Sailing Beginner- Winterizing Your Sailboat

I hate to admit it but here in the Northeast once November hits the air and water temperature drops like a rock and unless you have a wet/dry suit it's time to put the sailboat up for winter. What really adds insult to injury is that in November the winds are pretty awesome and it blows consistently. However, reluctantly I put my boat away for the winter and I thought I would share with you how I did it. The first thing I do is to take everything out of the sailboat including the cushions, anchor, ropes, and most important the 12 volt battery I use to run the aux lights. I also make sure that the main and jib sail are completely dry before packing them away for the winter. I store most everything like the sails in the basement and a few other things like the cushions in my shed.

My next concern is making sure that all the water is out of the hull of the boat as I have a drain located in the cockpit area and another inside the cabin area that has no drain. The one in the cabin is like a sump pump hole without the pump and I have to use a wet-vac to remove any water that has built up there, otherwise it would freeze and could cause significant damage to the fiberglass hull.
Sailing Tip-This year I also took advantage of a nice warm day to move my trailer lights higher on the trailer, so that I can now tip the trailer if the water happens to be shallow while launching my boat. If I hadn't of moved them, I would not be able to tip the trailer as the lights would hit the boat ramp and damage them. I was glad I took care of that now instead of waiting until next spring, when I rather be sailing as opposed to fixing the lights at that time.

Once everything is out of the boat, I covered the sailboat with a tarp large enough to cover it from the stern to the bow. I secured the tarp with bungee cords to the boat trailer to hold it in place. The mast and boom serve well as a center board if you will that forms a pitched roof for the tarp over the top of the boat to easily shed off water and snow. I also cover the boat winch with a piece of stove pipe that naturally curls around it and stays in place by the tension properties of the metal, and I cover the hitch with a 5 gallon bucket to keep it dry as well. I also employ 3 rv jacks that I use to secure the trailer from the weight of any snow load that may accumulate over the winter. I put one of the jacks under the middle of the long trailer tongue and two in the back on each side of the trailer frame that will prevent any possible damage to it from any additional snow weight. Wet snow and ice can be very heavy and could stress the trailer frame beyond its weight limitations.

Stay tune for my next sailing beginner article on winterizing the outboard. Until-then- Happy Sailing!

From my humble sailing beginning, I have taught myself how to sail a boat with my hand on the tiller and a boat load of time and research. Now you too can learn how to sail by clicking this link: Learn How To Sail

 

Sailing Beginner- Navigation Basics

When it comes to blue water sailing or boating, knowing how to navigate is paramount to your success of arriving to your desired destination. In this sailing beginner article I would like to cover a couple of ways that this can be accomplished. There is the time tested use of the Sextant as well as the modern GPS in which both essentially do the same thing but in very different ways.               

The sextant is old school technology that is still reliable today as it was yesterday. This instrument is easy to use and requires only a few steps to get an accurate reading of any location on the open water. The instrument is hand held and by looking through the eye piece to find the horizon first, then by adjusting the protractor on the instrument from the zero setting by pushing it forward until the sun is positioned on the horizon. Once the sun is exactly on the horizon by rocking the sextant side to side will ensure that the setting is on the mark, then by looking at your watch get the time starting with the seconds first then the minutes and hour and write it down or take note of it. Then by plugging in the setting number on the sextant as well as the exact time to a navigational formula will give you the current geographical location. This is truly amazing considering that batteries and an internet connection are not necessary to use a sextant. In fact, sailors have used this awesome instrument for centuries and could navigate the world over by using it.

Today the predominant tool of choice is the Marine GPS which is basically the same as those used in automobiles. Global Positioning System’s send a signal to several satellites and by triangulating the signal the GPS can locate its position. They are very accurate and are not dependent on ideal weather conditions to use, however they do require batteries to power them. So if you are sailing far, you will want to have an extra supply of batteries or a solar or regular battery charger to keep the GPS powered to be able to keep track of your location. Navigational marine charts are still necessary no matter what kind of instrument you use, and your ability to read a navigational chart is necessary to pinpoint your current location and to navigate to your ultimate destination.

From my humble sailing beginning, I have taught myself how to sail a boat with my hand on the tiller and a boat load of time and research. Now you too can learn how to sail by clicking this link Learn How To Sail Stay tune for my next sailing beginner article. Until then- Happy Sailing!

 

 

Good Sailing Weather

The best way I have found to find good weather for sailing is to go online to weather.com and get the weather for your location. Not only do you get the forecast, but you also get the wind direction and speed as well.

By getting the forecast beforehand especially the wind direction and speed allows me to know if I can successfully sail that particular day on a certain body of water or not. I have quite few lakes around my area and depending on the geographical position of the body of water relative to wind direction will determine whether it will allow me to sail on it successfully on that particular day. Sometimes you just can't get there from here as the old Maine expression goes. Best advice is to choose where you plan to sail that day according to the current wind conditions, the location of the boat ramp, and what your navigational plans are for that particular body of water.

Of course, the weather isn’t always predictable and sometimes you may opt in to go sailing on a less than a perfect day, but hey it’s better than nothing. With that said you’ve got to be prepared for a thunder storm or a squall that can bring intense winds and come out of nowhere. It can become a very dangerous situation very quickly. It’s good advice to keep your eye on the sky at all times and especially on a cloudy day. If you should see dark clouds off in the distance that is heading fast in your direction, usually it’s a good indicator that it’s going to be a thunderstorm and the wind will most likely increase as well. This is especially true if the wind is blowing and then it becomes really calm right out of the blue. No doubt you have heard the expression- “the calm before the storm.” That is just what happened to me when a real nasty squall came up on me just this past summer.

I had just sailed downwind to the end of the lake when the wind died to the point that not even a puff of air could be found anywhere. So I waited patiently as I had this gut feeling the wind would pick up again. I looked up to opposite end of the lake and off in the distance I could see a band of rain clouds moving quickly towards me, but I didn’t realize its intensity until it actually heeled my sail boat over on its side. This was my first encounter with a real bad squall and it took everything I had to keep the boat from capsizing and to tack upwind. The moral of the story here is to first get a good reliable weather forecast before you set sail and be prepared just in case it changes.

For more information on learning how to sail, please navigate on over to Sailing Beginner . You will be glad you did!

Boat Ramp Blues- Part 2

Once the boat trailer was finally free, my next concern was retrieving the sailboat. So I asked one of the men I had approached earlier if he would give me a hand with getting the boat on the trailer. Thankfully he said that he would. So I went over my plan with him as follows, First, I would bring the boat over from the dock to the vicinity of the trailer using my outboard. Then I’d throw the bow line to him so he would pull the boat to the trailer. After walking back to where my sail boat was docked about 100 yards from the ramp, I now put my plan into action.

Everything went according to plan, and I was finally able to get my boat on the trailer and get off that miserable boat ramp. In the meantime, I stopped by briefly and thanked both gentlemen who assisted me in this plight, as I felt that’s the least I could do for I was very appreciative for them helping me to say the least.  As I was getting ready to secure the boat to the trailer, one of guys began relating to me that my experience was nothing to what he had witnessed on this boat ramp over the years. He lives nearby, and frequents this ramp on an ongoing basis. He was telling me that he likes to come down and watch other people using it. And with a grin on his face he commented that it’s great amusement, even though it’s at the expense of others. With that said, he began to relate a few of his fondest memories to me.

His first recollection was how one guy backed down on the ramp and both his truck and trailer ended up floating out in the water a ways before it sunk. Needless to say, what a mess that situation must have been for that individual. Can you picture submerging your truck and boat and trailer? I grateful that it wasn’t me! Another time, this guy backed his trailer so far into the water, that even his four wheel drive truck and that of another could not pull the boat trailer out. Fortunately, he had a friend nearby with a Bobcat loader who in conjunction with two four wheel drive trucks was finally able to pull it out!

Then last but not least, another time this guy was driving off the boat ramp after retrieving his boat, and to his surprise the boat fell right off onto the ramp. Can you believe it? It must have been quite embarrassing to say the least! It took him and a bunch of other anxious boaters wanting to use the ramp over an hour to get the boat back in the water.

After much controversy over the best solution to solve this problem by all the bystander’s various opinions, the boat owner settled on the idea of pulling it back down the ramp by using two by fours to slide it back into the water until he was able to retrieve the boat back on the trailer. Bet he didn’t make the same mistake twice! So after hearing about these other disasters to say the least, I don’t feel so bad after all, but that boat ramp should be fixed before someone else damages their marine equipment or vehicle. Or worse yet, someone gets seriously hurt using it.

From my humble sailing beginning, I have taught myself how to sail a boat with my hand on the tiller and a boat load of time and research. Now you too can learn how to sail by clicking this link Learn How To Sail Stay tune for my next sailing beginner article. Until then- Happy Sailing!

Boat Ramp Blues- Part 1

In this article of sailing beginner, I would like to relate an incident that recently happened to me while retrieving my sailboat on a boat ramp on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Let me start out by saying that it was an event to remember considering that it was not a typical boat retrieve in any way or form. First, let be back up a minute and tell you that I had been apprehensive beforehand just thinking about using this boat ramp for a variety of reasons. One is that there is no parking onsite for trailers, because the only place to park it is a couple of miles down the road. Then once the trailer is detached, you have to drive the tow vehicle back to the boat ramp parking lot to park. Ok a minor inconvenience, but hey the boat ramp is free!

The second issue I have especially if you are alone, is you have to leave your vehicle on the ramp while you tie up to the dock that is 100 yards away. Only after the sailboat was secured to the dock first, I was finally able to drive off the boat ramp, fortunately in the meantime there was no one waiting to use it.  No big deal, it’s only a couple of minor inconveniences at this point, but hey who’s counting? So I went sailing for a couple of hours and returned to the Alton Bay boat ramp and docked the sailboat and took the car to the offsite parking lot to retrieve the boat trailer.

Once I returned to the boat ramp, I backed down the ramp until I was satisfied that I had the boat trailer deep enough to retrieve my sailboat. To my surprise, I felt that one side of the boat trailer dropped off the ramp. So after a couple of attempts, I was able to pull the trailer forward and reposition it so that I could back down once again. This time however, the trailer completely dropped out of sight! It would have been no problem if I was launching a submarine, but now I was perplexed, as to what was going on with this boat ramp? As the rear tires of my car were just touching the water. Once again I tried to go forward, but this time my car wouldn’t budge at all. In fact I tried several times to move forward even to the point of spinning the tires, but to no avail.

So I had noticed a couple of gentlemen in the parking lot one of them was standing talking to another who was sitting in a van and I asked the driver if he could give me a tow. He was a little hesitant initially but he agreed to give it a try.  So he backed down the ramp close enough to connect a nylon tow strap that I had stored in the trunk of my car. Once the tow strap was attached and tension was applied to it, we tried to pull together, but the trailer wouldn’t budge whatsoever. The trailer was holding us hostage just like an anchor. What’s up with that I thought? So now what? ….

After studying the situation for a few moments, I figured the only way to get the trailer unstuck was to unhook it from the car and use the boat winch to pull it out. So I pulled the car forward, then by using the tow strap attached to my car and to the boat winch, I started to turn the winch handle, but the trailer started to tip to its side and started to pull my car back. So I backed off and rerouted the winch strap to the opposite side of the winch mount pedestal.

This time around, I put a wheel chock in back of my rear wheel and again I started turning the winch handle. This time the boat trailer started to move out of the water an inch at a time. Good thing for me that even though this was in mid-October, the water wasn’t all that cold, as I was up over my knees when using the winch. I was relieved to get the trailer unstuck, so I hooked boat trailer to the car and backed down the ramp for the third time. This time however I did not back up as far and the trailer was set just deep enough, so that I would be able to retrieve the boat.

My next concern was getting the sailing boat on the trailer, and so I asked one of the guys I approached earlier in the parking lot if he would give me a hand and thankfully he said that he would. So the plan was once I brought the boat to the vicinity of the trailer using the outboard, I would throw him the bow line and he would pull the boat on the trailer. So after a couple of tries, we were successful and I was finally able to get the boat off that miserable boat ramp. While securing the boat to the trailer, I stopped briefly and thanked both gentlemen who assisted me in this endeavor, as I felt obligated to do so. After thanking them, one of the guys started telling me that my predicament was nothing to what he had witnessed on this boat ramp over the years. He lives nearby, and frequents this ramp on an ongoing basis.

He was telling me that one guy backed down on the ramp and for whatever reason both his truck and trailer ended up floating out in the bay a ways before it sunk. Needless to say, what a mess that situation must have been for the owner. Another time, this other guy backed his trailer so far down the ramp that even his four wheel drive truck and that of another could not pull the boat trailer out. Fortunately, he had a friend nearby with a Bobcat loader who in conjunction with two four wheel drive trucks was finally able to pull the trailer out!

Then last but not least, another time this guy was driving off the boat ramp and his boat fell right off onto the ramp. Can you believe it? It must have been quite embarrassing to say the least! It took him and a bunch of anxious boaters wanting to use the ramp over an hour to get the boat back in the water. The boat was finally pulled back down the ramp using two by fours to slide it on until it was back in the water, then reloaded back on the boat trailer. So after hearing about these other disasters to say the least, I don’t feel so bad after all about my experience with the boat ramp from hell. 

From my humble sailing beginning, I have taught myself how to sail a boat with my hand on the tiller and a boat load of time and research. Now you too can learn how to sail by clicking this link Learn How To Sail  Stay tune for my next sailing beginner article. Until then- Happy Sailing!

   

 

       

Sailing Beginner- Reefing the Jib Sail Using a Furling- Conclusion

By now this whole incident was really starting to wear on my nerves, as every time I would come about the jib sail would luff so violently that I thought that it would get ripped into shreds, while simultaneously the boom was violently swinging back and forth until the wind would slam it so hard that the boat would heel to a great degree. But in all this chaos, I was still making progress and was making head way to my destination. Right about then I was about half the distance to the boat ramp and I was hoping that the wind would let off a bit, especially before I was to enter into the last part of the lake where it widens out and the wind is typically more severe than the other two thirds of the lake.

Sailing Tip: If you get heeled over on the port or starboard side when coming about in a tack, the best course of action is to steer the tiller away from you as this will steer the rudder into the wind thus putting you into the eye of the wind allowing the weight of the keel to counter the boat upright once again and for you to regain control as well.

In fact, my present location was right dead in the middle of this body of water which feels like you’re in some kind of a vacuum vortex of sorts, because the wind is blocked by the mountains that surround this area. Compounded with the shallow water buoys that eat up a lot of precious water real estate while tacking, it can be a real challenge in navigating this section of the lake. And now for the third time, my sailboat heeled over once again on the port side but once again I was quickly able to steer out of it and continue to come about in spite of the wind.

Now I had to concentrate and focus as to where, when, and how I was going to finally be able to lower my sails without incidence as they needed to come down very soon, especially now that the wind had intensified on this section of the lake. I had just past the last two shallow water buoys and now the boat ramp was in sight. So about three hundred yards past the last shallow water buoy, I finally made the decision that it would be the perfect place to dump the sails and fire up the outboard. Although I recall at the time that even though the sailing conditions were challenging enough, it was even worse in my estimation knowing that at some point I had to let go of the tiller and relinquish control of the vessel so that I could have my hands free to lower the sails. As it was I was sailing single-handed and it sure changes one’s perspective when the wind is so strong that it is capable of pushing the sail boat over 5 knots without sails!

At the time it seemed like a daunting task, as I would’ve preferred to keep sailing but daylight was fleeting and was not on my side. So my decision was made to pull the sails, so I locked the tiller in place with a piece of rope and began lowering the jib first which was like catching a cat on a hot tin roof as the wind was moving it to and fro with great intensity. The main sheet was next and it was a struggle trying to keep it in the boat while lowering it was almost impossible, but I managed to reel it in.

By now, I was less than 50 yards from shore, but fortunately I was able to get my outboard in the water and got it running just it in the nick of time, as I was only 10 yards from running aground when I got it started. My trusty little 4 horse Mariner finished the final leg of this arduous journey and I made it to the dock just as the wind subsided and it was calm once again as nightfall was approaching. Go figure! Anyhow I was glad to have returned in one piece safe and sound with no damage to my boat. 

I hope you are enjoying my sailing beginner blog, however, if you’re really pressed for time, I have also put together an audio and e book for a nominal price, so that you can learn how to sail while commuting to work or anytime you can listen to your favorite audio playing device. So now there is no excuse for you to daydream any longer about sailing! Get started today, you will be glad you did. Just click this link: www.sailingbeginner.com for more information in getting your hands on a copy of my audio and e book. Until then- Happy Sailing!

 

      

 

          

Reefing the Jib Sail Using a Furling- Part 3

By now the wind was really blowing to the point of listing my boat on its side. I had the weird feeling that I was really in trouble here as I had my hands full trying to adjust the main and jib sails while simultaneously trying to steer the boat. The sailboat now had heeled over on its port side and instinctively I pushed the tiller away from me and braced my legs in the cockpit to keep me from falling overboard. By this time the mast was horizontal to the water and the wind now was completely dumped off from the sails. Thankfully the boat up righted by my steering the boat into the wind in combination with the weight of the keel. However, my adrenaline was at an all-time high so much so, that even the strongest cup of espresso wouldn't have affected me what so ever.

In any case, I was beginning to think that I was sailing in no man's land and began to question my decision to continue sailing giving these conditions. At this juncture the staunch realty of my situation was getting worse because now it started to pour like cats and dogs and I was getting soaked even though I was wearing a rain coat. I was getting very cold and began to shiver. And if that wasn’t enough stimulation for me, I soon realized that I was also entertaining a captive audience who was watching me from shore. Being in this predicament, I didn’t have time to think about entertaining anyone as I was in survival mode and I was trying to save my skin as well as my sailboat.

In any case, my audience seemed keenly interested in the live reality show that was unfurling in front of them. My guess is they were trying to decide who was going to be the victor- Mother Nature or me? In any case, I didn’t disappoint them even though I really didn’t know whether to sail or bail at this point. The relentless force of the wind was overpowering and once again the boat listed over on its side. However, in spite of all my efforts letting out the clew line on the jib sail while steering away from the wind so that it would fall off the main was to no avail, as the boat listed over on its other side now for the third time! And I was beginning to think it might be a good time to start praying.

Sailing Tip: I always wear my life vest when I am in the boat. Hopefully you will do the same when you learn how to sail as well. Over the years many experienced swimmers have lost their lives because they became over confident in their own swimming ability because they didn't wear a life saving device.