My wife and I recently bought a small place on the Puget Sound and I have always wanted a small fast sailing dinghy . Being new to sailing I thought a Sunfish would be a good start . As it turned out a Super Porpoise came up for sale 6 houses down the beach from me and at $350 I could not turn it down .I even sailed it home . The hull is perfect and the deck is very sun faded so I rubbed it out and waxed it . I've only sailed it 3 times so far . The first 2 where in mild winds , Saturday the wind was moving pretty good , I would say there were 2 ft. rollers that were breaking . I ran into 2 problems , first was the hiking straps , I was wearing some kayak booties but with the freshly waxed sides and I could not get traction( the hiking straps on a Porpoise are mount to the sides of the cockpit) . I'd get the boat healed over and I would be leaning out and my feet would slide off to one side of the cock pit or the other . Did I screw up by waxing the sides of the cockpit , or is there a shoe that could be recommended that will give me traction ? The second problem was the wind itself . My first tack across the bay was awesome . I will say I was in way over my head but the speeds were epic . But when I went to turn and tack back the wind changed from a south west to a west and I stalled out . Once I figured out what happened it was almost to late , I don't know how I did not flip but it was a rush , frustration to panic and then shear speed across the bay . I fought the wind for about an hour before I gave up . It seemed to change every minute or so which made it impossible for me to get back to my place so I beached it in defeat and walked it back to my place . Is there a secret to sailing these kind of conditions or do you wait for more consistent winds ? For those of you that have sailed the south Puget Sound are the stronger wind always inconsistent or was this just weird weather ?
Thanks , Dave
Greetings!
That wonderful magazine Sailing World has a humorous feature near the back of each issue, "Ask Dr Crash". The first pass through your post I thought maybe this was the forum version of the column, but without the picture. But I'll bite.
I will almost guarantee that there is not one sailor who didn't learn the lesson about waxing the deck and especially the seating area the hard way. We have all made that mistake, hopefully just once.
There are some expensive no-skid wax products and some non-wax fiberglass cleaners, and they do sell expensive grippy shoe/hiking strap combos that you shouldn't need -- but given all your combined challenges I would say that your best bet is to find a local sailing buddy.
As long as there is any wind, shifty or not, with time in the boat (and a daggerboard) you will be able to get exactly to any destination you want. You will need to work on your 'pointing' and your tacking (right now it sounds like you are doing more 'reaching' back and forth). But you are incredibly fortunate to be on the water in a great locale, with a boat.
Looking at your profile picture, one thing right off you might want to try is adjusting the halyard on the upper spar so your sail isn't quite so high, and be sure to sit forward in cockpit. Practice tacking repeatedly every 20 seconds or so, a dozen or so tacks in a row, while keeping forward motion. Maybe make yourself a yarn telltale on coathanger wire mounted on the forward spar at eye level. Mostly, just spend as much time in the boat as you can, in all kinds of conditions.
First, see if you can get some of the wax off, and good luck.