A quickie…sail

Sunny, light winds 5-10 knots. It was questionable if it was worth going out. The deciding factor was the tide, since it was coming in that meant we could get out of the side channel into the main channel with out running into the rocks… Hopefully.

Finally after two days of prep everything was set for a sail. The ZenCat had not been moved since I first docked in the new slip. I have lost track when that was but at least 6-8 months ago. It has been all about setting up the living space up until now .

 

It took about 30 – 45 min to get everything in place to sail. Part of that had to do with getting the portside rudder down, it has been sticking since I purchased the boat. This is something I need to take care of before going out next time. Lucky I think the new slip has a place I can turn the boat around and access the rudder from the dock.

Anyway after lubing and pushing, pulling, pushing the rudder I was able to get it into the water enough to steer. We shoved off slowly as not to hit the boat behind us. Unfortunately the water was still a little low and I gave too much room to the other boat and ended up scrapping the port centerboard on the rocks. I need to get in the dinghy and put a marker there were the rocks start and the deep water ends.

It was a very easy sail. Not much wind but enough to creep us along with a few moments from time to time of blasts of maybe 3 knots. I do not know if I am use to sailing mono hulls or my CAT felt really sluggish. Could be the new weight or the rudder only part way down or the lack of wind. Maybe a little of all. Maybe I have not sailed anything but monos for a while. I need to spend more time sailing to get a better feel for the CAT again.

 

Overall though even slow with light winds we had a good little sail.

LZ got to freshen up some sailing skills and we got to remove some of the bottom growth on the Zenamaran hulls. We made it back in the slip without incident. The mid-ship cleat , which is not really mid-ship did not help as much as I thought. However I figured out I can add a docking line on to the chain plate which is more really mid-ship. This will help future docking especially when the wind is blowing us off the dock which is the norm where we are located.

 

A mini sail and a mini lesson, it was good .