A couple of weeks ago I was sailing with my Mum and step-dad and got the wrap from hell, while we ended up sorting it out after a lot of fuss it inspired me to actually research how to get out of it. Gybing the main and sailing deep / by the lee can, after today, be confirmed as working, at least once.
Watching this video (part of an AWESOME series) convinced me that the takedown wouldn't be too bad.
And so it was!
After a hour and a bit of working upwind to get space I hoisted the kite, let the autopilot do the steering and trimmed to it's somewhat meandering course.
Having settled down I did three gybes. On the first one I forgot to slack the uphaul so it took ages to get the pole off and I got a wrap but gybing the main cleared it up nicely.
My approach to gybing was:
- Run about 160 deep
- Square back the pole (get clew to near the forestay)
- Push boat through the wind and gybe main
- Go swap the pole
- Trim pole, new sheet
This might not work in stronger winds, as the pole had some load on it after taking the boat through the wind. I took this approach as I thought it would be less susceptible to wrapping, but I'm not sure that's the case. Next time I'm going to try gybing the pole first, then swinging through the wind and gybing the main, as we do when sailing with a crew.
As it was the second two gybes worked perfectly, taking me about 3 minutes to get from trimmed on one side to trimmed on the other, next week I'll have another go and perhaps reduce this.
For the takedown I controlled the halyard with my backside, released the guy and pulled into the companionway and it was all super smooth.
A couple of shots from up the mast. Position has great potential for amazing photos and video but I need to get the camera better mounted to the rigging (and without it being a hazard!).
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