Advice to Newbs - Lessons learned from first sail

I had the same problem with the PFD catching the boom. I switched it out for one of the form fitting ones the skiiers use. It fits like a thick wet suit. Minimal buoyancy, but it'll float you long enough to get back on the boat. And it doesn't have anything sticking out to catch on anything.
 
Turns out my PFD isn't a sailing one, but a kayaking one. I found it on the Extrasport website. It's a Riptide, which they say is for kayaking.

I bought it with the boat, guy sold it to me for $30. Seemed good considering it's $125 new.

riptide.f_sm.jpg


It looks similar to their sailing ones, such as the Eddy (below).

eddy.f_sm.jpg



Maybe I just need to snug it down more. It looks like the torso is cut really low on the one I have, which allows it to ride up. Looks like the sailing one fits closer to the armpits to prevent it from coming up.

I also have a waterskiing vest, it's pretty bulky but the back is flat and smooth. Maybe I'll try that.
 
Just a heads up to people, but I noticed yesterday that my bowlines in the end of my control lines had come undone by the end of the day. I think it's just that the rope is so slippery and skinny.

I've gone with double bowlines on these lines now and I'm thinking that should be secure enough. For lines under tension such as the outhaul or cunningham lines in the rigging I don't think it's a concern. It's just when they're not tensioned that they have problems.

I also put a double bowline in the vang line where it connects to the becket since that was working lose (it had a knot I'm not familiar with in it).
 

Nearly my first sail, as I have about eight hours on the Laser on a puddle here in the desert, half of which had my kids at the helm. We made a short tiller so one could sit on the stern deck and steer, I was in the cockpit, and another on the bow in front of the mast. So I saw a high wind forecast yesterday and went out with just my 11 year old sitting on the bow. We'd already had some low speed capsizes on light wind days so I was not too worried. But yesterday gusts hit 20 mph, according to the onsite marina. We had no problem upwind, as I could cautiously start to luff using either the rudder or letting the sheet out if things got too exciting. I quickly began to understand much of what I had read about sailing. I did hit nirvana when moderately heeling and hiking, but pivoting at the hips to keep it all together, like doing slalom on a skateboard. But hold cow downwind was rock and roll and we dumped in twice with some violence. Once we could not get the boat back up as the sail was like an upside down parachute full of water, so I reached in and sheeted it in to spill it out, but as we got it up had to let the sheet out right away to keep it up, and when I righted the boat I got it nose to windward before trying to get in.

Back on the dock, when I saw another guy hustling downwind I realized I should have completely released the vang, which is not possible on the old rigging once the boom is way out there. Luckily, we had spent a lot of those first 8 hours practicing tight quarters maneouvres, where I eventually learned that if you breeze closely along the dock on a broad reach, the sheet will catch the cleat every time. For some reason my mainsheet was very short, had no knot, and it pulled through the first time it hit the dock and left us there, but the second time it whipped through the dock cleat so fast it wrapped tight around itself and we went from 5 mph to zero pretty quick. I told the kids that's how to use a tailhook to make a proper landing, just like apparently out-of-control planes do at sea. That's why, in a devastating (to us) wind, I knew just enough to make a beeline for the dock and perform a horrendously inefficient tack just before colliding. My son reached out during our perfect stall and grabbed the dock cleat. I swore I could hear applause but when I looked up there was no one there.

I now know why I need to know how to depower the sail, and that the hiking strap is not just a mini hammock.
 

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