Second sailing solo this time

 No pictures today folks.  I was too busy swimming or trying to stay dry.  What follows below I also posted at the Woodwork forum for Storer boat designs.  It sums up my second sail rather well.  A very interesting conversation is ensuing for those that are interested in handling the Goat Island Skiff.

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I have extensive racing experience in Blue Jays, Lasers, 420s, FJs, and recreational experience in Beverly dinghies and Beetle Cats. All marconi rigs except for the gaff Beetle Cat. I am an athletic 30yr old and weigh 150lbs.

The first time I went sailing in my GIS it was in a force 2- light breeze with my wife. The boat handled superbly.

I went sailing today for the second time in my boat, and I was by myself, and it was force 3- gentle breeze with some higher gusts. I got spanked by my GIS in ways I didnt even see coming, and Im surprised and a little humbled. I went sailing planning on a picnic as I cruised up and down the lake tweaking the rig. Instead, I went swimming.

So, as I headed out things were looking good. Its 65F (18C) and overcast, with a good breeze and slightly chopped water. I was un-reefed full sail, sitting on the rail and humming along, with a little bit of heal. A gust came up that I saw coming and I let out the sail a bit. This did not stop the boat from going over. I completely let go of the main and dumped it, but she still went over. Water poured over the gunwale, and that was it, I was in the drink and my flip-flops were floating away. That was fast. I swam around and clambered up on the daggerboard, no problems there, she came right up but obviously swamped. Balancing the boat was precarious. The nose was down, and I feared a breach in the forward compartment. I bailed her out with my 5 gallon bucket, and checked the forward compartment, it was dry.

I decided to reef. My sails are the stock Duckworks sails, with no reef points except the grommets along the luff and leach, its the full-batten idea.

In my personal opinion, the full batten idea is not conducive to reefing underway, especially with a sail this large. I was skeptical when I ordered it but decided to go with it anyways since it came with Miks recommendation and he looks so comfortable on his beautiful Beth. I found that that when situated in the bow of the boat the GIS is highly unstable due to its narrow beam in this area, and this was in only lightly chopped water. I tied off the "new" tack of the sail and then tied off the clew and re-hoisted the sail.

The full-batten sail with two reefing points cannot exert enough pressure along the boom to keep the sail folded up. Despite repeated attempts at re-tensioning the clew and tack and "new" outhauls I was not able to get enough tension along the "new" foot of the sail to keep it under the batten. As the chop increased, it became a more precarious situation to sit up in the bow fiddling with the tack. I attempted to keep the boat pointing in the wind, but with the large windage in the bow, it kept falling off the wind. A mizzen in this case would have helped immensely. Kudos to Clint and John.

Sailing a half-way reefed sail with a large pregnant foot billowing out I sailed close to shore and dropped anchor.

Dropping the rig I sat up in the bow to re-tension the new tack and clew, and found myself back in the water, as I capsized again, quite unexpectedly. As said before, the boat is unstable with no one else on board and the sole occupant up on the forward seat. This happened really quick.

I bailed the boat back out and made the tension along the reefed foot as tight as possible. As I headed back out to sail some more, the boat really moved along with the first reef. Exhilarating! However, the sail pulled back out of the batten, and I got the "pregnant" foot again. This is not conducive to pointing into the wind. At one point, I could not even tack, the boat kept falling off. I was almost forced onto some rocks, so I jibed around to remedy the situation. This was immensely frustrating, as you can imagine. Was it due to the rather flat head on the Duckworks sail?

Needless to say, I found that the GIS exhibits the following attributes:

*Difficult to de-power the sail in gusts. (is this an attribute of the balanced lug? I have zero experience with this)

*Unsteady when sole occupant is in the bow.

*The full-batten two-grommet reefing idea is either frustratingly difficult to accomplish successfully or only viable when launching reefed-- reefing underway with this fashion system is precarious at best.

*Boat has difficulty tacking through the wind when reefed.

Obviously I would like these remedied. My multi-day Maine coast trip is at risk unless I can figure these out. Im happy I didnt finish in March, or it would have been a very cold day indeed. My sail is going to get extra reef grommets immediately prior to any more sailing.

These are my first impressions of the GIS, but I would like to hear yours, or from anyone who can shed some light on this issue. The lug rig, as I understand, is a "reef early, reef often" rig, and I can attest to that. I would also like to know why I wasnt able to depower the sail to stop the capsize.



One thing I would like to emphasize:   This boat has 105 square feet of sail area.  Most boats this size have anywhere between 65-80 square feet.  This boat is overpowered, there is no doubt.  This makes it awesome in light airs, and its a necessity to reef when it gets heavy, especially when alone.  Just something to keep in mind.

Laser:          76 square feet of sail (crew of 1)
Beverly:       66 square feet of sail (crew of 1)
Walkabout:  80 square feet of sail
Mayfly16     91 square feet of sail
Beetle Cat:  100 square feet of sail (and 450lbs hull weight!)
FJ:               100 square feet of sail (crew of 2)
420:            140 square feet of sail (crew of 2)





Oh, she looks really pretty at anchor as viewed from the shore, and I continue to get "thumbs up " when driving on the highway.  

Painting Top Coat

This is a big post.  Big as in:  Holy Baloney Batman, were getting close to the end!  Goat Island Skiff, activate!

After priming my boat, I had to leave for work.  I got home 5 days later, gave it a good smoothing sand job, and then cleaned up the dust with the shop-vac blower to vacuum to rag soaked in denatured alcohol.  The denatured alcohol was a tip mentioned on the Wooden Boat Forum-- it will help soak up and evaporate any water that had absorbed into the primer as well as clean up dust.  After that, it was time for painting.

The paint was Interlux Brightside, a one part marine paint.  Its expensive, about 40 bucks or so a quart depending on where you purchase it.  I decided to use the pricey stuff as opposed to Behr Porch Paint or Rustoleum Enamel because I figured Ive spent so much money on this boat already, I might as well use good paint on the exterior as well.  Its just a bit more anyway, and it was well worth it, as you will see.

I used a roller, which left behind little bubbles, and then "tipped-off" with a bristle brush.  I would generally roll vertically and then gently tip-off with a brush horizontally.  Then I let it dry.  The instructions recommend sanding with 320 before the second coat, but I only had 220 and used that, with little ill effect.  A second coat then was applied, and the results are spectacular.  Behold, my painted boat:

Not bad!  Check out the reflection of the towel!  It looks like gel-coat!  I am the painting man, thanks to Interlux Brightside and its easy-to-apply-million-dollar-finish qualities!

Next up, the interior, and sailing.

For the super vigilant, they will notice I still do not have rudder hardware on the stern.  This is bad news, and there will be a post devoted to rudder hardware, Duckworks (awesome), and West Marine (awful evil disgusting chain store I will never frequent again).

Let me just say this, if my boat gets finished and I dont have rudder hardward and this impedes me from sailing, I am going to freak out.

Sailing time 3

Ok, back to some sailing today with my Goat Island Skiff!  I had to take a hiatus the past few days to take care of some issues, but this afternoon I picked up my sail from Withum Sailmakers, who added some grommets along the original reef points, and a third reef, which will be the new first reef, half-way from the foot to the original first reef.  See picture.

This set up came highly recommended by the sailmaker, and my buddies over at the Storer Forum thread where we are discussing the Goats handling characteristics.  This will give me more options for reefing whether I am solo, or with a crewmember.

In addition, Ive adjusted my downhaul.  Previously, I had a downhaul that also went to the forward section of the boom and this was affecting my ability to dump power when a gust hit, and this contributed to me dumping the boat in Force 3 when I was solo.  It was a frustrating day, and in so small way my downhaul had a part to play.  This is what the downhaul looks like now.  Its still not what I want, because I lack the hardware, but its better than what it was, and it the difference was noticeable. 

Now there are some problems in this picture.  I need some more tension at the tack, and you can see the first grommet of the foot is pulled tight against the plastic zip-tie.  Either I need to tie down the entire foot, or re-enforce this area.  This force was created by the extra down force on the downhaul.  This extra force on the downhaul keeps the rig from swinging forward.  Though, as you can see in this pic of my going downwind, the downhaul is not parallel with the mast, because there is still not enough force, and by the end of the sail, the boom had inched forward.  More purchasing power on the downhaul will fix this.

OH! And here she is at anchor.  Pretty!