Hoist the Jeff!

Sailing on Akyla sometimes feels like sailing with a really high-maintenance girl—and I don’t mean because I’m on the boat. For any given race, we’ve got upwards of ten different sails, the sheets to fly them, spare sheets, a bowsprit and a spinnaker pole, after guys, two masthead halyards, two jib halyards, a short spin halyard, running backstays, and an autopilot. Our bowman, Jeff, often finds himself sitting in a macrame of lines running from the bow to the cockpit (we can potentially leave the dock with jib sheets, spin sheets, code 0 sheets, after guys, and the code 0 furling lines wreaking havoc on the deck). Not to mention having to deal with the main halyard, main sheet, backstay, vang, cunningham (jib and main), and the outhaul. One of the greatest challenges with all that stuff has been not just sailing the shortest, fastest course as well as we can, but deciding exactly which of that stuff to use—and then trying to use it well.
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1 Comment February 19, 2012