Strong winds

The forecast was for strong[ish] winds of 16 knots. Unfortunately, at least for me, James was not available as he is having sailing lessons. Anyhow I decided to try sailing the wayfarer alone. I had made change to the rig, adding a temporary outhaul line, the thinking being I could tighten the outhaul to depower the sail if needed. However... this temporary rig slipped, doing the opposite to what I wanted, while I was sailing off the shore and the boat shot out from the sailing club with me having great difficulty in controlling her.

So I hove to and fixed that problem, but the wind was still building so I furled the genoa. It was still building. This would have been quite exciting with a crew, especially a crew with a little more weight than James. Anyhow I decided to sail into the shore and furl the main. Yuk, boom roller furling is a mess. This winter I will have to get slab reefing put in. Not only is it very difficult to do, but it leaves the main sheet unclipped and running from the stern as end sheeting. But the biggest problem is that the rolling of the sail tends to push the boom off the goose neck of the mast. Messy.

Anyway... had a bit of a blow around the bay and then went in as James had finished his lesson to see if he wanted to come out with me. The wind strength was still building and he was tired from sailing his Optimist in this wind, so we both decided enough for the day.