Went out on Angela’s Valkyr (a cutter rigged Down East 38) yesterday. In winds from 8 knots to about 14 knots she seemed to hit about half of apparent wind speed. Seas were running from 2.5 to maybe 3 feet and she rode over them with no problem and was dry both in the cockpit and up on the bow.
Sail handling on Valkyr wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. the main once it was up a few feet went up hand over hand as fast as I could pull it up. The stay sail went up even easier.. The jib was the only sail that didn’t set real easy. It still has a lot of resistance to unfurling off the roller furling. It went on easier than coming off and even going on wasn’t as easy as I think it should be.
The only excitement of the day was docking… and it was only exciting for me… Angela came coasting into the lane her dock is on at about 3 knots and just whipped the boat over into the slip with two hard hits on the engine.. I was up on the starboard side of the boat to fend off and to jump on the dock with the lines and tie up.. In my head is was starting to go.. “oh shit!!! oh shit!!!”… a scream of “Angelaaaaaaaaaaa!!!” was trying to jump out of my throat. Luckly I restrained myself .. It was an awesome docking. She came in fast to keep the wind from having an opportunity to push us away from the dock and timed it just perfect. Dead stop so I could just step off the boat and using the spring lines secure her to the dock. 🙂 It looked impressive. As most of the other people on the dock who started to head the other direction could attest to. Angela got several admiring complements on her boat handling. Talk about your “coming in hot” moments though!!
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