[C320-list] Additional cockpit winches

[Allan S. Field]

Brian - A good amount of my sailing is single-handed.  The process for
tacking is easy.  Stand in front of the helm, have the lazy sheet ready to
bring in as the genoa comes through on the tack, hold the working sheet in
your hand ready to let fly, and just reach over the binnacle, hit the -1 and
-10 buttons at the same time to tack one way (takes 2 fingers on the same
hand) or the +1 +10 buttons to tack the opposite way.  Once you trim the
sail, return to the helm and fine tune your course.  The other thing to keep
in mind is that the autopilot needs to be set for how many degrees you want
the boat to change direction.  I can't remember where mine is set but
believe it is either 100 or 100 degrees.

Hope this helps.

Allan S. Field
Sea Shadow - #808
Columbia, MD

-----Original Message-----
From: c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com
[mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf Of Amirault
Family - S&B
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 5:54 PM
To: c320-list at lists.catalina320.com
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Additional cockpit winches

All:

 

Thank you for your time. The consensus is that I need to use an autopilot.
Bear came with one, which I have looked at but not used; and I suppose that
it works. More to the point I will need to discover if it does in the coming
summer. 

 

Bear sails on an inland river; prevented by two sets of rapids and a dam
from finding her way to the St. Lawrence and the sea. The orientation of the
river is generally west-north west, and the prevailing wind is down river.
On those rare days when the wind is from the south everyone is on the water
making those one tack trips up stream. On a usual day you spend the day
tacking back and forth up river and then a very broad reach to run for the
trip home. Under Canadian Coast Guard rules I carry no flares as I am never
more than a mile from shore regardless of where I am on the water. 

 

The constriction of the location means you are tacking very frequently even
when the river is not busy and so you are not being forced to change
direction 'cause you aren't the right-of-way boat. This aside, my personal
experience has been that a fool and his money are always welcome. As the
advice is that an autopilot is a better solution than new winches and as I
already have the device installed, I will save the 3k$ of an additional
winch set install and teach myself autopilot basics with the manuals that
came with the boat.

 

If this works for me you may be able to hear my squeals of delight.

 

Regards;

 

Brian Amirault

Waltzing Bear, too