'm a little unclear on what qualifies as a broach. I think it involves a substantial rollover so that one loses control of the rudder and maybe even puts the mast in the water. So if I had a reefed main, maybe a completely furled jib, and clipped in to the cockpit, closed up the companionway, and put her beam-to some waves, I think I could get my boat over pretty far.
Will I be putting catastrophic stress on my rigging etc? On one hand "the boat is made to do it" on the other hand, I'd feel pretty dumb if I did this and folded my mast, and was left crying for help on a VHF hand-held.