Originally Posted By: MDinana
Originally Posted By: Desperado
waves or W.A.V.E.S.??
It was tough enough coordinating the sail and wind with 2 people. Get proficient at handling a boat by yourself - there's a suprising amount of stuff to do!

Have fun! I'm envious.


I'm envious too.

Sail handling is made a lot easier by creative rigging. I've raced boats that were 41 feet long and never used a main sail winch. We had a main sheet that used a six-to-one racheting block, with the top dead end lead connected to another set of four-to-one blocks, as a fine tune. It ended up as a twentyfour-to-one purchase and you simply did not need a winch to pull it in, even in 30 knots of breeze.

I also like lots of cam and stopper cleats, because they free up winches and other cleats. Since you probably should have little need to do really fast sail changes, the risks of needing to burn a halyard without a winch are minimal. I got a rope burn from having to do it once, but we did pretty good in that race, so it was kind of a badge of honor and it healed. I was both navigating and working the pit, and I got caught moving too fast between the two spots, and had no time to put on my gloves.

I agree with most of MDinana recommendations, but add one. KNOW, I mean really know, your home waters. Study your charts, highlight on thecharts or copies all of the places you shouldn't go. So, if your boat has a 5 foot draft, highlight the places where you think it is too shallow to go, say, the ten or eight and less places. Give yourself some spare ater under the keel. When I was working in New York Harbor, a bouy could not be moved twenty feet without me knowing it was not in the same spot. I was there all the time, I studied things, how it was supposed to look, etc. There were times I went into places where the water was shallow, but those were also times that I exercised caution and tried to keep my stern clear of any shallow spots. Protect your stern more than your bow, because that is where the props and rudder are located.