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So, today was my day (long-ish)

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
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Initially Posted - 05/07/2012 : 23:40:22

I've been determined to single hand SL for some time now, and seemed to get stymied somehow each time I tried. Well not any more.

Rita wasn't feeling well today (allergies are kicking her butt this year), but it was one of the nicest days yet this year, seemed a shame to waste it. I had a few errands to run beforehand, so I didn't get down to the boat till about 2pm or so. One of the first things I noticed as I got the boat ready to sail is that Rita takes care of a bunch of little things whenever we go out. Things like taking the covers off the instruments, changing out the chip on the GPS & switching it from "Automotive" to "Marine", turning on the various instruments, etc.

I was concerned about how I was just going to get out of the slip. Generally it's the two of us, she'll cast off the lines and help to fend off of the C-27 parked next to us as I back the boat out. That wasn't going to work today, so, taking inspiration from a former dockmate, I hooked up my auto pilot, set the rudder to a slight port turn to help hook the boat around the end of the slip, and then just walked the boat back while maneuvering it with the shrouds. Easier than I thought, and I may continue to use this method even when Rita's with me. Seem like less drama, and you end up parallel to the fairway, instead of trying to jockey around to get that way. Anyway, I was soon on my way.

This was the first time I've actually used my auto pilot, so there was a bit of a learning curve. I noticed that it wasn't particularly good at holding a course if I was moving around on the boat. This confused me for quite some time, but I finally figured out why on my way back in. I think you could classify the auto pilot's states as "keep the rudder at this angle", "follow this magnetic course", or "follow whatever the GPS tells you to do". I was using the first one (I think), so whatever the rudder angle was, that's what it'd keep, no matter the course. As I moved my bulk around the boat, it changed the amount of wetted surface, causing more lift on one side, and more drag on the other (the side my butt was on). I actually learned to control the boat by shifting my weight alone. Merely leaning forward or back while sitting in the stern was enough to influence the course by quite a bit over time. And if I went forward to take down sails or whatever, I could turn the boat by 90 degrees pretty easily, again over time. So now I need to read the manual for using the second option, "follow this magnetic course". I think it's as simple as pushing the "Auto" button, but I'm not sure, and by the time I'd figured out what was going on (I think), I was nearly back to my marina.

I jumped ahead a bit there, because there actually was some sailing that took place. Again using the auto pilot, I got the main up with a bit of drama. I think I really need to get some Sail Kote onto my track. The new slides from Sail Care don't, at least not very well. They tend to stick and I ended up having to crank the sail up with the winch, same thing when I took the sail down, I had to pull it down instead of it largely falling on it's own like it used to. Raising the jib was problematic as well. First the halyard managed to catch itself behind my radar reflector, so back up to the foredeck I went to free it. Then the last two hanks got stuck on the swage and I had to go forward again to clear that. That one's a relatively easy fix, I think a large-ish zip tie will keep the hanks from dropping down over the swage, and I just have to remember to make sure the halyard is free of the radar reflector before I go out. Not too hard.

Once the sails were up, I was off. I got up to around 5 knots a couple of times, but most of the day was around 3-4 knots. Still a lot of fun. Almost no other sailboats out today. I saw one fairly close that was motor sailing back into the bay, and another all the way across the bay, and no one else. There was lots of commercial traffic today, several container ships, a grain ship (that ended up with an oil boom all the way around it for some reason), a big barge with a derrick of some sort on it, plus your usual ferries, tour boats, etc. I dodged between the grain carrier and a ferry so I could get back south toward Alki Beach where the water's too shallow for any of them and headed pretty much west. Of course, this is when the wind died down. At first I was doing over 5 knots on this tack, but soon dropped to zero. I sat there for about 20 minutes hoping the wind would pick up, but it didn't, so I decided to head back in. It was almost high tide anyway, and I wanted to try to hit my marina right at about slack water to minimize any drama getting back into my slip. Once I cleared Duwamish Head (after adding it to FourSquare on my way out, I'll be the mayor soon), the wind picked back up and I was able to sail for the next 20 minutes or so till I got in the wind shadow of West Seattle.

Here's a couple of guys who were hanging out on the marker:

Once again relying on the not so reliable auto pilot, I went forward to drop the sails, but had to run back 2-3 times to adjust my course (still hadn't figured out why yet). But it was accomplished with a minimum of drama.

On the way back in, I got sandwiched between the derrick barge and an incoming container ship, so I was sweating that for a bit, but the container ship was actually headed further east and not up the Duwamish like me, so I was able to simply follow the derrick barge (at some distance) up the river.

Getting close to the marina, I got all my fenders arranged, lifeline dropped and mid-ship's cleat line readied. We usually take a slow circle in the holding pool south of our marina before heading in, but I didn't feel the need. The engine was being very cooperative, I idled down to about 1 knot and headed north into the fairway. There was still a bit of a current running, but not much. I bumped the Tohatsu in and out of gear to slow me to about half a knot, and shut the engine off just before I cleared the end of the dock. Slid right in, I don't think our fenders even touched our neighbors (we're only 18" apart or so), stepped lightly down onto the dock and tied off my mid ship's cleat. Easy-peasey, a complete no drama landing.

I celebrated with a beer, buttoned up the boat and headed home.

It was a great day, plus I learned quite a few things. It was also a confidence builder. I always used to worry that I couldn't sail this boat on my own, now I know I can. I think I could even do it without the auto pilot, I'd just arrange bungies to do roughly the same thing.

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - delliottg on 05/07/2012 23:57:27

pfduffy
Captain

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USA
317 Posts

Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 05:22:26

The first year I owned my boat I single handed without a furler. The addition of a CDI furler was life changing.

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DaveR
Master Marine Consultant

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2015 Posts

Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 05:53:30

I'm sure furlers are great but there's something to be said about having a well oiled routine where you can get the hanked on's down or up without an all out panic. You KNOW you're in control of your boat. I used to do it with a tiller-tamer in a current staying between the channel markers. Or when conditions were bad I'd drop the hook just out of the channel.

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dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 05:59:23

Excellent, David! Way to go!

If you are like me, you've just stepped onto that slippery slope that is singlehanded sailing which for me is what I live for. As you learned quite well, singlehanding forces one to figure out the best and most efficient ways to do things, such as your new departing routine. As to your autopilot, do you have an Autohelm? If so, it primarily has two settings, Auto and Standby. Auto will follow a course (magnetic or GPS). Standby just turns it off keeping the ramrod at it's last setting. When I go to standby underway, it's because I'm disengaging the autopilot to steer manually, like when I tack.

Again, congrats. There's no turning back now!

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JimGo
Admiral

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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 06:42:47

VERY nice! Congratulations! It's a great feeling, isn't it?

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redeye
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 06:56:52

Yepper .. I single hand all the time and for a long time. Tiller tamer rocks. I tighten the topping lift and let out the mainsheet to depower the boat before dropping/raising the main.

Like they say.. keep doing it and you will have it down to an art. be very careful.. I'd say the most important thing is to slow down and try to relax.

Damaged my end ring finger joint coming in.. don't even know how..

Sail up into the lee of an island, drop the sails and the anchors with ease is such a cool thing...

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Joe Diver
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 07:01:09

Congrats!! Opens a whole new set of sailing opportunities for you.

I single 90% of the time...in fact, I've only had pax on board maybe a half dozen times. I made sure the boat I chose was rigged for single handing as I didn't want to have to depend on others to go sailing.

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dmpilc
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 08:07:42

Well done! It definitely feels good and gives one a sense of accomplishment to have sailed a boat that size solo.
For me, sailing our C22 solo a lot helped me when we moved up to the C25. The controls are almost identical; mainly a difference in momentum. I sailed her several times solo and even raced her once in a Wed. Nite race by myself, mainly because nobody was available to crew and I didn't want to sit it out. Granted, it was also a very light air day.
Since we don't have a furler, when I am ready to lower the jib/genoa, I pull the lazy sheet back to the cockpit between the mast and the shrouds, on the windward side, right before I head into the wind and release the halyard. That helps to keep the headsail centered on the foredeck and it almost flakes itself as it comes down. Then I go forward and wrap the lazy sheet around the sail to secure it. Next, I come back to the cockpit, start the motor, and drop the main securing it with one sail tie. After I'm in the slip, I put the sails away properly.
Instead of tying up the jib with the sheet, there's one guy at our marina who crimped a bungee cord to the base of the bow pulpit. When we drop he sail, like between races, we can secure it quickly with the bungee. I may add that to my boat.

Edited by - dmpilc on 05/08/2012 08:20:54

Prospector
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 08:45:49

Sounds like a great Sail David!

I often go out alone since SWMBO just isn't into sailing that much. The trouble with becoming a proficient SH sailor is that you get to where you don't want crew - and then you guests feel ignored. I need to work on my inner control freak and get him to settle down.

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Joe Diver
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 08:58:04

I'm so used to single handing....I like it when I have crew! A few quick lessons on looking for the wind, directions on pulling sheets/halyards....and I can take a break and enjoy the ride. I find people really enjoy taking the helm. After the first hour or so of sailing, I let my guests take over as much as they want and are comfortable with.

Edited by - Joe Diver on 05/08/2012 08:58:48

JohnP
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 09:56:21

With our 25 foot long boats we have the luxury of easily sailing single-handed or else inviting 2, or 3 or more crew along.

A fellow at my marina owns a fantastic Oyster 52 blue water sloop, but since his wife's become unable to sail with him, the boat has no particular value at all! Our boats are more adaptable, for sure!

Congrats on your solo sailing, Captain!

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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4479 Posts

Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 10:27:04

Thanks guys. I'm not sure why I let single handing SL loom on me like it did. I nearly always singled handed my previous two boats, having crew was extremely rare (except my golden retriever on my catamaran, but never could teach him to handle a line, although I did teach him where to move on a tack so he wouldn't be laying on my sheets).

Don,
I've got a Raymarine ST1000+ Tiller Pilot, so I think the controls are very similar if not exact to yours. I just need to re-read the manual. I almost assuredly had it in "Standby", and I know I never put it into "Auto". It just kept the rudder position I last set, and never made any course changes. For the experience yesterday that was sufficient, but obviously changes could be made for the better if I used the auto setting. I have the quick use card that came with it inside our 3-ring binder of manuals and stuff on board, I just didn't bother to pull it out (I should have). Next time.

I need to come up with a way to get my sail track sprayed down with Sail Kote. I don't recall spraying it when the mast was down, but I'm positive I cleaned the track because I had some burrs I had to Dremel down from our mast raising apparatus abrading it. I wonder if I could rig a spraying mechanism on a stick, something similar to Randy's latest invention, the retrieve-o-matic? I don't have a bosun's chair, and its extremely unlikely I'd get Rita to go up in it anyway, she has a fear of heights.

I think on the forestay swage, I'm simply going to tie a Turk's head around it with a larger OD than the ID of the bottom hanks. That should prevent that problem and look kind of salty at the same time. Better than a zip tie, which would be the easy, expeditious fix.

First thing Rita asked me this morning? "Are you going sailing again today?". Hah, I hurt in a million places from yesterday (OK, fifty thousand), but I told her that if she wanted to go sailing, we could go. No answer yet. Fortunately I was able to sit in our Jacuzzi last night for a spell and marvel at an incredibly clear sky full of stars, so the aches are more general now. Getting old and out of shape really sucks.

Edited by - on

awetmore
Master Marine Consultant

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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 10:57:13

David:

It sounds like a nice day, you certainly had great weather for it.

For cleaning out the sail track, what about tying a sail slug onto the halyard, adding a traveler line, and putting a small piece of foam or rag saturated with Sailkote in the slot above the slug. You'd probably need another slug above it, tied to the traveler, to get the foam back out as well. That should do a decent job of pulling most of the grit out, and get the track lubricated at the same time.

My first time single handing the boat was on Sunday. I didn't find it too hard except for the few minutes bobbing around while I hoisted and dropped the sails. I've recently run most of my control lines aft, which helped. A downhaul on the jib would make it easier to drop quickly from the cockpit, that is something that I might add. Roller furling is on the evaluate later list, I'm just not up for spending $1500-$2000 right now on a Harken 00AL kit and a new jib.

alex

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TakeFive
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 11:54:25

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 ...I need to come up with a way to get my sail track sprayed down with Sail Kote. I don't recall spraying it when the mast was down, but I'm positive I cleaned the track because I had some burrs I had to Dremel down from our mast raising apparatus abrading it. I wonder if I could rig a spraying mechanism on a stick, something similar to Randy's latest invention, the retrieve-o-matic? I don't have a bosun's chair, and its extremely unlikely I'd get Rita to go up in it anyway, she has a fear of heights...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Why not just spray the slugs while they're bunched up at the bottom of the track?

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 12:58:13

I've already considered just spraying the lugs, which should help, but I'm liking Alex's idea as well. I know I can get the spray into the lower 8' or so of track by standing on my tippy-toes, but I'd still like to get some lube into the upper 20+ feet as well. I never had to use my winch to get the sails up before, but the new lugs from Sail Care are probably close to twice as long as my original slugs so there's more drag. They're much heftier slugs than before, so I don't think I'll have the same blow out problem as I did with the smaller ones. I also have some extra of the smaller ones, so I can use those as the shuttle to lube the track with using Alex's idea.

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islander
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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 13:34:19

Sounds like you had a good day but I think you had better tell Rita how horrible it was without her and keep it under your hat. I think its the larger slugs that are giving you the problem. Lubing the track should help. Do they have the rocker on them?

Edited by - islander on 05/08/2012 13:40:22

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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Response Posted - 05/08/2012 : 13:38:57

Hah, in her last text to me after I'd texted her I was back safe in the slip was: "So the trick is for you to sail alone. HaHa!"

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dlucier
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Response Posted - 05/09/2012 : 06:57:02

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 Don,

I've got a Raymarine ST1000+ Tiller Pilot, so I think the controls are very similar if not exact to yours...I almost assuredly had it in "Standby", and I know I never put it into "Auto".<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yes, I have the same one. This model does have some fancy features, but I basically just use the standard auto. Just put the autopilot on the pin, press "Auto", then sit back and giggle. From there, you can easily make course adjustments using the +/- 1/10 buttons. If you want five degrees of adjustment, press the either of the 1 buttons five times in the direction you want. When you want to disengage, press Standby and lift the tiller off the pin.

While you were in Standby, the autopilot was just acting like a tiller tamer, holding the tiller in a fixed position, which as you quickly found out, just doesn't cut it. I did the tiller tamer thing, and sometimes still do on occasion, but an autopilot is in a whole different league. Kind of like going from hank on jibs to roller furling.

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TCurran
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Response Posted - 05/09/2012 : 09:20:57

Dave,
Nice job on the sail, picture, and the story. Sounds like you had a good time, which is what sailing is meant to be.

A auto-tiller came with both of my boats, one of with is the Raymarine ST1000...Don is right, pick a course, set the sails, hit auto, sit back and smile (and maybe pop a cold one).

As far as the main track, and old salt here taught me to cut a few pieces of wax from an old candle, place one in between the first few slugs, and every time you raise and lower the sail, the track gets waxed. Depending how much you use the main, it doesn't take too long to feel a difference. Plus you don't have to lower your mast.

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smshield28
Deckhand

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Response Posted - 05/09/2012 : 10:02:40

cut a few pieces of wax from an old candle

Brilliant!! Love that. Thanks.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 05/09/2012 : 10:09:36

Tom,
I like that idea, it seems like a longer term solution than Sail Kote. Seems like it'd be easy to mix up a combination of hard waxes then cut a block to fit the track. I have carnauba, paraffin, and bee's waxes I use on my woodworking projects. Melting them together is easy, then just need a mold that's similar in size to the track. You'd want it to be slightly oversized. The first time you ran it up the track it'd be formed by the extrusion and remain until it wore out.

I've also been noodling on Alex's suggestion with a friend of mine and we've come up with the idea of a shuttle made up with two sail slugs joined by seizing wire threaded through a dense sponge (think worm on a hook). Attach the halyard to the top, and a messenger line to the bottom, soak the sponge with Sail Kote, run the shuttle to the top with the halyard, then back down with the messenger. You could use a scrubby sponge if you wanted to clean the track.

Edited by - on

JimGo
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Response Posted - 05/09/2012 : 10:39:32

David,
How about something like this for the mold?
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60146194/

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TCurran
Admiral

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Response Posted - 05/09/2012 : 11:07:52

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 Tom,
I like that idea, it seems like a longer term solution than Sail Kote. Seems like it'd be easy to mix up a combination of hard waxes then cut a block to fit the track. I have carnauba, paraffin, and bee's waxes I use on my woodworking projects. Melting them together is easy, then just need a mold that's similar in size to the track. You'd want it to be slightly oversized. The first time you ran it up the track it'd be formed by the extrusion and remain until it wore out.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Ours just fits at the opening in the mast where you feed the slugs into the mast and rides on top of the slugs, not in the ~1/2" opening. As the slugs go up and down it pushes the wax against the aft edge of the mast. Every once in a while, when the wax is new, it sticks a little on the way up, but ussually not a real problem.

But if you come up with a mold and produce a few, I'd be happy to pay for a couple and test them out before you patent them.

Edited by - TCurran on 05/09/2012 11:13:00

CarbonSink62
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Response Posted - 05/09/2012 : 12:47:24

Congrats on your latest accomplishment, David.

I settled on the C-25 as being large enough to cruise for a week (maybe longer) but small enough to single hand easily. I'll need a few trips with crew before I'm ready to go it alone (I launch in 2 days) but I'm very much looking forward to it.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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Response Posted - 05/27/2012 : 21:33:31

So, a bit of an update. We took SL out yesterday and took some of the things I learned from my time out alone. I sprayed SailKote on the slugs and as far up the track as I could reach. Huge difference. I was able to raise the main all the way up the mast w/o the winch. I guess I'll shelve my idea for a wax track follower, at least for the time being. Likewise I made sure the jib halyard was clear of the radar reflector before we headed out, and simply lifted the last two hanks off of the swage, which seemed to work just fine. Not a perfect solution because you have to remember to do it, because the hanks were down on the swage again.

Rita decided she wanted to take a nap in the cabin since she'd been up very early to watch the F1 qualifying rounds. While down there, she was reading on her iPhone and the inevitable happened, she started feeling sea sick. She came back out on deck with some ginger gum and a handy trash bag. I immediately put her on the tiller and gave her a course to hold. I find if you've got something to do, the pukey feeling tends to go away quickly, and it did. Pretty soon she was having fun driving the boat. The wind had been pretty steady all day, but started clocking around as we sailed south past Duwamish Head. Then the wind started picking up to around 12 knots apparent (as measured on my Kestrel). And continued to clock around, making it a bit harrowing for her as we tried to weather vane to drop our sails. I showed her how to heave to and how calm the boat got when we did. We got the sails down with little drama and headed in.

We spent probably 3/4 of the day with the auto-pilot engaged. As pointed out, setting it to "auto" allowed it to hold a course. The only question I ran into was one time while using the tack feature, it ran all the way in and hit the stop. It cycled a few times as it had before, but started beeping at me. I didn't know what the beeping meant, and forget to look it up. I've got the manual online so I need to do that. I noticed as the wind picked up it had a harder and harder time keeping us on course when the wind was just off our nose and we were on the engine (not sailing).

As we came in, since the wind had clocked around to nearly directly south, that meant it was blowing down the fairway, and the tide was on it's way in, which meant I was being blown off course down river by the wind, and upriver by the current. Joy. I made my turn when I thought I should, which turned out to be too late. I was able to goose the nose into the slip, but the stern was being pushed downriver past the end. A quick burst and hard right rudder pushed me back around mostly and I was able to step down on the dock with the midship's line. It wasn't pretty, and we exercised our fenders a bit, but really, very little drama and we were tied up.

All in all it was a pretty good day, Rita has commented several times today how much fun she had while driving, and seems motivated to read "The Complete Sailor" again. But maybe she's just humoring me on my birthday...

Edited by - on

TakeFive
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Response Posted - 05/27/2012 : 22:04:12

David,

Good summary!

My autopilot would not keep a reliable course for the first year I had the boat, and I decided to thoroughly study the manual last year and put my mind to understanding and tuning it for different conditions. I came to the conclusion that you need to be able to adjust the rudder gain on the fly. Too high a gain and your course will have slowly growing oscillations - leave it on one course for ~30 minutes and you'll see whether this is happening. Too low a gain and your boat will not respond sufficiently to disturbances, causing you to drift off course without oscillations. You'll also have difficulty auto-tacking with gain too low.

My ST-4000+ wheel pilot may be a little different than your tiller pilot, but what I did was to go though "dealer setup," which allowed me to set multiple displays to cycle through by pressing the "disp" button. (There's also a key combination that will bring this display up, but I always forget it.) I added the gain setting as one of the displays, and when I put it on screen the +1 and -1 button will increase/decrease the gain. So I can change it based on conditions. On my Raymarine system, I used dealer setup to set "3" as the default gain (out of a range of 1 to 9), and will increase it if conditions dictate. Turning the autopilot off always restores the default value from dealer setup.

Under dealer setup, there is also a setting for AutoTrim, which based in its description seems to be the "integral" component for a PI controller design.

With all of this work, I can finally use the autopilot to keep a bearing reliably under sail and/or motor, and today was the first time I've been able to use auto-tack successfully. It worked well enough that I could easily single-hand and manage the genoa sheets if I ever wanted to.

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