Log of Alberg 30 #262 on 27 April 2017

Date: 27 April 2017 13:50 till 27 April 2017 18:30
Endpoints: Yacht Haven Annapolis Eastport MD to Yacht Haven Annapolis Eastport MD
Purpose: Solo Sail
Complement: Yoni Bresler
Weather: SE Force 4
Engine Hours: 76.4 to 77.4
Fuel: virtually a full tank
Chart: 12282 Chesapeake Bay Severn and Magothy Rivers

First sail of the season. The rig was tuned earlier in the week, on 24 April 2017. Vacuumed the v-berth, again, to remove additional scrappings created upon the hook scrapper. The hook scrapper is too aggressive. The right angle bent section of the mini pry bar is a better tool for this job, it would seem.

Bent on the jib, starboard slide. As last year, the process is a bit slow. The material of the sail tends to twist in the slot and bind, so it is necessary to straigthen the material around the wire, hoist a couple feet, straighten, hoist, till complete. Attached the jib blocks and rove the jib sheets. Bent on the main. About an hour spent on these tasks.

Fired up the engine. The #1 battery (not the house battery) would not start the engine despite a reading ov 12.57v. Battery may need replacement. Upon switching to the #2 (house) battery, the engine started up. Does not crank with the vigor of a gasoline engine, starts more slowly. Switched to "Both" in order to charge both batteries. Headed out into Spa Creek. Began the process of hoisting the main in the Severn. The top slide popped off. Drop, re-feed the slides, clamp the top slide, re-hoist. The top slide stuck, apparently at a point where two section of track join, maybe six or eight feet below the top of the mast. Difficult raising the main past that point. Two problems: one, better to face directly into the wind when reaching this point (why don't the other slides hang up here?); two: the topping lift and main halyard were interfering with each other. Perhaps this is the issue? Got the main raised, rolled out the jib, and we are off sailing. About another hour lost to this activity.

Sailed out. Out of practice in maneuvers. Items falling down below. Slow in turns. Uncoordinated handling of sheets and tiller. Continuous improvement during the sail. Went from fustrated to happy. Sailed out into the shipping channel. Tacked down the Bay, past R "2" and "1AH" on courses, from memory, of 240 degrees and 130 degrees. Turned downwind at "1AH" on to starboard tack. Had to get back to the Bay side of "1AH". Tacked to port close aboard "1AH" and began tacking downwind to keep the jib full and pulling.

Naval Academy boats, Eastport FJ's and AYC dinghys out racing. Furled the jib. Dropped the main. Returned to dock. Every smooth entry into the slip, though I did initiate the turn to early and had to move along entering the slip with a bit of diagonal at first. Will improve.

Observations:

Faster sailing with the main drawing less in 13+ knots of wind. Weather helm slows the boat markedly. Half of knot is available by spilling some wind from the main and relieving the weather helm.
Sailing angles downwind is much faster. From memory, dead downwind yielded less than 5 knots, sailing angles raised speeds to over 6. High was about 6.8! Note: this is jib and main. Spinnaker may be different.
Jib foil and headstay have significant sag. Need to tension backstay.

The iNavX app did not have "Background Recording" enabled, so no track of the sail. ;(