The Little Seagoer That Could
Thanks for the great article about Thomas Fleming Day and the yawl
Sea Bird (February 2008). I'm not sure I agree with Robbert Das on why a full keel was added on
Sea Bird. Day stated that he preferred a centerboard, but the trunk took up too much room for the three of them to sail across the Atlantic (
Wooden Boat ran a great article on this trip many years ago). However, owning a Seagoer Yawl (a 34-foot version of
Sea Bird) I do find the full keel makes it an excellent open-ocean sailboat. I would like my gaffer to be a little faster in light air...but other than that I can't complain. I came down the Sea of Cortez a few months ago and found that she scooted along at 8 knots using only the genoa and mizzen. Of course, we had a 28 knot "tail wind". Meanwhile a tri and a modern monohull sat hunkered down in a small cove (for days, it seemed). I am looking forward to sailing her to Hawaii in a year or so.
Another great story to report on is Harry Pidgeon's Seagoer yawl (no engine and therefore lighter than my Seagoer the Noe Mar built in 1931). These hard chinned beauties are able to take more wind and sea that I am.
I remember having mine hauled to paint the bottom, in Port Townsend, Washington, when I spotted another Seagoer on the hard. Seems that my neighbor's Seagoer ran into a horrendous storm off Vancouver Island. The skipper and crew were airlifted off, and two weeks later the Canadian Coast guard called the skipper to ask him when he was coming to get his boat. Yes, it survived nicely, by itself, but the skipper with 30 years of real experience at sea said he couldn't get it. Oh well, another Seagoer yawl was saved and still sails in the northwest today.
Ken Scott, via e-mail
Tacking Technique
It wasn't quite clear what Richard Woods meant when he suggested that tacking a multihull can become a problem if the 'mainsail is sheeted too tight prior to the tack' (Cruising Cat Performance Primer, January 2008). My multihull sailor acquaintances and I were taught that multihulls are hard to tack and to backwind the jib when tacking. Imagine my horror when my Hobie 16 jib blew out one windy day on a tack that wouldn't get us back to the harbor. Later, reflecting on the catastrophic gybe and capsize which at least got us on the right tack for home, I realized and then happily demonstrated that using the mainsail was a better alternative. By this I mean moving the boom to windward as the boat turns. This keeps the sailplan center of pressure aft and pushes the stern of the boat through the tack. Unlike backing the jib it has a minimal braking effect on forward motion and keeps the boat sailing smoothly through the tack. I really picked up distance on the competition using this technique. It also helps to make fairly wide turns with multihulls. Their light weight doesn't give them much momentum to keep them turning as they slow down and lose steerage way.
The same technique seems to work on bigger multihulls too. I've seen a skipper's response change from a panicked "no, no, no, don't do that" to "wow, how did you do that?" It can even work when the boat is in irons, although it may be difficult to overcome the effect of the wind blowing the bow off. Woods specifically mentioned high-roached mainsails and a tight sheet in his discussion. I'm not sure if this can explain our perceived differences, but the effects of a tight sheet on sail twist as wind loading drops through the tack may result in some disruption of sail performance that could at the very least slow the boat down. Maybe using the mainsheet car, rather than sheet itself to alter boom position has been my salvation in this. I just held the boom by hand in the Hobies.
I hope Woods takes my comments as an interest in understanding the fascinating physics of multihulls rather than criticism of his excellent article. I have long felt that if multihulls had received as much innovative attention as monohulls, most of us would already be multihull sailors.
S/V Trick, Mazatlan, Mexico
Richard Woods replies: I was glad to hear you found my article useful. It's great that SAIL magazine is publishing articles like mine because, as you say, the more that sailing techniques are discussed the more we learn and the better we sail our boats.
The reason for easing the mainsheet is because otherwise the boat tends to heave-to or weathercock, either to a small degree—which just slows the tack—or to the extent that the boat stays in irons. This effect is amplified if you have a big-roach mainsail. Even on racing monohulls and dinghies it is usually worth easing the mainsail as you tack.
You are right that pulling the boom to windward helps tack a beach cat. I have found that, surprisingly, roll tacking, especially if you lean aft at the same time, also helps speed the tack.
However this article was about bigger boats. Not only are the loads higher than on a beach cat, but also it is probable that the boom is well above head height making it almost impossible to pull the mainsail to windward.
As it is much easier to drop the mainsheet traveller than ease and then sheet in the mainsheet the former is usually my preferred option, but you do need good deck gear to be able to do this when the sheet is under load.
I hope this helps
Music of the Sea
Having just belatedly read Peter Nielsen's editorial in the April 2006 issue, I thought I should write to assure you that we silent sailors are alive and well. This one finds that canned music interferes materially with his enjoyment of the wind humming in the rigging, the calls of sea birds, the snorts of dolphins, and nature's own water music susurrating under the forefoot. Prior to a passage from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Penobscot Bay, Maine, in late spring of 2005, my stepson gleefully asserted that we would be enjoying loud '70s music 24/7 throughout the trip. I replied that if that were to be the case, he would need to find someone else to crew for him. In the end, we compromised and "enjoyed" muted reggae music 24/7 with the unfortunate result that we were both thoroughly sick of it by the time we reached Camden (and he's a Jamaican!). Following this debacle, I proceeded to unceremoniously eviscerate the stereo and speakers on my Lazy Jack 32 schooner, and fully intend to do the same to the audio equipment in my Seafarer 38 ketch. There's enough noise pollution on land, why trouble the sea with it? As they say in Jamaica, "Me ears need to eat grass!"
David Laing, Stockton Springs, ME
