Sunday, April 20, 2008

Sailor Girl

wingssail image-fredrick roswold
Judy

The upwind steering position on Wings: Judy sits on the high side where she can see ahead and see the tell tales on the jib. She holds the tiller extension easily in her right hand, and if it gets windy she'll put her foot against one of the battens on deck.

The tiller is 6' long and usually light as a feather. If the wind is strong and it's a bit hard to steer then its time to reduce sail.

This isn't the standard configuration for a cruising boat, and even racing boats now days don't look like this: the cruising boats have deep cockpits with seat backs and protection from the elements. On a typical cruising boat you are in a walled cocoon. The raceboats, on the other hand, have wide cockpits where a handful of people can walk around.

On Wings we have neither. Our cockpit is not wide nor deep, its not walled in and we don't have room for a bunch of people to walk around. At the helm station on Wings there really isn't a cockpit at all; just a flat wide deck and a foot well that's basically a place for the engine controls and a hatch, and a spot to throw beer cans and whiskey bottles.

So you say: we are exposed on the high side with no protection. Yes, when the boat takes a knock-down we are looking at the sea 15' below us over a long expanse of deck and not much to keep us from flying right off into the ocean. Does that scare us? Not that much. We do have a solid stanchion right at our elbow to grab, and anyhow, when we are cruising we don't steer that much; we let the windvane steer and we are in the small cockpit behind the dodger.

So you say: the tiller is too difficult on a long passage. Yes, I'll grant you that hours on the wheel are easier than hours on the tiller, but like I said, on those long passages we aren't steering, the windvane is. We carry spare parts and an autopilot and we keep our fingers crossed that we don't have to do this all the way across an ocean. In 20 years, we haven't.

The plus side is that from this position we can feel the wind in our faces and we have great visability forward. If you love sailing, you'd love to sail this boat, and a large part of the experience is steering from the high side with a tiller in your hand.

Fred & Judy,. SV Wings, Phuket

For more shots of Wings'steering position, click the links below:

When you need to see!
Everyone is on the high side!
Wide decks for working!
Great visability!

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Sea Dog Takes the Helm

wingssail image-fredrick roswold
Relaxed

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Wings spreads some canvas

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Recut sail working well

The old #1 genoa recut into a high clewed #2 works well in light air. Because it has less overlap and the foot is well above the lifelines this sail is much easier to handle, tacks quietly, and in many ways acts like the small #4 which we love; only it is bigger. Spreading this much canvas on a light air day really helps the performance.

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Heading into Phang Nga Bay

wingssail image-fredrick roswold
Close Hauled

After we wore ship we came up on starboard and sheeted in, making for the limestone islands of Phang Nga Bay.

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Moving well in light air

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Port Tack

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Yacht Haven

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Wings

The sailing trip is over, Wings is closed up until next time.

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Arrival at Ko Wa Yai

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Judy

It is just eight miles from Yacht Haven Marina to Ko Wa Yai island but we've never stopped there before. Today we came in to the middle ground between this island and three others which form a large open square area where anchoring is easy. Right in the middle we are pretty exposed but with islands on all sides it is easy to move closer to one and get shelter from any wind.

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Phang Nga Bay

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Ko Phanak

On nearby Ko Wa Yai there is a good beach and many canoeists are dropped off here to explore Phang Nga Bay. The next island is Ko Phanak.

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In the Water

wingssail image-judy jensen
Cleaning the Bottom

Except for the keel the bottom after one year was still pretty good, just a heavy slime which we could quickly wipe off. Judy went around the whole boat and cleaned the waterline and down about two feet. I dove under the hull and cleaned the rest square by square. The keel was the worst. Where it was damaged in Feb all the paint and fairing compound on the very bottom was chewed off and barnacles covered the bare lead already. It took nearly 20 dives with a scraper to get them off. We have to haul this boat soon and repair this damage.

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Anchored

wingssail image-fredrick roswold
Ko Payu
We first anchored near Ko Wa Yai but a westerly wind came up and this anchorage was exposed to the wind and became choppy. We upped anchor and move 1/2 mile to the lee of Ko Payu where it was calm.

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Judy in Sunset

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Ko Payu

As the sun went down over Ko Payu things cooled off a bit and we came topside to enjoy the evening.

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Sailing Junks

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After sunset two junks sailed by.

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Sunday, April 06, 2008

Randy & Laura Visit

Baan Siri Silom

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View Out the window on a rainy day

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