Okay this should probably not go in the projects list but since the theory was to go test out the new sails we justified our outing as being "project related".
Sunday the 13th of August we decided the boat was sufficiently stowed to take her for a trial run upriver. It had been almost an entire year since we put sails to wind on Estrella. Apart from some theraputic small dinghy sailing I did to prevent going out of my mind, this would be the first time sailing at all in that year for us.
Kristina's father would be enjoying his first sail on a "real" sailboat. We set out from Hayden bay with a nice gentle 8 knot breeze out of the northwest. Since our course would be easterly I knew we oughtn’t to carry the mizzen. Downwind in any breeze the mizzen produces weather helm. Just the same Kristina prudently pointed out that we needed to see how the brand new mizzen sail set. As it happens the sail set brilliantly and we promptly took it down upon entering the Columbia.
Normally a boat has to head into the wind to lower its sail but I had taken an unusual risk when ordering these sails. I got them without battens. I wont go into painstaking detail about why battens exist, I will just say that they are little rigid boards of fiberglass or wood that are placed in pockets along the trailing edge of the sail. I also forewent a headboard which is a big piece of aluminum that is put in the top of the sail. The theory being that without these things to impede the sail traveling up and down the track in the mast, they could be raised, lowered or reefed with the wind behind the boat. I got to test this theory twice and found my new sails went up or down in any wind direction.
I had rigged a boom vang that I was very keen on trying out but I had foolishly misaligned the screw holes and solved the problem with rivets. If anyone out there is thinking maybe rivets will be okay for a boom vang (I'm sure most of you aren’t) I can tell you that I had the vang engaged for about 15 seconds when the rivets popped back out and we were again vangless. I am working on rigging two 4 part tackles to act as combination boom vang/preventers and will post about those another time.
This particular Sunday was a hot breezy one and consequently the river was a maze of recreational vessels. Some kind of invitational regatta was going on with a fleet of at least 20 small racing sloops. Likewise there was more than a couple cruising boats taking advantage of the lovely weather. This meant an excellent opportunity to brush up on the rules of the road. With the wind out of the northwest and the upriver course more or less easterly. This put our upriver run on a port tack broad reach. This meant we had to watch the more legally righteous racing fleet that was sailing upwind on a starboard tack. We managed to avoid collision without difficulty on the upriver run. The wind built a bit and we had a lovely run to the airport. The wind got fluky and we decided to begin our upwind downriver run homeward. We spun her around (as much as one can "spin" a 20,000 lb full keel ketch) and began the upwind leg.
Jim hadn’t much to do on the upriver leg but he was about to be introduced to sailing hard on the wind. He worked the portside jib sheet winch and Kristina worked the starboard. And with that we began to tack downriver. What a blast it was. We tacked close in on some boats and even had a few friendly conversations.
Estrella clawed upwind with the responsiveness of a 10 ton bus. We discovered that the new larger jib necessitated a new jib sheet lead position. To solve the problem temporarily we rolled in a portion of it. As it happens the wind had built just about that time. As we began to heel beyond 15 degrees I excitedly jumped at the chance to use our new traveler. Kristina released the windward traveler line and sure enough we leveled out some. At that point the wind built to a solid 25 knots. We rolled in a little more jib and I cursed myself for not getting the reefing lines rigged. I expected to hear things crashing around inside when we hit 20 degrees of heel but instead I heard only the whooshing of the water past the leeward rail. It was exhilarating, the racing fleet we had passed earlier was now doing another leg and sailing at us downwind with their spinnakers flying.
A sailing vessel on a starboard tack (with the wind coming over the starboard side of the boat) and sailing upwind has the right of way over other sailboats in most situations. However once you tack, you lose those rights. Consequently I was timing my tacks so that we would sail across the racing fleet only when we were on a starboard tack. This turned out to be a good solution even though we never even got close enough for it to matter.
As we were blasting across the now foaming Columbia River approaching the mouth of Hayden bay, I noted that we were on a fast collision course with a Cascade 42 sloop. I had however oversimplified my thinking and, being on a port tack, assumed I had no rights. I watched our relative positions closely and when we were about 100 feet from the crossing vessel he made an adjustment that allowed us to pass well aft of him. I yelled “Thanks!” at the same instant their helmsman yelled “Sorry!” and hilarity ensued.
They said “We’re in the wrong.” Looking at their sails I realized they too were on a port tack sailing downwind, which means we were in the right. So I jokingly quipped “Yeah that’s right, get outta my way!” the whole of the crew responded with a hearty “ARRR!” and thus ended a magnificent few hours of sailing.
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