Sculling Oars Part 1

Sailing along without relying on the engine is nice, as long as there is wind. On calm days, this can present a problem. 

What Maddie and I do is we time the tides, so that they will help push us into rivers, or pull us out of them. So even if there is no wind, we still make a bit of distance over ground; albeit a very slow progression.

On board Wisdom, we have a small electric motor that we use for maneuvering around the marina. This motor can be used for very short distances if the wind dies and we are almost at our anchorage. The problem is since we opted for such a tiny battery bank, we can't use it to cover great distances.

On board Windpuff, we have no engine at all, so our only way to get around the marina is warping, or sailing. Sailing in and out of the slip is hard with a full keel and no room to tack. Warping is simply time consuming to do on a regular basis, since Windpuffs slip is so far into the marina. 

Our go to method for moving the sailboats when there is absolutely no wind is towing them with Tooth, our 13 foot row boat. We are able to tow Wisdom at speeds of 0.5kn to 0.8kn, and Windpuff through the marina, but only when there is absolutely no wind. A whisper of wind and the sailboat can start to drift and pull me along with it. Think about it, 300 pounds of rowboat and person or 5 tons with Windpuff or 17 tons with Wisdom. The other issue is the time it takes to set up and put everything back. You have to get in the row boat, move the painter from the stern cleat to the bow cleat, and then start pulling. When you are finished, you have to do it all in reverse. This doesn't sound like much of a problem, but it is.

Our new plan is to make use of a sculling oar! The set up would be much quicker, simply load the oar into its chock and secure it with a few lines. That's it! If wind picks up, or you need to steer, you're already on board in the cockpit! 

I don't know what speeds I will be able to achieve as I have not finished building them yet, but I will be happy with anything over 0.5kn. 

The dimensions for the oars are roughly based on the dimensions listed in the Pardey books. I measured the freeboard at the transom, and roughly stood where I wanted to be when sculling, and planned from there. 

The oars I'm making are 16 feet long for Wisdom, and 14 feet long for Windpuff. The stock wood I'm using is a 2x12 of Douglas Fir from Home Depot. Not the best wood for boat building purposes, but at $18 for a 16 foot plank of rift sawn, I figured this would be a great way to see if I even like sculling the boats without shelling out a lot of money for excellent clear grain wood.

I then ripped the board in half with a circular saw and proceeded to cut out the blanks for the two oars. This yielded two pieces with relatively vertical grain.

The oar blank is about 2.5" wide and only 1.5" tall, making it rather weak. One of the cut outs from the blanks was then used to make a top laminate to give the oar handle more strength.

From here, I will need to plane the stocks so that they can lay perfectly flush, glue them, clamp them, shape them, and finally seal them.

More will be posted as the build progresses

Glenmar Sailing Association Labor Day Cruise

Today we set sail for the Chester River to meet up with the Glenmar Sailing Association!

I joined Glenmar about two years ago when I was invited to join by Dave Farhmeier. It's a great organization that will keep you busy! They have races, fun cruises, cookouts, lectures, meetings, and so much more! 

This cruise took us to Grey's Inn Creek, up the Chester River. This was a fun and relaxing cruise for us as we had just gotten back from our month long cruise South. We set sail Saturday morning and the winds were wonderful! Run out of the Inner Harbor, Broad Reach down the Patapsco River, Beam Reach all the way across the bay. 

When we entered the Chester River, the winds died down significantly, but the current was drawing us into the river at around 0.5kn. Not tremendously fast, but still moving in the right direction! 

As we rounded the southern channel marker, we made our turn to head North up the river towards our meeting point. This is when the winds picked up from the East and we were able to sail all the way up the Chester River on a beam reach. It's not everyday that the winds are always blowing in the perfect direction!

The Chester River is gorgeous! Calm waters leading to tree lined shores and sailboats everywhere! We entered the creek on a broad reach and sailed straight down between the tree lined shores towards our destination hidden in the Chesapeake Bay; it was so peaceful.

We rafted up with Dave Farhmeier (Down Home) and Tom Ritter (Twelfth Night) who made much better time than we did and then headed over to the party boats to hang out with new friends. Everyone brought drinks and hors d'ouevres, so everyone got to eat and meet all the other members.

As the night drew on, we grew tired and retreated back to our boats for a very calm night in some of the most protected waters I've been in. 

Sunday was a very relaxing day for us. We ate wonderful meals, did some work on the boats, and swam. I tuned my rigging before breakfast while the women did yoga in the morning on the aft deck of Twelfth Night. The tuning proceeded quickly, only taking about 20 min to do all the shrouds.

After that, I went up the mast of Twelfth Night to do an inspection of his rigging. While up there, I was able to capture a birds eye view of the whole flotilla. 

When things heated up, we all went for a swim in the pleasantly warm waters of the creek. Dave and I took this opportunity to scrape off any soft growth from our boats. This then transformed into another relaxing afternoon on the water followed by a night of card games.

Monday Morning we set sail at sunrise to ride the tide out of the creek and river. There was a gentle whisper of wind that was able to push us along at around 2 knots with all the sails up.

Along the way, the other members of Glenmar passed by and I was able to get pictures of their boats.

Once in the bay, the winds died completely and we drifted along with the tide as it flooded the bay. Thankfully we were out of the river by this point or else we would have been pushed back into the Chester River.

In the afternoon the winds returned and we were able to sail along between 4 to 5 knots as we made our way back to Baltimore. We arrived in our slip that night just after sunset, after a relaxing sail from a quiet creek filled with good friends and fellow sailors.

Hank on vs Furling

When it comes to headsails, Roller Furling seems to dominate the scene. Almost every sailboat has a furled up sail wrapped around the headstay. We should take a look at the pros and cons of roller furling as compared to hank on.

Roller Furling Pros:

Easily deployed
Easily stored
Easily reefed by partially furling sail
Can be managed from cockpit

Roller Furling Cons:

Mechanical parts that can fail
Hard to furl in strong wind
Poor lead in angle due to furling extrusion
Sail makes headstay bulky when furled
Weight aloft
Hard to change headsails
Hard to inspect headstay

Hank On Pros:

Less mechanical parts
Easy to lower sail in strong wind (simply release the halyard)
Ideal sail shape (this is why race boats have hank on headsails)
Minimal windage when sail is lowered
Sail can be removed for strong storms to further reduce windage
Minimal weight aloft
Easy to change headsails

Hank On Cons:

Sail must be flaked and stowed when lowered
Limited number of reefs available to be put in
Not as easy or quick to deploy
You have to go forward to tend to the sail

You need to evaluate what you are looking for and what compromises you are willing to accept. As you can see, the both have pluses and minuses, it's just a matter of finding which you can live with.

On our Alberg 30 "Windpuff", we have a roller furling because we use this vessel for day sails and the ease of setting and stowing the sail can't be beat when doing short sails on the bay. Sail shape suffers a bit and we can't put up different sails, but it's easy!

On our Morgan 45 "Wisdom", we have hank on because we use this vessel for ocean sailing and long trips. We have two headsails that we run on the same stay, a jib and a drifter for light airs. If we had a roller furling, we would have needed to install another tack point to fly the drifter from since the jib would be furled up on the headstay. 

In strong winds, we can always lower the sails by releasing the halyards, allowing us to reduce canvas in a hurry! 

Having fewer moving parts also means less to go wrong or break. If a furling line breaks, the headsail will unfurl instantly. This tends to happen at the worst time. Also, in high winds, the loads on furling drums is also high, hence the need for bearings to aid in spinning. This all occurs at the bow where it is bathed in salt to expedite corrosion. The other problem with the furler wrapped around the headstay is that it is nearly impossible to inspect the headstay. You have to physically open the furler to get a look at the steel cable inside. 

I did not like the thought of my mast being held up by a hidden piece of metal in a highly corrosive environment, so I weighed out the other points and decided to go with a hank on system with a synthetic headstay.

Dyneema can not rust, so the entire system is immune to the corrosive environment of the bow. The chafe sleeve installed over the headstay protects it from the hanks sliding over it and the ends of the stay, where the most wear occurs is doubly reinforced with service wrapped around the stays.

This system has given us the piece of mind to confidently sail out to sea for miles without ever worrying about mechanical failures.

What system do you prefer? Let me know in the comments down below!

Summer Cruise Day 4

Today we set off in the early morning and set sail heading South!

We untied from my dads boat and left Harness Creek. The winds were light that morning, but we were able to keep moving forward, at first...

Shortly after we left South River, the winds died and we began drifting South with the ebbing tide. When the tide began to flood, we dropped anchor to keep from drifting North up the bay. At the following slack tide, we decided that we wanted to make some more headway South, so I hopped into Tooth (our trusty dinghy) and began towing our 45 foot Morgan. 

This was anything but a fast tow, as I was only able to maintain a speed of 0.5 to 0.8kn, but we were moving in the right direction for a change. 

The comical part came when a passing cigarette boat witnessed the spectacle and came over to me asking if I needed help, thinking I had run aground. The look of bewilderment that overcame their faces was priceless as the conversation unfolded:

"Are you OK?" --- power boat

"Yes, there was no wind so I decided to tow it" --- me

"What?! Where are you heading?" --- power boat

"North Carolina" --- me

After I assured them we were OK, they went on, probably convinced that the stereotype about sail boaters is completely founded.

After around an hour of towing, the winds gently began to blow again and I returned to Wisdom to resume our usual method of voyaging under sail.

Summer Cruise Day 3

Today, we didn't move! We were plugged into my dads boat all morning charging up the very depleted batteries from the day before. We finally were charged up in the late afternoon and decided to enjoy the rest of the day and set sail in the morning.

We swam around Harness Creek, hiked the trails around Quiet Waters Park, hung out with friends (John and Deeber on Next Step), and took it easy! 

While we didn't sail any today, we did begin our cruise of not following a schedule and doing what we wanted to do!