I went sailing today!

Been talking via email to Lou, who bought the Mac V21 formerly known as Dynamo Hum.  He's got boating experience but no sailing experience. His boat is ready to go so at 9:45 this morning he picked me up and we headed down to Orchard Point at Fern Ridge. 

Set up went pretty well and quickly.  Lou's ginpole worked well.  The rigging, as I recalled from seeing Dynamo Hum across from us at Richardson, was quite loose. I knew from reading the manual (all 10 pages) that the rigging was supposed to be taught, but not overly tight, so I tightened it up but didnt' reef on it with a wrench.  I took some pictures.  More on that later . . .

The launch lanes are narrower and seem steeper than at Richardson.  The mast crane is right on the way to the ramp but it looks like there's plenty of room for folks to get around while you're using it.  Launching was uneventful.  The boat slid off the trailer and I tied her off to the dock.

Once Lou parked the truck and got the motor running I backed us away from the dock and headed out onto the lake.  The wind was from the south and maybe 6-8 knots.  Perfect conditions for teaching someone the basics of sailing.

We sailed around under just the main for a bit with Lou steering and me handling the sail.  Lou's familiarity with boating means he knew how to steer straight, so it was mostly explaining the concepts around sailing and answering questions.  After we'd sailed around on just the main for a bit I added the jib to the equation and gave him the main sheet.  The rest of the afternoon was excellent.  We sailed back and forth, tacked several times, and Lou experimented and got a feel for the boat.  By the time we headed back to Orchard he was doing great.

Did I mention I took pictures?  Did you notice they're not here?  Well, that's because they're in about 22 feet of water!  I forgot I'd put the little fuji waterproof camera in my shirt pocket and while I was leaning over to tie on a bumper it went klunk, splash!  You'd think they'd make waterproof cameras float!

We took down the sails and motored in to Orchard Point.  There was a brief minute of excitement when the motor konked out and wouldn't start, but Lou got it going and we didn't run into the bass boat that was idling nearby.   We pulled the boat, backed it down to get the keel over the guide, and pulled it out again.  Down with the mast, rig for the road and we headed for home around 4 PM.  A great day sailing and a good sunburn to go with it.