Sailor Girl
wingssail image-fredrick roswold
Judy
The upwind steering position on Wings: Judy sits on the high side where she can see ahead and see the tell tales on the jib. She holds the tiller extension easily in her right hand, and if it gets windy she'll put her foot against one of the battens on deck.
The tiller is 6' long and usually light as a feather. If the wind is strong and it's a bit hard to steer then its time to reduce sail.
This isn't the standard configuration for a cruising boat, and even racing boats now days don't look like this: the cruising boats have deep cockpits with seat backs and protection from the elements. On a typical cruising boat you are in a walled cocoon. The raceboats, on the other hand, have wide cockpits where a handful of people can walk around.
On Wings we have neither. Our cockpit is not wide nor deep, its not walled in and we don't have room for a bunch of people to walk around. At the helm station on Wings there really isn't a cockpit at all; just a flat wide deck and a foot well that's basically a place for the engine controls and a hatch, and a spot to throw beer cans and whiskey bottles.
So you say: we are exposed on the high side with no protection. Yes, when the boat takes a knock-down we are looking at the sea 15' below us over a long expanse of deck and not much to keep us from flying right off into the ocean. Does that scare us? Not that much. We do have a solid stanchion right at our elbow to grab, and anyhow, when we are cruising we don't steer that much; we let the windvane steer and we are in the small cockpit behind the dodger.
So you say: the tiller is too difficult on a long passage. Yes, I'll grant you that hours on the wheel are easier than hours on the tiller, but like I said, on those long passages we aren't steering, the windvane is. We carry spare parts and an autopilot and we keep our fingers crossed that we don't have to do this all the way across an ocean. In 20 years, we haven't.
The plus side is that from this position we can feel the wind in our faces and we have great visability forward. If you love sailing, you'd love to sail this boat, and a large part of the experience is steering from the high side with a tiller in your hand.
Fred & Judy,. SV Wings, Phuket
For more shots of Wings'steering position, click the links below:
When you need to see!
Everyone is on the high side!
Wide decks for working!
Great visability!
JudyThe upwind steering position on Wings: Judy sits on the high side where she can see ahead and see the tell tales on the jib. She holds the tiller extension easily in her right hand, and if it gets windy she'll put her foot against one of the battens on deck.
The tiller is 6' long and usually light as a feather. If the wind is strong and it's a bit hard to steer then its time to reduce sail.
This isn't the standard configuration for a cruising boat, and even racing boats now days don't look like this: the cruising boats have deep cockpits with seat backs and protection from the elements. On a typical cruising boat you are in a walled cocoon. The raceboats, on the other hand, have wide cockpits where a handful of people can walk around.
On Wings we have neither. Our cockpit is not wide nor deep, its not walled in and we don't have room for a bunch of people to walk around. At the helm station on Wings there really isn't a cockpit at all; just a flat wide deck and a foot well that's basically a place for the engine controls and a hatch, and a spot to throw beer cans and whiskey bottles.
So you say: we are exposed on the high side with no protection. Yes, when the boat takes a knock-down we are looking at the sea 15' below us over a long expanse of deck and not much to keep us from flying right off into the ocean. Does that scare us? Not that much. We do have a solid stanchion right at our elbow to grab, and anyhow, when we are cruising we don't steer that much; we let the windvane steer and we are in the small cockpit behind the dodger.
So you say: the tiller is too difficult on a long passage. Yes, I'll grant you that hours on the wheel are easier than hours on the tiller, but like I said, on those long passages we aren't steering, the windvane is. We carry spare parts and an autopilot and we keep our fingers crossed that we don't have to do this all the way across an ocean. In 20 years, we haven't.
The plus side is that from this position we can feel the wind in our faces and we have great visability forward. If you love sailing, you'd love to sail this boat, and a large part of the experience is steering from the high side with a tiller in your hand.
Fred & Judy,. SV Wings, Phuket
For more shots of Wings'steering position, click the links below:
When you need to see!
Everyone is on the high side!
Wide decks for working!
Great visability!
posted by wingssail at 10:37 AM
1 comments
Relaxed
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Judy
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