Getting experienced with the boat-second sail report

Wind was 8-15 while we were out. Boat behaved well. It was hard unfurling the jib the first time...it was easy after that...dunno what's going on there. Mainsail hoists and falls pretty easily (well very easy for me since crew was doing all the work). Boat has a neutral helm although Keith (my crew) detected some weather helm when we were close reaching at about 11 kts boatspeed. I gotta say I was surprised since there aren't any boards, just skegs on each ama and the rudders. Boat points poorly...I knew that going in but it did slog upwind both with and against the current--we rode an ebb upwind for the first hour and beat against the current to get back to the marina. Had a great spinnaker run; not a lot of excitement, but it is great to make a spinnaker and have it work without needing to rebuild it. Snuffing wasn't easy, but we worked it out. The major drama occurred as we were motoring out of the marina...the motor came off the motor mount; I was able to haul it aboard and Keith was quick to lash it down, but that was surprising. Boat speed to weather was about 6-8 kts by GPS; boatspeed running with spinnaker was 7-8 kts by GPS as we were running very deep (about 150). We didn't have any issues with the boat leaning too much. I had some issues tacking at first; went into irons a couple times before I got better at it (Keith had owned a 17 and gave me some tips). Video camera didn't get much-battery died I had a good time and look forward to the next outing. I only have to get the motor working again after being dunked. Here's a short video-note the boatspeeds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUGxQ-6 ... T5C0YL6uRg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUGxQ-6kq8k&list=UUKUwoGV9eRVRwT5C0YL6uRg

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R/Thom
SeaRail 19
Triak
BMW C600
Formerly Getaway with Custom Spinnakers
Formerly raced F24 Mk II

I had an outboard motor come loose on a fishing boat years ago. Came close to losing it. So I have my Torqeedo tied with 6 mm climbing cord to my Getaway, so that if the motor mount is left loose or fails, or the Cheeta mount fails, it won't go to the bottom.

What's your camera? I'm considering one and love the built in GPS speed and course record.

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Yet another Bob!
"Firefly" - 2012 Hobie Getaway with wings and spinnaker
"Sparky" - 1978 Sunfish (OK, it's not a Hobie, but it's a fun little craft)
Too many canoes and kayaks

The outboard is running again after I dumped the fuel, cleaned the sparkplug, dried out all the electrical and sprayed wd40 on all the electrical connections (displace any remaining wetness). It's now tied as well as clamped to the outboard mount. The outboard mount is aluminum and my outboard butts up against it with a metal metal contact, I think it needs some better friction so I will probably add some non skid strips as well.

I got a Sony AS100V for christmas. Still learning the camera and with GPS, it goes through the battery pretty quickly. Partly it might be because I also got a linked remote control, so it has to keep broadcasting for the link as well as tracking GPS as well as video recording. Pretty power intensive. Like most new stuff, I'll get the hang of it eventually.

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R/Thom
SeaRail 19
Triak
BMW C600
Formerly Getaway with Custom Spinnakers
Formerly raced F24 Mk II

Couple of additional post-mortem thoughts about the sail.

The mainsail was hoisted but no mainsheet was attached while I was motoring out. The wind was abeam. The boat accelerated and that kicked the motor up (and off the motor mount). I am impressed that there was drive forward at all (jib was still furled) with no mainsheet attached. Murphy's Law was in full effect as the motor was being recovered in the narrowest part of the channel so if the sail had not kept us driving forward, we'd have crashed into a wall.

Traveling to weather the sails were working reasonably well in concert. The mainsail telltales were telling me to fall off in concert with the jib telltales telling me to fall off for the most part. This is fortunate since there are no changes possible to change the sheet point on the jib (other than changing the jib height on the forestay). There was good drive in the sail suite even when pinching (of course I had adequate wind power to be able to afford to throw some away). Pinching is a useful technique to help keep in the shallows and away from the worst part of the adverse current.

Driving the boat from the high side in the back results in a pretty dry ride. Crewing in front (I let Keith drive for a while) on the tramp is wet-even on the high side.

Spinnaker is high enough to see under while running. Reaching will have the clew closer to the bow but visibility will still be assured when on the high side bench. SO 18' is the right luff length in case anyone wants to duplicate my symmetric spin. There is a lot of load on the guy, so it may take some real strength to switch from running to reaching and vice versa in decent wind. The sheet wasn't that highly loaded (was handheld with just a turning block).

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R/Thom
SeaRail 19
Triak
BMW C600
Formerly Getaway with Custom Spinnakers
Formerly raced F24 Mk II