First Sail

Today was finally the big day, our first sail aboard On the Brink! We have been watching the weather since Memorial Day weekend the and forecast was always storms and rain, not exactly good weather for our first sail. However around noon today the sky cleared up the the forecast pointed to a window this evening of good weather (clear skies, 10mph winds out of the south with 1' seas). My older sister is in town from Oklahoma so we invited her and my mother along for the ride.

After getting everyone aboard we got the 125 genoa hanked on and settled on the deck before warming up the motor and heading out. The winds near shore were primarily out of the south so we raised the sails right out of the harbor. The main came up with no problems as well as the jib. We had some trouble tying off the jib halyard but eventually got it settled on the right cleat. With the sails settled we shut down the motor and let it go. At first we didn't have enough speed to turn off of the wind and had to jibe towards land before finally heading out.

Once on the correct tack we were able to head out on a broad reach for approximately a mile. This was a great time to start getting a feel for the boat and how she handles. Most notable to me was how much the centerboard helped reduce weather helm to almost nothing. Tacking back was another lesson in speed, I didn't bring the tiller over far enough and we lost steering before we could complete the tack and had to make a second attempt.

Back near the harbor we were able to head up and drop the sails. Once secured we headed back to the dock. Docking was another adventure since for the first time the weather was blowing us into the dock. On the first attempt we came up short and ended up hitting the dock and needing to come back around. The second attempt was much better and counts as one of the best dockings so far (this will take practice).

After a few sandwiches and celebratory beers while watching the sun set and the city lights come up we called it a night and headed back to shore. I'd say our first sail On the Brink was a great success and am looking forward to many more.

As an aside there are a few things I need to look into:
1) the motor is still troublesome, I think I need a new water pump and for some reason idle is really uneven and the throttle does nothing. This will take some work.
2) We need to figure out how to fold the jib at the dock instead of just stuffing into the bag.
3) The main has no tell tales and the jib could use a few in better places.
4) The main is missing battens, oops I'll pop those in next time.