Force 8 Imminent !

Comment by paul anderson on June 5, 2014 at 5:31pm

good work mate,she's sending it.

Comment by kim whitmyre on June 5, 2014 at 7:50pm

Love the music... ;~) Likely expresses the state of your minds! ;~)

Comment by Ian Bamsey on June 6, 2014 at 3:17am

Yes Kim, you're right! The squall hit as came into the river mouth. The jib wouldn't furl and then jammed. Flogging hard, the jib pushed the bow around and against the wind we barely had enough motor to make way. With no water speed we couldn't steer and were within 20 feet of the beach. Just managed to sort it out. Within 15 mins we were on the mooring, in still air and evening sun.

The worst part was the bar was shut!

Comment by Roger on July 9, 2014 at 12:37pm

Looks like you have everything sorted - the boat is flying!

Comment by Ian Bamsey on July 9, 2014 at 2:48pm

Thank's Roger. Funny you should comment on this video tonight, as my friend in the video and I abandoned our plan to sailing this evening because it was too windy. We ran into trouble on the night of that video when we couldn't roll in the foresail when the leech kept catching in the squall and we came close to getting blown onto the beach.

I'm sure you would have gone out tonight, it was blowing 20kts gusting 27 ?

Comment by Roger on July 9, 2014 at 4:14pm

Hi Ian,

In some parts of the Bay in Summer (the GG to Berkeley), it blows 20 or more most days by the afternoon. It used to be a bit of a pain, but now I have my little storm jib! Furling sails can be a pain in a strong wind if they are not working right - did you get it sorted?

Comment by Ian Bamsey on July 10, 2014 at 3:39pm

The furler isn't perfect. The cord was a problem. Too narrow and it gets underneath the drum and jams; too thick and the drum over fills when the sail unrolls. You also I need a few extra turns in hand so that under load, when it rolls up tight, the sail is fully rolled beforethe drum is empty. I finally got it working best with 3.5mm, not 3mm and not 4mm cord! What a pain. And I really need to get to the top swivel with the WD40.

How gusty is the Bay at 20? It was the big gusts that put me off the other night. I checked the record today, and it had been gusting to 30knts on an average of around 20. In the video, we had one man on the main and I was on the tiller. We dumped it all on a number of gusts. I'm just not experienced enough to know the limits.

Comment by Roger on July 10, 2014 at 9:51pm

The wind is a steady 20 knots or more on summer afternoons in the Bay. So gusts are 20+ (maybe 25 most days but often to 30 or more). IMHO the Tiki needs a small jib by the time you get over 20 knots, even the first reef is more than needed. Not because it is a danger to the boat necessarily, more that the boat is over powered to no benefit. Last week, I was in "the slot" between Angel Island and Alcatraz tacking to windward with a steady 20, gusting to 25 knots, and I had my hands full with the little storm jib and two reefs in the main.

Comment by Ian Bamsey on July 11, 2014 at 2:56am

Thanks for the thoughts Roger. Happy sailing and I look forward to your next Little Cat blog.

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