Sailing with Avi and Jocelyn, Beam Reach Both Ways

Jocelyn had been complaining for some time that she had not gotten a chance to go sailing and this was her opportunity. With the winds steady at 8-12 knots from the west this would provide a great operating for some stable beam reach sailing up and down the lake.

A beam reach, or with the wind blowing directly towards the side of the boat, is a very stable point of sail which affords the benefits of less healing (the sidewise tipping of boats under sail) then a close reach and without as much drag. A constant beam reach also means no tacking or jibbing as can be seen from our chart plotter from that day (right).

We had a great time heading up, although a little subdued without the drama of constantly tacking up the narrow waterway. When we got to the north end I decided to try to do some spinnaker runs in the bowl from west to east. It was around this time that the wind really picked up and we had a little drama getting into position and with launch and recovery. This was also because out spinnaker lines may have gotten tangled a little. In the end we only had the spinnaker out for a couple minutes before having to bring in back in and beam reach back down the lake and back into port.

All in all, a great day of sailing with a beam reach the whole way.

The following day was race day. This time, I jumped aboard a Flying Scott, a much larger boat. It was a windy day, overcast with intermittent showers. The big boat sailed well, although the boat I was on had a pretty novice crew keeping us in last place for the whole day.