Adrift at Sea —Dan’s blog on dankim.com

This morning, I went down to Performance Cruising to put a few things on the boat. While I was there, I mounted the ensign flagstaff on the stern arch. I also checked out the handheld VHF charging cradle and GPS chartplotter. The handheld VHF has very limited DSC capability, and needs an NMEA 0183 feed to get the location data from the GPS unit.

Will was going over the Telstar with another owner, who is picking his boat up tomorrow, and his brother. I sat in on the session, as I strongly believe that repetition is a good thing, and each time I sit in on one of Will’s Telstar briefings, I learn something new about the boat. The owner’s briefings cover things like the various systems on the boat, rigging the boat, prepping the boat for trailering, and how to raise and lower the mast.

Will then did a mast-raising and lowering demo. He had the owner go through it as well. The Telstar’s patented mast-raising system allows you to raise and lower the mast using a single control line led to a sheet winch. This is one of the main reasons I chose a Telstar. I still find the system fascinating to watch.

After the demo, Will, the two brothers and I went out for a sail on Telstar #321. This is the experimental boat we had gone out on earlier in the week. There was one small difference in the way the boat was rigged today from earlier in the week—the boat now had a screacher mounted on the bowsprit, in addition to the genoa and mainsail.

A screacher is a relatively large, roller-furled, light air sail, designed to be very easy to handle. Like the genoa, the screacher is on a roller furling unit to make handling it much simpler. Unlike the genoa, the screacher furling unit doesn’t use a foil—and it can only be used for furling, not reefing. Like a spinnaker, the screacher is designed to be used in relatively light winds. Unlike a traditional spinnaker, the screacher can be used sailing upwind, as close as 40 degrees off the wind. It is also much easier to handle, as it doesn’t require a spinnaker pole, sock or guy lines.

With the light winds this morning, 8-12 knots, we started out with the full genoa and main. Will suggested that we try the screacher out after sailing with the genny and main for a while. I was interested in seeing how the screacher performs, as I’ve got one on the PG. After seeing how the Telstar performs under a the genoa and main, and getting caught on a crab pot line, we furled the genoa and unfurled the screacher.

The screacher is too large to be tacked normally. To tack the screacher, you have two choices: you either have to roll it up on the furling unit and unroll it on the opposite tack, or use the sheets to pull the clew around the forestay. Unfortunately, the line that comes on the screacher furling unit is a bit short, and to unfurl the screacher, you have to walk the furling line forward.

With the screacher up, we were doing 8–10 knots in about 11 knots of wind. During the time we were out, we saw a few other sailboats and easily left them all in our wake. These boats were monohulls and ranged in size from 26 feet to about 40 feet. What can I say but “Screachers Rock.”