Soul of a Thoroughbred

Waiting for the starting bell

  The Woman went looking for a a truck, which happened to be about thirty miles from my favorite sailing spot so SV Esmerelda, my truck and herself went to go look at it. The weather was forecast to be a bit heavier but "good sailing" according to most charts. I figured if it was too much we could bail and go explore Polson or something. It was a fine plan.
  Surprisingly the weather seemed fine upon our arrival at Big Arm State Park. After looking at the water and feeling the wind I judged were I at the local scum pond I'd take a Teal out there we got the boat rigged and ready. Now it should be noted that we have no true sailboat docks anywhere on the lake. To my knowledge not one public dock was set up with sailboats in mind. The wind was blowing parallel to the dock, stern on from the launch. I managed to get the boards down and the mainsail up in such a fashion as not to alarm the crew. With everything ready, I let go the lines and we started toward the shore, tiller hard over.
  You know how in a disaster things happen really quickly? Thankfully I have seen the events before. First I discovered that at low fill I can find the bottom with the centerboard pretty easily. However it does not get caught it just makes a very expensive sounding noise. If you've been bored enough to read this blog in it's entirety you know I had a bit of an issue with snap jibes and boom skying on the SV Blue Flower. Well turns out a Lido 14 does it pretty well too. Due to the wind I left the dock on a run, and turned up. There was an immediate snap jibe followed by the boom skying and the top of the sail wrapping itself around the mast. Unlike my Teal I can shift weight a bit better and got the boat stabilized and headed into the wind while I set about fixing the issue.
  A tug on the sail got the main unwrapped and set and I set about finding a close hauled course while I got the jib up. I can't say enough good about the crew who followed my hurried orders and help to keep the boat balanced. After sorting out what was moments ago nicely placed and ordered lines we were on a beam reach and headed out into the lake. With a chance to look at the sails I noticed there was a deep draft and figured I'd flatten it a bit to get the power down. It didn't work.

The Deep

  I asked the crew to get the GPS and keep track of our speed and course. Now the hull speed of a Lido 14 is about five knots. We maxed out at 5.5kts on our run out. It seems the boat only wanted to race. "Settle down Esmie" "No! Let's go fast this way!" "I don't want to go fast right now I'd like to figure out how this works" "No! Go fast!" "I appreciate the sentiment but I'm not sure that's the best idea right now. I'm trying to figure out sail trim and-" "Fine. You're not listening, hold on. We're going fast. GUST!!!!!" (With apologies to Tom Pamerin and Jagular. My boat talks too.)
  I'm not ashamed to admit I was a bit nervous. Once more the boat never felt that she was going to go over or anything but being in rather large and very cold water I wasn't as brash as I would be in a small pond with the shore a swim away. So there was much feathering and air spilling and somewhat frantic orders at times. In the end we were out for about thirty minutes and other then a rather interesting start, the sail was a good one.
  I'm learning to sail all over again with this boat. It's obvious she's got a mind about and that mind involves thoughts of speed. I'm not sure what kind of sailing was done with this boat in the past half century but I'm now certain it involves racing and lots of it. On the water the years fall away and this boat just wants to go fast. There was a kayaker on the bay with us and I'm now certain the idea was to go faster then the kayaker could have gone.  However her current skipper isn't quite ready for fast. And I'm not quite sure what to do about that. I have purchased a boat with the heart of a racehorse. Never mind the slightly misshapen sails, the missing trim pieces, the bare fiberglass on the floor and the questionable transom. I'm certain given some courage and a good breeze I could go anywhere I wanted at a speed I've not experienced under sail.
  It's a bit intimidating but I'm excited for the future. I need to fix the trailer and get another tiller but so help me I'll sail for a 3/4 of an hour but June. And maybe go a bit faster. Or a lot.