Storm sails

Just acquired storm sails for "Dark 'n Stormy". The immediate driver for this was the BI Race next month, although I've been optimizing her for distance racing for past couple years. The 185nm BI Race is an ISAF Cat 3 race so to comply I needed at least a storm jib as my mainsail double reef points would satisfy ISAF regs (I think). So I posted an advert on j105.org and the next day I rec'd email from the owner of "Enerj' in Marblehead, MA. He bought that J/105 in Annapolis last year and rather than just sail it home to Marblehead, he entered the Annapolis-Newport Race. That's a Cat 2 race so he acquired storm sails (and other safety gear) for that race that he wished to sell. I had just gotten a $900 plus tax quote for new storm jib, so when he said $1000 for an unused storm jib, a storm trysail and an ATN Gale sail I was definitely interested. Meanwhile I finally found a buyer in Australia for an excellent Airx symmetrical spinnaker from my Catalina 320 that's been sitting in my shed for 3 years. So for a total outlay of $196, (shipping a sail to Australia ain't cheap) my boat is far better equipped for heavy weather and can now satisfy ISAF regs for Cat 1, 2, 3 races. Bring it on!

Brought these sails to the boat last night to try 'em out. It was blowing even more than predicted... 20-30kts and gusting even higher. But didn't leave the dock as it was too damn cold and not especially prudent to seek out these conditions for the very first sail of the season. So we took our time inspecting each sail, and figuring out sheeting arrangements etc.. learning a few things along the way. Carefully packed away each sail with their sheets and did other stuff to ready boat for the season.

Above is a pic of the trysail, sheeting aft to the spinnaker blocks then to the primaries. Actually had to fly a trysail for 36 hours in the 2008 Newport-Bermuda Race on a J/44 when the headboard parted from a brand new carbon fiber main, but that boat had a separate track for the trysail. Hoisting a trysail on J/105 in big breeze wouldn't be easy...think it would be best just to remove the main completely...hope to never have to do that...but can certainly envision using the storm jib occasionally... oh yeah now I have to peel off the sail numbers and apply mine...another little item for the to-do list!

Here's the other pic I took last night while walking out to my slip..marina workers working on the docks...jealous they get to work outside while I'm stuck in an office...