From: jfh@cs.brown.edu (John F. Hughes)
Subject: Re: Sailing into a slip
Keywords: Sails
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 22:18:04 GMT

In article <1992Sep28.193911.23016@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> kellerd@ilex.lle.rochester.edu (David E. Keller) writes:
>> 
>> Notions of "proper" certainly change over time. I respectfully disagree with
>> Peter here, and feel that one's duty, in getting one's boat to some place, be
>> it mooring or slip or anywhere else, is to be in control of it. If I can
>> control my boat under sail better than I can under power, I should be under
>> sail, right? 
>
>Wrong.  

This speaks for itself.

>        If you are sailing in and have your aux running in case of need I 
>guess it might be all right.  But you are not being honest you say you could
>handle a 180 degree windshift with no maneuvering room better with a sail than
>you could with 40 horses.

And you are not being honest if you say that you can handle a fuel blockage
better under power than under sail. Remember, I can't steer Sarah's head very
well running under engine alone. I do just fine under sail, even with
windshifts. Don't believe it? Come watch me someday. I look hard at where I'm
going and manuever very carefully, under *very* little sail. If I'm near other
boats, I want to be moving so slowly that I can stop Sarah by pushing hard
against whatever she might be about to hit. At that sort of speeds, there
are facts about my prop that make it very hard to manuever (comes partly from
having a tilted prop shaft---see Chapman on this one). 

And before you accuse me of dishonesty, you should sail a mile in my boat...

>We are all romantics or we would not own sailboats but let's not get carried
>away.  The old "real sailors" would have used the iron jenny if they had one
>around port.  They were practical people getting a job done - not romantics
>practicing art.

Nor am I. I use my engine sometimes. Hell, I often use it just to charge the
batteries, and as long as it's running, I might as well be using the power it's
generating. But do I furl the sails and stow the winch handles? Not on your
life. Three ugly times I've had my engine do funny things to me. The first
was when it overheated and then blew a hose at the end of my first long trip:
Cape Cod to Portland, Me. We arrived at the same time as a fog bank, and had to
work our way among the closely clustered islands under sail, in the fog, with a
dying breeze and dark falling. Now suppose that I'd never practiced close-
quarters manuevering...where would I have been? (By the way, the water where I 
was happens to be about 60 deep, up to about 20 feet from shore. Anchoring 
turns our not to be too useful). The second time my exhaust manifold studs
sheared as I worked my way out of a harbor. No sails up? No practice at
close-quarters manuevering? The Hinckley B40 to leeward would have looked like
someone attacked it with a sandblaster---it was blowing about 25 knots, and I
was solo. The third time? Nothing serious---I put the boat in the water at the
start of the season and it overheated almost immediately. Ran out the jib,
picked up a buoy, and all was well. No sails? No previous practice? Well, 
ask the boats to leeward of me what *they* would have preferred. 

(By the way, the first two problems happened during the first few months I 
owned her--leftovers of the previous owner's engine maint. The third was due to
a bum thermostat.)

The old guys could sail circles around any of us, because they sailed all the
time. I don't sail to my mooring because I'm romantic. If I were romantic in
that way, I'd have a wooden boat with a gaff rig or even square sails. My 
"romantic" boat is a Herreschoff 12 that I sometimes sail. The reasons I sail 
in situations where it seems tricky are that (1) I feel that challenging 
myself to things I know I can do, but want to do better, is a good thing, 
and (2) I know that when I handle my boat under sail, she is more manueverable 
than under power. 

>If you need to convince yourself you can get to a dock with sails alone 
>make sure ALL your resources are ready for use.  

The key is always in the ignition switch, and the batteries are on "Both". I've
checked the fluid levels before going out, and have usually run the engine
briefly while under sail to be sure that the batteries are charged. Now how
about you? When you come in to your slip under power, do you have the jib and
the main ready to hoist, and the anchor ready to let go? Or is the sailcover
already on, and the winch handles stowed, and the anchor somewhere below?

>                                                 But please, get it out of
>your system.  I pay a lot of money for a SAFE place to keep my boat and do not
>need a lot of people practicing around her.

Dave: if I ever scratch your boat or any other, I'll pay for the damage,
whether I do it under sail or power. We *all* pay lots of money for our boats
and for places to keep them. 


>Yes, engines fail.  I try not to depend on mine by creeping into slips rather
>than relying on a last second hard reverse tactic.  But I have seen extremely
>shifty winds among the pilings a hundred more times than I have heard of
>engines failing while maneuvering around a harbor.

Well, by contrast I've had my engine fail more times than I've been caught by a
bad breeze. Whose experience should I trust, yours or mine?

>The best place to practice is around a practice buoy you set rather than around
>other people's property.
>
>I do not know what is "proper" but I do know what is practical.

You know what is practical for you. 

>These comments were not intended to fan the flames already rampant.  I just
>do not want to see a lot of people trying to prove themselves good sailors by
>docking under sail in conjested harbors.

Nor do I. I simply want to see people handle their boats in the safest possible
manner. 

-John