March 10 worked out nicely. I sent an email out to my local sailor friends that I was going to try sailing on that day. The forecast was good, about 9C with sun and light winds. I am no Shackleton, but on this day, I didn't have to be.
It dawned—and continued—perfectly. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the winds were sufficient to push us around the bay well enough. To my great joy, Joe Van Rossem showed up to sail as well.
We started by dodging ice bergs. The wind was blowing lightly from the east, which meant that the melting ice in the bay just to the east of our launch was breaking up and slowly drifting out to the lake and across our path. Ice bergs are surprisingly hard and don't move easily. When you sail past them, you have the impression you can, if you have to, just push them out of the way with the nose of your boat. No so. To try may well mean a hole in your boat because they are as unmoveable as an anchored docks.
Joe and I went out to the channel markers for the Eastern Gap and sailed a couple of windward/leewards to check our boat speed. In 3 to 5 knots, I tried windward heel with lee helm while Joe was sailing more conventionally. I was fast both in speed and height. I even started to think Joe was sandbagging. The setup looks like this: with the heel, your tiller should be about 1 to1-1/2 inches to lee of the traveler cleat while the boat is still moving in a straight line. When you have it right, you can let go of the tiller and the boat and the tiller will sit rock steady. As the boat settles into that groove, you can start sheeting in. I started with about 16 inches between the blocks, and ended up with about 3. The boat just hooks up, and it's an incredible feeling. It does not work in all conditions of course, but I think you have to have it in your arsenal.
And yes, the water was cold. When it filled your boots, your feet became numb almost immediately. Let's hope better weather comes quickly.
Rob Koci races in both the Laser Full-Rig and Laser Radial fleets around District 3. Currently, Rob is the District 3 secretary and maintains a frequently updated race diary on D3Laser.com. Rob's home port is St. James Town Sailing Club in Toronto, Ontario.
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