Leaning out!

Second lesson today alone with Erin. It was both fun and scary!

The fun part - noticed some improvement since last time out, smoother shifting my weight, a little better with my hands / coordination with sheet and tiller.

Today we basically ran broad reaches between a couple bouys, and I spent the time tacking back and forth. Was able to start getting my eyes on exit points and get the boat pointing out of the tack onto the planned trajectory with less correction than I previously had to make. I still had my moments of getting tangled in the main sheet (at one point I think I had it wrapped around my neck!), and stil had a few moments where the tiller got away from me, but I'll forgive myself and say that there was, at least, improvement.

Reaching between the marks was good fun. Erin finally got through to me with the idea that falling off helps to flatten the boat, and the practice has become a LITTLE more intuitive. After a few reaches back and forth, I got a couple good runs in; it felt really "great" during those moments when the boat was hustling forward, and my body was a balanced tension between leaning out and feeling the tension of the water against the rudder, pulling on my arm through the tiller extension. For lack of a better term, it felt "solid" at times, and maybe even, when all was right, "natural."

I still struggle once in a while with the tiller. For some reason, on random occassions, I seem to forget which way to move the tiller to point in the direction I'd like to point in, but I'm trying.

More than that, I have difficulty trimming the main - at times she was luffing so annoyingly, but I was a bit nervous about trimming her because the wind was pretty strong; Erin said it was about 10-15 knots, with gusts up to 20 (she mentioned that it's got to get to between 15-20 knots before the sand starts blowing off the beach, which it was doing). Anyhow, hiking out and getting a feel for balancing the boat was a real treat, if not a consistant one, but I'll work on it. A few sketchy moments, enough for Erin to remind me about how to handle a capsize. I thought that was pretty telling, and figured we might want to take it easy.

Came into the dock pretty hard - Erin let me know that when it's really windy, it's good to let the sails out before turning up into irons toward the dock, just to scrub off some speed. I didn't hit the dock or anything like that, but the approach was a little more dramatic that it needed to be.

After we docked and talked a little, the wind really started kicking up (that's when the sand started blowing). I didn't feel comfortable going back out, being as novice as I am, and Erin thought it was a good conservative call. She said she would not have let classes go out in that wind, but would have gone out with me since she would have been on hand to jump in if things got too ugly. Anyhow, I'm glad I didn't push it.

What else... For next time, I want to work on my jibes (stuck with tacks today - with the wind as it was, I just felt more comfortable), coordination, and steering. I have a feeling that I'll be working on all three (as well as tacking!) for years before I really feel 100% at home. I don't think Erin thinks it will take as long, but we'll see!

One question I had but forgot to ask... Assume you're on a beam reach and your sails are timmed nicely for a set wind speed.If the wind speed increases, without changing direction, should one ease the sails? The boat will heel more, I'd think, with the increased wind power, but wouldn't easing only cause them to luff?

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is whether sail trim is a function of wind speed, wind direction, or both, and how. I will try to think it through for next class before talking with Erin about it, too.

Today was fun AND scary. I can't wait till it's just fun...


***