Reef in, Reef out,Repeat....

[noelH]

Yesterday's forecast was suppose to be a nice 10-15kts.  Only thing correct about the forecast was wind direction.

Out of the marina hoisted the sail. Deceptively light offshore wind and flat water for at least couple miles. Dahhh. Of course looking flat further offshore due to distance.  1/2 mile out. Heave to and put in the first reef. Just in time for the first gust. Maybe a 2nd reef.  Vela is doing either 3.something or 6.something SOG. Constant sail trimming. Heavy tiller unless I turn hard downwind.

Out of the Bay and there is few miles of fetch between the mainland and me. Full on. Short square waves capped in white. Vela and I got our morning shower. More than once. Should have hanked on the smaller jib today. Both main and jib were experiencing concerning leech rattle. I haven't reset the leech tension line since? Heave to and set the 2nd reef. Discovered another piece of hardware that needs maintenance or replacement. Tiller clutch slipped when I was setting the 2nd reef. Duck. Self tack into a self jibe. Trying to complete hoisting the sail to tighten the luff. No go. Reef line jammed into the cam cleat. Unjamming. Not again. Another 360. What the heck..

My 360s attracted one of the only two other sailboats out between Washburn and Bayfield. ~100 sq miles of water and only 3 of us. By the time we passed each other all was good. The last 360 I had to set my butt down on what was windward cockpit bench that quickly became leeward bench and rolled Vela far over. That's when I sort of noticed by tiller moving. Maybe I didn't engage the clutch break??? Nope. Engaged. Maybe the rope is worn. Nope. Guessing the clutch is a bit worn after 6+ seasons of heavy use.

Onward to Bayfield. One long port tack except for the multiple heaving to. Hit my allotted turn around time. Gusts were less sustained, less frequent, and less intense. Time to shake out a reef and scream downwind. Reached E of the Washburn Marina well ahead of schedule. Wind seemed lighter. Shake out the reef.  Kept heading to the foot of the Bay. The wind was building to a steady 15kts. Just as forecasted. Heave to. Set a reef.  Lasted about 20 minutes. Came about and shook out the reef. Full sail home. Was another great and getting to be typical (reef in, reef out, repeat) L. Superior Day. Until...

The bad to balance the good. Tear on both the jib and mainsail. Running right up along the reinforcement or whatever the purpose is of the trailing stitched on length of material. ~3500nm under sail and only 6 seasons plus a few days old this season. Stopped by at my sail loft. Tim's Sail and Canvas in Bayfield. He suspects that my lack of resetting the leech tension lines and my too many days sailing hard air hard were contributing elements. 

Two lessons learned. I need to manually tie down the tiller when heaving to until if fix or replace the clutch. Probably will make tie down part of normal reefing process. Bit like wearing belt and suspenders on the trousers. Set the leech tensions lines to proper settings.  Not only to preserve the life of the sail. But to also optimize performance.  Hit 6.9kts yesterday. Maybe with optimized sail set. +7kts?