Anchoring Under Sail

[johngsandusky]

Welcome Bawley, I like your story. My yawl was only four tons, but very handy. With staysail and mizzen I could make her do u-turns in tight quarters.

[gilberj]

Maybe it is just my evil twin, but I am delighted when someone gets upset when I sail through the anchorage. Truth is most do not. I frequently get comments like "it so beautiful" or it "looks serene".......But every once in a while I'll get some old biddy ( not necessarily old or female) will say something like "We are not impressed" or something more direct like "you should not sail in the harbour". I am slightly ashamed to say I sometimes take a second pass at the folks that do not like it.

[Breakaway]

I am slightly ashamed to say I sometimes take a second pass at the folks that do not like it.

You Maverick, you!

[purri]

Yeh verily mate. To motor through moorings is a sign of the proverbial, to sail through such is the mark of a consummate mariner.

Maybe it is just my evil twin, but I am delighted when someone gets upset when I sail through the anchorage. Truth is most do not. I frequently get comments like "it so beautiful" or it "looks serene".......But every once in a while I'll get some old biddy ( not necessarily old or female) will say something like "We are not impressed" or something more direct like "you should not sail in the harbour". I am slightly ashamed to say I sometimes take a second pass at the folks that do not like it.

[johngsandusky]

I used to get grief on the South Shore tacking down a canal. On the North Shore sailing in and out made me seem a bit eccentric ten years ago. Now many boats in my harbor do so, and I like to think I started a healthy trend.

[karl kirkman]

If one would like to gain an appreciation of the niceties of this subject, consult a 19th Century text on anchoring and getting underway in a square rigger. The rudders on such ships were much smaller that we are accoustomed to having available to us, and almost every aspect of the various evolutions depended on generating the correct aerodynamic forces and moments using the sails in various combinations; sort of like rarely having "steerage" way in the sense we are used to experiencing. Consider for example that a clipper ship knocked down her beam ends and losing steerage way ( rudder effectiveness) thereby while rounding the Horn could get caught in this precarious condition and be driven south to die in the ice packs.
Karl

[OldBawley]

In 1999, just before going cruising the Med and just after a nasty experience with a drying sandbank I decided to completely overhaul our old Perkins 4108. The engine was running fine, a overhaul would be good to learn the tricks. At the time I was working in a marina and we had a few very good mechanics to help with advice when needed.
Did everything myself, took a month working after office hours. Although the engine was running fine, the amount of worn and even broken parts was amazing. For example, the coupling plate – vibration damper was completely broken, It literally fell apart taking the gearbox off.
Knowing how to sail your yacht other than on an easy clean tack is the best security there is. Before practising anchoring under sail, I was always worried, once had a mild hart attack followed by acute diarrhea when the engine stopped along the Italian coast.
Nowadays, people have to start the diesel anyway, there electric windlass will not work efficient otherwise. Most of them have no idea how a complicated machine they are relying on.
I am glad to have a reliable diesel, MrFitzGerald ( Sea-steading ) would have a difficult time in the crowded Med. Sometimes no trick will work to sail away from problems. Only yesterday, sailing, drifting very close to the nw coast of Ydra, Greece. We ware waiting for the “real” wind to come, two small sails up, just 20- 30 yard from the rocks. Sightseeing. No danger, with Google Earth one can even see the type of bottom there. One gets confident. Then some strange current took the giant keel of the boat and brought it to the rocks. No wind, no time to unleash the oars. Good old Doink did the trick.