After a summer that has yielded a dearth of sails due to various reasons I wont go in to, I finally took advantage of the favorable forecast and went out with a friend for a long leisurely outing on lake Washington yesterday. temps were in the low 60's, but with the sun out, I was getting uncomfortably warm in my long sleeves.
After meandering across the lake and back on a long tack, we dipped in to union bay and sightsaw for a little bit then sailed up around Magnusen to Sandpoint and back. I forgot how big of a stress relief day on the water can provide.
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Due to occasional drops in the wind, we spent a fair bit of the time motoring using my new 24V trolling motor. Today I decided to randomly try the 3-bladed prop that the website said was slower then the 2-bladed one, but to my surprise, I was getting much better speeds. During a long motoring session near the end in light waves we averaged between 4-1/4 and 4-1/2 knots for a couple of miles. I am definitely feeling confident enough in this new system to use it where I'd previously pulled out my gas motor.
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With the El-nino forcast discussed in the news, I am looking forward to a nice season of autumn sailing coming up, hopefully to make up for how this summer went, and to keep making little upgrades to my boat in the meantime. I think I'm going to try visiting a couple of the restaurants on lake Union with boat parking available.
Excellent! Glad your sail was a stress reliever and brought you some peace and relaxation. Last September my wife and I had a couple of great meals at waterfront restaurants there. We'll be back next June.
Today was my last sail of the year. I would like to go again but with a weeding in 3 weeks (older son) and fall chores, I won't have the time. Extremely strong tide today which at one point was sweeping us back even though the sails were filled! Strange to be pointing in the right direction but lose ground. Got back early as the wind died and started the process of decommissioning. My youngest son skippered the boat and did a pretty good job.
Quote from: Straander on Oct 02, 2023, 05:10 PMI am definitely feeling confident enough in this new system to use it where I'd previously pulled out my gas motor.
That is fantastic. 24 volt trolling motor is quite a bit cheaper than a Torqeedo and no proprietary battery. I might consider that down the road.
Quote from: Brian N. on Oct 02, 2023, 05:45 PMMy youngest son skippered the boat and did a pretty good job.
Happy you got one last sail in Brian, and bonus for having your son skipper. :)
Quote from: tjspiel on Oct 02, 2023, 05:51 PMQuote from: Straander on Oct 02, 2023, 05:10 PMI am definitely feeling confident enough in this new system to use it where I'd previously pulled out my gas motor.
That is fantastic. 24 volt trolling motor is quite a bit cheaper than a Torqeedo and no proprietary battery. I might consider that down the road.
Quite a bit cheaper and way more capacity.
The 2HP Torqueedo has a 500 Watt/hour battery. My $600 LiPO4 is 2650 Watt/hour
Glad to hear that folks are getting nice end of season sails in, wherever they are. Nothing like a great day on the water, where you find that some improvement or another that you've made to the boat turns out to be even better than expected!