[Rhodes22-list] Was (no subject) now bimini

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Lee,
 
Great to hear from you.  I hope you're surviving this heat wave.
 
If there's one clear take away from this Bimini thread, I think it's that  
every one that has a Bimini really loves it, but there are drawbacks  to its 
current implementation - most of us work around those  drawbacks. Stan, Art, or 
whoever might want to think about this  thread.  We all love it, we all use it 
a lot, but it's in the way when  stowed, and when its up there are mobility 
and visibility issues.
 
Do I understand from your post that you steer standing on your  lazzertte  
when you sail?  Wow!  Don't you worry about being  pitched overboard?  You 
single hand this way? Do you wear a safety  harness?  You might fit right into 
Rummy's extreme sailing team.  The  only hand holds I can envisage if you're 
standing on the lazz are the backstays  - as I recall, the stern pulpit is less 
than knee high.  You really do  that? 
 
Regarding your sails flapping all over the place comment:  Actually,  that's 
what triggered my initial concern.  We were sailing in a pretty good  wind in 
a choppy sea - small craft warnings as I recall - and I kept  hearing the 
sails flapping.  Not a big problem because we were moving  along, but it was 
annoying.  We had the Bimini up so I couldn't see to the  top of the Genoa from 
where I sat in the cockpit, but it looked OK below,   I hauled it in a bit 
anyway.  Still flapping.  From where I sat in the  cockpit I really couldn't see the 
luff of the mainsail with the Bimini up, but I  hauled in the mainsail 
anyway, still flapping.  Finally I made the effort  to crane my way around the 
Bimini ( I don't practice Yoga, and the boat was  pitching pretty well) to find the 
furling line had come loose of a cleat on the  boom and sail was bellied out 
and flapping - the sail was working, but it  could have been working better 
and a lot quieter.  It shouldn't have  happened, it was easy to fix, but if I 
could routinely monitor what's going on  above the Bimini I could have 
recognized the problem immediately and taken  action.  No harm done, we had a good day 
on the water and we made it home,  but I think I'd like to find a way to 
monitor "above" with the Bimini up,  someday it might make a difference.
 
I suppose we could have loosed the Bimini, pushed it forward and looked up  
to spot check the mainsail, but it seems to me the optimal approach is to be  
able to just routinely look up from a position in the cockpit with  minimal  
configuration changes to anything (to include me) and see what's going on.   JMO
 
Since the experience above, I make very darn sure the mainsail is set  
properly and well cleated off when I deploy it because I assume I'm not going to  
see it again for the rest of the trip unless we decide to reef. 
 
Whatever, stay cool.  But for heaven sakes, get down off that  lazz man, 
you're going to drown!  Really, you do that? 
 
Dave



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