[Public-List] Dolor sailor on Alberg 30 made it to Hawaii, broken rudder

[Stephen Gwyn]

Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked.

The point of all that was to say that, based on my experience, I don't 
think it's realistically feasible to steer using the sails alone for 
sustained periods of time offshore in large waves.

On 2021-09-23 4:00 p.m., Winslow Ayer wrote:
> Wow. I’m sure you feel lucky indeed. Glad you made it.
>
> Winslow
>
>> On Sep 23, 2021, at 6:15 PM, Stephen Gwyn<stephen.gwyn at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> And even then... Coming back from Haida Gwaii on this ketch it
>> was blowing 25-30 and we were down to staysail and mizzen. The
>> boat was balanced, but not still not stable. Despite full keel,
>> gaff rig and being a ketch, the wheel needed constant attention
>> to keep her with 10 degrees of her course. At one point in
>> the night, I was steering and she kept wanting to luff up by 20
>> degrees. Luckily as it turns out. Just after I got her back on course,
>> a huge 6-foot diameter by 60 foot long log loomed out of the dark.
>> Had I been where I supposed to be we would have hit it. That log
>> would have sunk an A30, and done a lot of damage even to that boat.
>>
>> SG
>>
>>
>> On 2021-09-23 2:35 p.m., Winslow Ayer wrote:
>>> The beauty being with a mizzenmast you can drop the main, leave the headsail and have nice steerability and headway.
>>>
>>> Winslow