Alacrity in 20 knots

Talking about youtube-videos. Here is one I found of an Alacrity sailing in 20 knots of wind. It's quite short, but the guy seems to enjoy himself. Looks like he has full genoa and one reef in the main on.

Self-tacking jib experiment

I read this article in a boating magazine about how to rig a very simple self-tacking jib arrangement, so I just had to try it out. The system setup is like this: a long line is led through a block at the jib, then made fast at the winches. The idea is that when you tack, the jib moves to the other side of the mast and stops at about the same position on the opposite side. 

First I tried it with the big jib and it worked quite well (see video). Later, I tried it with the smaller jib. Unfortunately this one extends a little too far aft of the mast, so the block tended to stick to the wrong side of the mast. Still, the boat did sail quite well anyway, especially if I adjusted the windward part of the sheet a little. Of course this arrangement does not work with a genoa. Another downside is that you are unable to heave-to with this arrangement in place.

Making tea hove-to

I was out for a few hours today. As the wind was quite cold I hove-to after a while and put the kettle on. I just had to try another Dylan Winter-imitation video, but this wasn't very good either. Not much of what I am saying is comprehensible, I guess I need better equipment...