Hey all,
New to sailing, bought my first boat- a Capri 14.2 (1996). It has a hobie bob on it for anti-turtling and I have been reading forums here and anywhere I can find on tips and such but I still have a few questions.
I've set up a MinnKota 30 for getting in and off the ramp. Since I'm new, I don't trust my ability at all at this point for getting in and out of the water without this assistance. But this leads to two questions. Is the weight of a 27M battery and the motor itself too much dead weight affecting handling? That is, should I stow this up under the hatch while once I get away from the ramp? And two, is the motor in the water affecting handling under sail? I've capsized a LOT and finding it hard to believe it's all me. I have noticed it's helpful to raise the rudder when motoring. If the motor 'shoots' at the rudder you'll think you've entered a swirling vortex of doom. Physics in action...
So about that capsizing: The first time out on Saturday had the family with me and we weren't doing great but starting to get a feel for it when a regatta going on suddenly came toward us. I had not seen the buoy for their outer turn on my end of the lake. Usually they are further away from where we were currently practicing. Anyway, I made a quick turn and we got out of the way pretty fast and the next thing I know over we went. Quite a shock for the wife and teenage daughter and sucked the fun right out of it for them. No big deal we got righted headed home. But I was determined to figure things out and decided to go out to a different lake on Sunday with more room. Bigger water, choppier waves, more wind... less than ideal to be sure but I saw other boats and made a go of it. I turned it over 6 times and spent over an hour IN the water at one point, too exhausted to get back in boat. Twice I went over without the sails even up. WHAT in the world is going on? I'm not exactly discouraged; I expect a learning curve but what can I do to shorten that up.
Specific questions:
New to sailing, bought my first boat- a Capri 14.2 (1996). It has a hobie bob on it for anti-turtling and I have been reading forums here and anywhere I can find on tips and such but I still have a few questions.
I've set up a MinnKota 30 for getting in and off the ramp. Since I'm new, I don't trust my ability at all at this point for getting in and out of the water without this assistance. But this leads to two questions. Is the weight of a 27M battery and the motor itself too much dead weight affecting handling? That is, should I stow this up under the hatch while once I get away from the ramp? And two, is the motor in the water affecting handling under sail? I've capsized a LOT and finding it hard to believe it's all me. I have noticed it's helpful to raise the rudder when motoring. If the motor 'shoots' at the rudder you'll think you've entered a swirling vortex of doom. Physics in action...
So about that capsizing: The first time out on Saturday had the family with me and we weren't doing great but starting to get a feel for it when a regatta going on suddenly came toward us. I had not seen the buoy for their outer turn on my end of the lake. Usually they are further away from where we were currently practicing. Anyway, I made a quick turn and we got out of the way pretty fast and the next thing I know over we went. Quite a shock for the wife and teenage daughter and sucked the fun right out of it for them. No big deal we got righted headed home. But I was determined to figure things out and decided to go out to a different lake on Sunday with more room. Bigger water, choppier waves, more wind... less than ideal to be sure but I saw other boats and made a go of it. I turned it over 6 times and spent over an hour IN the water at one point, too exhausted to get back in boat. Twice I went over without the sails even up. WHAT in the world is going on? I'm not exactly discouraged; I expect a learning curve but what can I do to shorten that up.
Specific questions:
- How can I find out what the wind actually was YESTERDAY? I know what the forecast said but want to compare that to actual. Resources anyone??
- How much wind is too much wind for newb?
- Is there a hand-held economical 'wind-o-meter' that is reliable/useful?
- I have a rope ladder for assistance getting back in but the real trouble spot is not having good hand pulls inside the boat to get up over the edge. Anyone have a method that works? I really don't want to go the route of affixing a hard ladder to the back if I can help it.