Mothra vs. Benicia

Took the family out for another sail this past weekend. We launched out of the the Benicia Marina this time. We experienced really screwy winds as the weather was beginning to build for the typical afternoon blow. We generally had around 10 to 15 knots of wind, but with some occasional blasts over 20 and huge wind shifts. We put a reef in the main and kept a watchful hand on the mainsheet.

Overall, the new jiffy reefing setup worked very well, and we learned a few tricks on how to better manage hoisting and dousing sails while underway:

• Have plenty of sail ties handy if needed and keep a shock cord on deck to stuff the jib under.
• Hoist the main first, then the jib! Makes things much easier to steer. (embarassing to have forgotten this basic principle)
• Make sure all the slugs are in the luff track before leaving the dock. I had left the bottom few out, and getting them in while underway with one hand on the halyard is a real challenge.
• Don't bother with the topping lift. On this boat it's better to just dump the end of the boom into the cockpit. This makes it much easier for the helmsman to stand up, change sides, attend to the motor, etc. without the boom hanging overhead. [edit: need to clarify this. Meant to say, "don't bother with the topping lift when the main is down." lowering the main and the boom all the way down into the cockpit keeps it out of the way on this little boat when motoring.]

After dropping the jib, we found that the boat sails very nicely on main alone. That would probably be a better way to go on days like this.