Barry is to sailboats what I am to airplanes, a life long enthusiast who can make a reasonable claim at being pretty close to an expert. Sailboats are not airplanes though, and after a couple of days with Barry on board it is clear I am a new-be still. We were headed down wind. Barry allowed as putting up the whisker pole would be a good idea, asked me to keep the jib flogging a little, walked forward and rigged it up. Done. (Last time I tried that I came near to getting skewered and put the pole away for another day.) I paid attention and managed the next deployment with a lot less risk to cabin top, mast, pole and me.
We flew the big reacher. I thought we had been doing a pretty good job of trimming the thing. Except, well, we had the blocks about two feet too far forward. Also, turns out they call it a reacher for a reason. Hard to wind we really need to put on a different head sail. I did try to impress Barry with how well Kintala will point with the cutter rig up. He might have been more impressed had I realized we were hanking on the wrong sail and running the sheets inside the stays wouldn't work. Oops. But hey, I did learn that, when the wind picks up, we can roll up the head sail, fly the bigger sail on the inner forestay, stand the boat up a little and still go hull speed. (I keep telling myself I would have figured that out...eventually.) I also learned that it is quite possible to furl the head sail going upwind as well as down, and doing it that way is a good idea if downwind points one right at the nearby shore. (I was planning on rolling up the sail really, really fast!) And guess what; keeping the sheet tight, back winding the sail just a bit, and popping the clutch will drop a stay sail right on the foredeck. No fuss, no muss.
About the only thing I did do right all weekend was to get on and off the pump out dock. Of course then I botched the approach onto the pier and had to make a second run at it. Good thing they write me checks for driving airplanes, not boats.
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