Final got arounbd to hoisting the sail.
Picked up a sock for it too.
Was out on the water from Brighton about 745 this morning to try and beat the breeze.
Approx. 10knts.
Sailed out past the beacon and then came about.
Put the Jib away and rigged for the Assy.
Hoist:
Mucking about trying to get the tack on is a bit of a problem but doable due to its position on the anchor roller.
Hook up the sock and hoist.
I ran the halyard around a winch and led it forward so I could hoist the sock from the deck.
Worked okay but had to 'sweat' the mast and then gather the slack from the winch as too much friction just to use the winch.
I had tied the bottom of the sock off on the life lines and left a lot of slack in the sheets.
Connected sheets and then raised sock – this worked okay except for a small tangle inside the sock.
Once sock was raised back to the cockpit and trim.
Everything seemed to work okay but it just felt like it took too long.
Sailing:
I was a little disappointed in the performance.
I did not see an increase in speed that I was after.
The luff kept curling even when I attempted different angles.
Meant to take a photo but couldn't get the sail into the frame.
I also had to go clear the lazy sheet which went under the bow and cleaned our hull!
Gybe:
The method of gybing I used was to centre the main so I could concentrate on the Assy.
When the boat came through the wind release the sheets and let the Assy go forward and then use the old lazy sheet (now the active sheet) and trim.
The problems I had were that the sheets dragged in the water and I could not get the Assy to float fwd.
I eventually managed it but not without having to go fwd and manhandle the sheets from the water. Maybe 12mm sheets are too heavy?
During this process the new lazy sheet went under the bow again and this time got hooked on the rudder.
Dowsing:
The line I rigged to blow the tack did not work. The shackle became reorientated 180 and therefore not a straight pull.
The Assy blew back onto the spreaders making it difficult to get the sock down.
There is a design fault on the sock which caused the sock not to be released in its entirety.
After a bit of pulling and prodding I finally got the sock down and then released the halyard from the cockpit and stuffed the Assy down into the cabin.
Observations:
When the sock worked it worked well.
There is a fault at the head of the sock and as this sock has all lines routed externally to the sock (most have a separate pocket) it is messy.
I'm not sure that the sock is worth the effort.
I need to check if the sheets are too heavy.
The most important thing was that:
I got to see dolphins!What a great way to start a day.
