Hi Sailors!
The Sailing Weekly Roundup brings you the latest in sailing news, trends, gear, events, and training. Every week we’ll send a curated list and analysis by Teresa and Ben Carey. Instead of sifting through a ton of articles and videos each day – let us do the work for you.
Editorial:
My first job aboard a sailboat was in Maine, as mess mate (aka “dishwasher”) on the schooner Lewis R. French. She is 65’ on deck, 98’ overall and carries six sails on her two masts. The captain ran the boat with a crew of 4, and being at the bottom of the hierarchy meant that I also got a prime bunk in the often crowded galley.
As a small crew, we had to recruit help from eager passengers. In particular, the crew helped with setting sails, hoisting the anchor, and maneuvers such as tacking or gybing. Everything was manual, and since the boat was gaff-rigged, mains’l felt heavy. We often left the mains’l up at night to ease the burden on our small crew.
One of the benefits of a schooner rig is the position of the mains’l. It is so far aft that it acts as a weathervane, keeping the bow pointed into the breeze while not providing any forward propulsion. This sweet feature also facilitates sailing onto the anchor. We would sail into an anchorage with all the sails set nearly every time. The routine went like this: first drop the heads’ls and scandalize the fores’l, then round up and drop the hook. Finally, back the fores’l to get some stern-way and stretch the chain — all without ever starting the engine or lowering the mains’l.
I knew that sailing into a crowded anchorage under full sail at 7kts was a little bit of a show, but the frequency with which we sailed onto the anchor led me to believe that was just the way things were done.
Fast forward to the present day. We teach coastal & offshore sailing, and of course, we cover anchoring. We primarily anchor under power and reverse on the anchor to set it. But on every trip, we try to anchor under sail a few times to demonstrate the possibilities and technique. With a sloop rig, by backing the mains’l you can get enough sternway to set the anchor. It is possible, effective, and fun!
I encourage you to try it and practice it, because someday you might need to depend on it. Perhaps you’ll find it as amusing as we do and make it standard practice aboard your boat.
~ Ben
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Now for the best of the web...
News:
Mary E back at Bath museum after capsizing, investigation ongoing
The Coast Guard and Maine Maritime Museum haven't determined what caused the historic schooner to capsize Friday with 18 people on board.National Sailing Hall of Fame Announces 2021 Inductees
The National Sailing Hall of Fame (NSHOF) announced today eleven sailors comprising its 11th class of inductees.These 5 technologies are helping save our ocean
NOAA’s tech partnerships are working to solve big problems. Cutting-edge technologies help us dive deeper, gather more ocean data and solve some of its biggest challenges.
Educational / How-To’s:
The Vented Loop Remote Drain
As simple as vented loops are, they do occasionally fail with the most common scenario being external leaking of water.
The full version of this Weekly roundup contains 24 more useful and worthy links. Subscribe for the full version.