MAX EBB "Y
H
ow had I gotten myself into this mess? Lee Helm, a grad student and a great crew, seems to be getting less and less available for crewing on my boat. In the summer, she'd rather be windsurfing, and in the winter she's usually more attracted to lighter and faster boats than my aging racer-cruiser. But for this race the owner was out of town and left Lee with the con. It was a trade: I crew for her this weekend, she crews for me next weekend. And I had agreed to this without ever reading the fine print: It was a boat full of beginners, mostly Lee's college student friends, and I was charged with doing foredeck and giving sailing lessons while Lee was to win the race for the absentee skipper. If I could keep things untangled, that is. "Okay," I sighed, resigned to my fate. "Where do they keep the spinnaker sheets? And do we need to re-pack any of the chutes?" "Strings're already run," Lee advised. "And the chute's in the launcher. We're
Launching and retrieving spinnakers can be frustrating — and sometimes downright embarrassing. Lee Helm has found a better way.
like on my boat? I think I still understand how that works." "That's so last-century," Lee answered. But she was distracted by some questions about rigging the jib sheets before she could explain, leaving me to explore the front half of the boat on my own.
T
his foredeck did have some unusual features. First and foremost was the great big hole in the forward hatch, which I discovered the hard way — by falling in. It was disguised by what I first thought was a spray dodger of some sort over a normal hatch lid, but there was no solid surface underneath it and I sank in up to the knee. "Mind the hole in the foredeck," shouted Lee, just a little too late. Hiding this hole was a large dry-bag, one of those waterproof gear bags with the roll-up seal at the top. The bottom end of the dry-bag was firmly attached to the foredeck hatch via a ring of bolts and a circular gasket, squeezing the fabric between the hatch cover and the gasket. A hole had been cut in the bottom of the bag to match the hole in the hatch cover. This essentially created a cloth stovepipe on the bow, with a roll-up top. Three lines, which I determined were the two spinnaker sheets and the halyard, led out of the bag. The whole thing was folded flat on the deck, held down by shock cords to the toe rails on either side. It was not
LATITUDE / LADONNA
ou want me? To do foredeck? foredeck Surely you're joking." But she wasn't joking, and she really did want me to do foredeck for a day. The boat was a little smaller than my own, and therefore not particularly intimidating, load-wise. But it'd been years since I'd been in front of the mast on any race boat, including my own, and on bigger boats I'm seldom allowed forward of the traveler after the race starts. "There's nothing to it, Max," Lee Helm tried to assure me. "And you're the most experienced foredeck crew on board." "But I’m the wrong body type to be on the bow of a boat this size. Can't one of your college friends do point?" "They're all newbies," she explained.
PHOTOS MAX EBB
Lee's dry bag spinnaker launcher at the ready to launch (left) and receive (above).
set for a starboard-side hoist, so most likely it'll be a floater." "Launcher?" I asked. "Can't I just clip the bag to the lifelines up near the bow, Page 104 •
Latitude 38
• November, 2010
a bad solution to an old problem: How to let sheets and halyards go through the deck while keeping the water out. I moved aft, entered the cabin and found my way forward to the underside of this contraption. The spinnaker sat in a plastic laundry bag tied in place on the V-berth, right below the hole in the hatch. Every-
thing was already hooked up. Meanwhile the boat had started to move, without anyone's starting the engine. Lee and her crew had cast off and were sailing out of the harbor when I finished inspecting how things were rigged down below. "Looks like we're ready to set," I informed Lee. "Just give me some warning when you want the pole, if you think you can handle my weight on the bow when we're going upwind." "We'll keep it simple and, like, set the pole after the spinnaker," Lee explained. "That way we don't have to worry about which side the strings are rigged, and no weight's on the bow till after we round." "A floater set, with first-time sheet trimmers? Are you sure about this?" "It's the easy way," she insisted. "And I have a secret exercise to bring the trimmers up to speed." "Which jib do you want on deck?" I asked. "Tee up the 150," she decided. "But be really careful not to put the jib between the spinnaker sheets and the spinnaker halyard. All three strings have to come out of the same hole in the rigging." "Of course," I said as I found the big jib and asked another crew to help me snake the long sausage bag out of the cabin and up to the foredeck.
