[Rhodes22-list] Was (no subject) now bimini

[KUHN, LELAND]

Dave,

I definitely believe in "one hand for yourself, one hand for the ship."
Plus I may be stupid but I'm not crazy, or vice versa.  When I
singlehandle or feel no one on board would come save me, I wear an
inflatable fannypack.  If seas are rough I don't venture far from the
cockpit.  I typically don't sail from the lazzerette unless the bimini
is up, and then the bimini and boom make great handholds.

Not to get too personal, but how do you relieve yourself?  Wrap an arm
around the leeward aft stay and you can have two hands for yourself.
And with a little heel it ain't a far shot to the water.  "A Little
Heel" is my wife's name for it; not mine.

Good luck with the bimini.  I was at Harrington Harbor North last week.
Is that your marina?

Lee 

-----Original Message-----
From: DCLewis1 at aol.com [mailto:DCLewis1 at aol.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2007 1:40 PM
To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Was (no subject) now bimini


Lee,
 
Great to hear from you.  I hope you're surviving this heat wave.
 
If there's one clear take away from this Bimini thread, I think it's
that  
every one that has a Bimini really loves it, but there are drawbacks  to
its 
current implementation - most of us work around those  drawbacks. Stan,
Art, or 
whoever might want to think about this  thread.  We all love it, we all
use it 
a lot, but it's in the way when  stowed, and when its up there are
mobility 
and visibility issues.
 
Do I understand from your post that you steer standing on your
lazzertte  
when you sail?  Wow!  Don't you worry about being  pitched overboard?
You 
single hand this way? Do you wear a safety  harness?  You might fit
right into 
Rummy's extreme sailing team.  The  only hand holds I can envisage if
you're 
standing on the lazz are the backstays  - as I recall, the stern pulpit
is less 
than knee high.  You really do  that? 
 
Regarding your sails flapping all over the place comment:  Actually,
that's 
what triggered my initial concern.  We were sailing in a pretty good
wind in 
a choppy sea - small craft warnings as I recall - and I kept  hearing
the 
sails flapping.  Not a big problem because we were moving  along, but it
was 
annoying.  We had the Bimini up so I couldn't see to the  top of the
Genoa from 
where I sat in the cockpit, but it looked OK below,   I hauled it in a
bit 
anyway.  Still flapping.  From where I sat in the  cockpit I really
couldn't see the 
luff of the mainsail with the Bimini up, but I  hauled in the mainsail 
anyway, still flapping.  Finally I made the effort  to crane my way
around the 
Bimini ( I don't practice Yoga, and the boat was  pitching pretty well)
to find the 
furling line had come loose of a cleat on the  boom and sail was bellied
out 
and flapping - the sail was working, but it  could have been working
better 
and a lot quieter.  It shouldn't have  happened, it was easy to fix, but
if I 
could routinely monitor what's going on  above the Bimini I could have 
recognized the problem immediately and taken  action.  No harm done, we
had a good day 
on the water and we made it home,  but I think I'd like to find a way to

monitor "above" with the Bimini up,  someday it might make a difference.
 
I suppose we could have loosed the Bimini, pushed it forward and looked
up  
to spot check the mainsail, but it seems to me the optimal approach is
to be  
able to just routinely look up from a position in the cockpit with
minimal  
configuration changes to anything (to include me) and see what's going
on.   JMO
 
Since the experience above, I make very darn sure the mainsail is set  
properly and well cleated off when I deploy it because I assume I'm not
going to  
see it again for the rest of the trip unless we decide to reef. 
 
Whatever, stay cool.  But for heaven sakes, get down off that  lazz man,

you're going to drown!  Really, you do that? 
 
Dave



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