A day on the water

  Cruising around between the Cape and the Vineyard, on ample wind power!

S took me out sailing with a couple of her friends who own a trimaran.  It was a perfect sort of day for it -- clear, brisk wind, not too warm.


[Images here are linked to larger copies.  In addition, here is a flat list of the large images to help facilitate bulk downloading.]
View toward stern View toward aft of our crew: F, S, and R mostly hidden in the cockpit.

In the foreground, the "sunshower" is warming up for when we'd eventually want to sprinkle salt water off ourselves.


View toward bow View toward the bow, with "the girls" relaxing.  This is the craft: a Corsair F-27, a well-engineered and fairly popular boat that's taken a number of awards and is still prominent in the used market.  Said to be easy to sail, very stable, and easily trailerable with outriggers that fold in.

Respectable sail area It sports a respectable sail area, and for today the main was even reefed down a couple of turns.

Rigging near cockpit All the rigging lines come back to the cockpit for easy access, including the halyards [to raise the sails], jib lines, and centerboard up/down.  Any of them can be wrapped around a winch for extra hauling power, and there are plenty of cleats [most are even labeled] to secure things.

Taking the tiller for a bit I was handed the tiller for a short while, and even in the relatively calm sea found it rather engaging to stay on course.  The mild swells really try to push the boat around.

Relaxing In general R and F did most of the sailing, allowing the rest of us to relax and enjoy the ride.

Wake at 11 knots The wind picked up a little over the course of the day and as we got farther out; we were making 11 or 12 knots at times and leaving a long wake.  With lots of room in the strip of water between Falmouth and Martha's Vineyard, all technically part of Nantucket Sound I suppose, we didn't have to change heading too often.

Upwind ama Upwind ama lifting clear
Under meaningful sail a trimaran basically sits on the main hull and one of the outriggers, called "ama" after the Malaysian tradition.  The upwind pod usually lifts clear of the water entirely, and having crew out sitting on it for counterweight is entirely optional.

Artsy sail shot Semi-artsy sail shot.

La Liberte' Spotting ...
S brought her high-end birder binos, to help in spotting other vessels.  Here's "La Liberté", basically a "dude schooner" carrying lots of tourists.  It was actually pretty difficult to get a good view with the pitching of the boat, and I realized that one of those old long and heavy brass telescopes would probably damp the motion and work a lot better.  Fortunately, a camera's fast shutter speed can freeze the motion but I really needed a much taller zoom.

Ring around the sun With all the high cirrus clouds there was a nice halo around the sun for much of the day; the sail provided a convenient light blocker for trying to capture some of the ring a little better.

Back into the channel Eventually it was time to head in again via the channel near Mashpee, staying under sail as long as practical given the fairly busy traffic.

On motor, direct headwind The ride up the channel was *directly* upwind, so we were on the putt-putt motor pretty much all the way in.  It doesn't stick down very far and kept coming clear of the water every so often, so we all sat near that rear corner to try and shift weight to keep it down.

Ring with sundogs As we moored and hung out for a while and eventually shuttled gear back to shore, the halo was still there and had even grown a couple of somewhat indistinct sun-dogs on the sides.

_H*   150811