It was a HOT bloody HOT day last Friday I needed to take a J24 out for a practice sail as part of my training for OCSC. I choose this day to do half of it. The Lady Z was off and #2 son was visiting. I could use them as a crew. The J24’s are not really single handed friendly. It could be done but man o man what a hassle!
We arrived at the docks around 10:00. I got my paperwork needed for check out along with Some PDF’s for the crew. I showed the crew the club house an the view from upstairs. The Lady Z was impressed with the setup, the Art, and the pictures. Sugoii ( incredible) was her word.
We head to the dock and I have at it on rigging the boat. Most of it went well, it took me about 45 min to 1 hour to get things right and checked. I had some problems raising the sail. One of the dock crew helped a bit, but It was still not going easy. Another instructor saw my dilemma and came over and gave me some advice. That was really helpful, as I said these guys are great!
Finally we were set and headed out. On my first sail for the Club we had way too much wind. Today was the complete opposite barley any wind. I think it was about 5-7 knots. Pitiful, the j24 just ghosted along. Lady Z remarked, before this type of wind was perfect for her to be out sailing in, now she said it is disappointing. However she did like being out here in this part of the Bay the views were good.
We drifted for the most part back n forth for about 1 hour. The J24 did move along even under the light wind, not much but some. I do not think s/v Zen would have moved at all under those wind conditions nor would have one of there bigger boats. Speaking of Bigger boats, I still need to do my check out on a larger boat for the club. That should not be a problem, however the docking space there is very tight! one needs to really be on the JOB when handling those boats. As a side not, they now have in the fleet a 30 something foot Cat. I want to get a ride on that one day.
After a while I turned and headed back to the marina. After going through the standard put away items, before and after docking. We did the high five and headed back home. That is after we stopped in Oakland over at Ginza for Japanese food. Our favorite, Japanese cheap price place to eat. We got there with just enough time to eat before they closed @ 3:00 for the afternoon, until dinner. It was a good ending to a pleasant, but HOT day in/on/around the Bay.
