[C320-list] Night sailing article

[Chef Adam Weiner]

For those of you who requested, below is a reprint of the Night Sailing
article published a few years back in the MAINSHEET.  If you don't want to
read it all just hit your delete key.

Adam

The Joys of Night Sailing

by L. Adam Weiner
Kele, C320, Hull 218

	Hi!  My name is Adam, and I'm an addict.  I did not intend to become
an addict; I guess no one does.  But I started out because it was free, and
it just kept going from there.  Yes, I am addicted to sailing at night:  I
like it even better than sailing in the day, but I did not intend for that
to happen.  You see, my wife used to work almost every Saturday and most
Sundays, and I was not man enough to take my then three-year-old son sailing
with me without my wife along.  So, I ended up getting a babysitter.  It was
frustrating to come home from a pleasant day's sail and fork over $50.00 to
the babysitter for the privilege.  To conserve money (to buy toys for the
boat) I would wait for my wife to come home, and then charge out the door
one second later.  Thus, the path to my addiction started with a free sail.
Adam's Top 10
	For those of you who have only ventured out during the day, there is
a whole other world out there after 5:00 p.m.  Some of the benefits of
evening and night sailing are:
	1.	The sunsets are gorgeous, particularly over the Golden Gate
Bridge.
	2.	Watching the lights come on the bridges and buildings is
almost as gorgeous.
	3.	You can work on your boat all day and still go out for a few
hours.
	4.	It is a lot less crowded on the water.
	5.	My personal favorite: You don't have to deal with as many
nuts, drunks, and people who don't have a clue on the water1.
	6.	You don't lose a sailing day because the kids have soccer,
baseball, volleyball, etc.
	7.	You can watch the America's Cup (or football or baseball) on
television and still get in some sailing.
	8.	You can work during the day to make money to buy that sexy
asymmetrical spinnaker and still go sailing.
	9.	You don't have to put on suntan lotion.
	10.	It impresses the heck out of everyone in the yacht club (My
sailing buddy Craig's  favorite).  In fact, what you do is walk into the
yacht club at 6:00 p.m., and ask if anyone wants to go sailing with you.
Everyone will stare at you in disbelief.  Then when you come back at
midnight, just walk into the club again and tell everyone what a great time
you had and tell them to buy you a drink.  It works!
The Weather Is Often Better
	Now, in my neck of the woods - San Francisco Bay - the weather is
often better in the evening than in the day.  During the Summer the wind
doesn't fill in until about 1:00 p.m. and before that there is fog and a
chill in the air.  When the wind fills in, it really fills in: 25 knots from
the west is the Summer norm, and more isn't unusual.  Most of the time the
air temperature is, at best, low to mid- 60's, and with the wind chill you
are wearing several layers plus foul weather gear in mid-July.  (Remember,
Mark Twain's quote: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San
Francisco.") 
	 Now, let's move this up a few hours.  The breeze has dropped to 12
to 15 knots, the fog  burned off hours ago, and the sun has finally heated
up the air.  The sky is clear, the sun is setting, the moon is rising over
the hills, and the shooting stars are out (well, sometimes) and you have
ideal conditions
	Yeah, I know some of you don't have it that good.  Some of you are
forced to sail in warmer climates like the tropics, or at least the Mid-West
and East Coast.  So you can still take advantage of those lovely conditions.
Take down that Bimini top, take down the dodger and look around and above
you as you sail.  (Besides, you will be surprised at how much bigger your
cockpit seems this way.  Think of all the money you will save: you will have
the feel of being on a much larger boat without having to trade up.)  The
colors of the sun setting on a tropical sea, and watching the moon rise
without sunglasses, a hat, and sun screen must just be gorgeous.  I
personally don't know, but I presume they are.
Red Light District
	Let's face it, most boat owners spend more time tinkering with their
boats than sailing them.  With that in mind, let's take a look at what can
be done to make your C320 a better boat for night sailing.  The biggest
issue is lighting: there is too much of it.
	Every time someone goes below to get a beer, goes to the head, grabs
a jacket, or changes the stereo, a light goes on thus blinding the helmsman.
On my boat we handled the problem by installing red lights:
	1.	In the head we removed the florescent fixture and put in a
combination white/red light stainless dome fixture.  At sea we just put it
on red and leave it there.  The white light on this fixture is actually just
as bright as the florescent.
	2.	In the galley we removed the white round lights over the
refer and in front of the lockers to port of the sink, and replaced them
with red lights of the same size from West Marine.  The only modification
needed was a little bit of filing of the fiberglass to make the holes a bit
more rounded.  The beauty of this arrangement is that these two lights are
on a separate switch so you can turn them on while leaving the other cabin
lights off.  We made up for the loss of light in the galley by taking the
fluorescent fixture from the head and putting it next to the identical
fixture in the galley.  Thus, when a lot of light is needed, just turn on
both fluorescents.
	3.	A red/white fixture like the one in the head was also added
to the aft cabin because I often go into the cabin while sailing to change
clothes or get jackets for guests.
Safety
	I am often asked if it isn't dangerous at night.  I reply that it's
actually safer because the only other boats out at night are the ones who
know what they are doing.2  I have never had a near collision on an evening
sail, and I sure cannot make that statement for my day trips.  One of my
favorite near-miss stories involves a weekday sail.  There were only two
boats in the entire south San Francisco Bay, an area about 15 miles long by
about 10 miles wide.  I was on port tack and a boat from a major sailing
school sailed across my bow on port tack about 50 yards upwind.  The
instructor threw over a seat cushion and the student began to gybe,
completing it right in front of me.  When I called out, the instructor
yelled "We're on starboard."  Needless to say, after some quick helm work
and passing within three feet of a collision I told the instructor in not
very pretty words about his lack of understanding of the Rules of the Road,
particularly as they relate to maintaining course and speed, and downwind
vessels.  At night the few boats out are usually commercial ones, and the
rare pleasure boats have a clue of the Rules of the Road.	
	Now, I am a stickler for personal safety.  While sailing day or
night, everyone on deck or in the cockpit must wear a life jacket.  We
generally use Mustang type automatic inflatable vests.  Through SailNet we
purchased ACR automatic strobe lights that are connected to the inflation
device on the vest.  When the life vest automatically (or manually) inflates
the strobe light comes on hopefully facilitating a night rescue.  We
connected to the man overboard horseshoe buoy an ACR strobe (also from
SailNet) that automatically lights when it hits the water.  Everyone on deck
has a waterproof mini-flashlight in their pocket (primarily for seeing the
wind vane and other tasks requiring light) but these are back-ups for
signaling from the water.  Of course, there are whistles connected to the
life jackets.
	Finally, we have a six-person Viking life raft.  This may be
overkill (if you pardon the expression) but it makes me sleep better knowing
it is there.  When we did that rescue mentioned in footnote one, it took the
Coast Guard over thirty minutes to arrive.  The water temperature in San
Francisco Bay runs around a constant 50-52 degrees.  Spending half and hour
in the water or longer if I am offshore, particularly if I have the kids on
board, is a chilling proposition.
Navigation
	In all modesty, evening and night sailing make you a better sailor.
You don't want to spend your whole time holding a flashlight on the masthead
wind fly, so you develop a better sense of wind angles and shifts than you
do during the day.  After you have done it awhile, you can even start
detecting patches of heavier pressure or wind holes on the water by looking
at the light of the moon on the water or reflections of city lights.
 
	Getting around, however, can be a bit tricky.  The hardest part for
me is finding the buoys that mark my marina's channel.  The markers are lit.
However, you know how bright a nightlight is?  Well, my channel markers are
dimmer than that.  Occasionally the channel markers seem to change from red
to green to yellow and then to red.  The traffic lights on the shore a mile
up the road show up better than the markers.  To make matters worse, the
markers line up with the end of the runways for San Francisco International
Airport.  More than once we saw what we thought was a marker and as we
looked at the blinking red light the light accelerated and climbed high into
the air.  Your average channel marker doesn't do that.
	There are two devices which really help in night sailing navigation:
a charting G.P.S. and a really bright hand-held spotlight.3   For about
$20.00 on the internet you can buy a 1.5 million candle-watt hand-held
spotlight that is wireless with a rechargeable battery.  (A word of advice.
Keep it away from anyone who has had a bit too much to drink.  These fun
loving types think it is great fun to shine it in the helmsman's eyes.)  We
use a hand-held Garmin G.P.S. which sits plugged in at the chart table until
we approach the marina.  Now, I have to admit to some failures in life, and
that is that this system is not always perfect.  With Craig on the bow with
the search light, and me at the wheel with the hand-held plotting G.P.S. we
have, on many occasions, ended up between the first and second set of
markers.
	You really don't need a charting G.P.S., a regular one will do if
you have the channel marker as a way point you can just follow the G.P.S.
road.  Call me old-fashioned, call me over-the-hill (with apologies to Bob
Seager) but I like looking at my position on a "chart" and making my own
calls.
	For you doubting Thomas types who don't trust modern technology (you
know who you are) what did before buying the G.P.S. was to find the 12 foot
depth line (taking into consideration the state of the tide) since the
channel entrance is on that line, and run down that line.  When I do this I
feel like Columbus, Cook, Magellan and Drake running down the latitudes.
Primitive, but it works.
A Class Act
For some reason which I don't understand, life's events are always more
formal at night.  A matinee is never quite as formal as an evening
performance, and when was the last time that your yacht club had its annual
installation before lunch?  For some reason, this little quirk of life seems
to apply to sailing as well.  Sandwiches just don't seem to taste as good
after sunset, and the beverages consumed are somehow a little classier.  We
have handled these issues on Kele by me making something ahead of time and
heating it in the oven.  (Remember to gimbal the oven.  One time we didn't
and had lamb curry all over the galley, the entrance way to the aft cabin
and even under the dining table and in the head.  The boat smelled like an
Indian restaurant for weeks.) Keeping some classy appetizers liked dry-cured
smoked salmon and crackers in the dry storage areas is not a bad idea
either.  Believe it or not, brandy and port seem to be more in demand than
beer.  The same guys who drink beer during the day want wine with dinner to
toast the moonrise.   Be careful of spilling red wine or port - they are a
pain to get out of the gelcoat.  Don't forget some fancy dessert, or I've
got to say that cheese and crackers go really well with fresh fruit and
port.   You think I am being flippant for doing this on a boat:  well, try
it and then see what you think.
Night's End
	I guarantee that after a good meal, a good glass of brandy, and a
pleasant sail, you will crawl into your bunk with pleasant dreams.  And, if
you don't like it as much as I think you will, just set your alarm to go off
early the next day:  you have the opportunity to have a full day's sail
ahead of you.  Not bad, two sails in less than 12 hours!  Life can be tough
sometime.
_________
	Adam Weiner, 46 this month, is a caterer, and a member of the Sierra
Point Yacht Club in San Francisco Bay.  He owned a Santana 22 for nearly 20
years before his wife, Marie, bought him a 1995 320 for his 42nd birthday as
an early "male menopause" present.  KELE, hull 218, is a Hawaiian double
verb meaning "To Sail" and "To Begin to Cook."

(Put the following in a SIDEBAR)
RUNNING LIGHTS
	One of the key things for safety at night is running lights.  Know
how to read other boats' running lights, particularly for determining right
of way, and know how to recognize if a tug's lights show that it is towing
something.  Check your own running lights each time before you go out.
Don't forget to check the steaming light.  Once when we checked the dual bow
running lights needed a new bulb.  For the next several sails I noticed that
the reflection of the lights on the bow pulpit seemed strange but always
forgot to investigate when we got back to dock.  Finally, during a sail I
walked to the bow and hung over the bow pulpit.  We had put on the lens
cover the wrong way!  Thus most have confused the heck out of the boats that
we had sailed past.  We still laugh over that error.  The bottom line: check
that the lights work, that they are angled correctly, and that they are the
right color!
(Put the following in a SECOND SIDE BAR)
TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE
	Of course, one concern about night sailing is the possibility of
hitting something in the water.  I realize this is a risk, and actually
avoid night sailing at times when this is a higher than average risk, for
example after a big rain storm or snow melt when large debris would be swept
in via the many rivers that flow into San Francisco Bay.  I must confess
when I do go day sailing I am usually more focused on sail trim, speed, the
relative speeds and bearings of other boats, the scenery, feeding my guests
and crew, etc. than I am actually looking at the course dead in front of the
boat.
	While drafting this article I did a 30 mile, 7 hour day sail and
purposely worked hard at trying to maintain a keen lookout directly in front
of the boat.  My conclusion was, with the angle of the boat and the size of
the 135% jib, it is extremely difficult for the helmsman or anyone from the
cockpit to maintain a sharp watch directly over the bow.  I also noticed
that when I steered from the windward side of the boat, I could not see
other vessels (including a container ship of all things) until they appeared
on the lee quarter.  My boat does not have a dodger, but I wonder how (at
day or night) a helmsman in the day on a boat with a dodger and/or Bimini
top would be any more blind than I am night sailing.