Now we go down to the boat at 5:00 pm. I used to arrive at the launch and 3:00 pm. I would take my sweet time rigging, and we put the boat in about 4:30. Even though rigging is much easier with a hinged mast, it still takes time. (Plus I like to fuss over every pin, line and knot.)
Now we bend on the main and go. It is a little tight getting out of our berthing area, but it's quick. When we launched from the trailer, I would leave the boat in the water overnight and then go pick it up in the morning--Cost 25 bucks for launch and overnight space. Total cost for the dock for four months: 80 bucks!
We are especially enjoying the furling Genoa from Schurr sails. It took some dinking around to get the tension right on the shrouds and forestay (wire inside sail)* but totally worth it. The only sacrifice is that you can't use it partially deployed. It's out or it's in. Last night we started out at 1830 with 16 knots steady and much bigger gusts. All we used was a reefed main. By 2030 it was a drifter, but we hadn't rigged the spinnaker.
Mostly this year we have had the bad luck of rain on race nights--not the finest Pacific Northwest summer, but we were spoiled last year when it was sunny from May straight through to September.
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| The Genoa is easy to deploy. |
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| Easy to stow. |
*My advice: Have them make the wire inside the sail an inch or two shorter than your forestay and make up the difference with a longer shackle--it would save a lot of time getting the mast rake correct.
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