When I moved to the Belfast area of Maine in 1989, I brought with me ACE, a 14′ sailboat that I had built in North Carolina. She had a light, planing hull, and with a crew of two or three she was fast in a good breeze. I had had a lot of fun with her. Getting very wet in the process was no imposition in warm Southern waters.The water in Maine’s Penobscot Bay is not warm, but after the sultry calms of the Carolinas, the brisk summer winds promised good sailing. My wife is a somewhat reluctant sailor, so I had rigged my boat with a trapeze and long tiller extensions for solo sailing. While I was on the trapeze, with two sheets in one hand and a tiller extension in the other, ACE was something of a handful, but in the right breeze she would take off like a scalded cat. Sometimes I would out-pace powerboats across the upper reach of the bay in the triangle of water north of Isleboro, between Belfast, Castine, and Searsport.The wind had to be just right, though, for those exhilarating rides. Too little wind and the boat might zip along with a humming daggerboard and a flat, fizzy wake, but wouldn’t quite reach the frantic pace that, once experienced, made anything pale in comparison. About 15 knots of wind was ideal. Much more than that—well, that is what this story is about.
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Good story, Arch!
Thanks for telling it to us.
Yes, it is the child who teaches the parent to become a better climber, caver, and sailor.
Quite the adventure!
Why I am not a sailboat man!
Jim
I admire your ability to capsize and recover, a skill necessary for a small-boat sailor.
I don’t admire your judgement to risk life and limb, another skill for the small-boat sailor.
Stories like yours are why I’m selling my beloved 36′ Herreshoff Nereia to get back into dinghy sailing. Love your designs, love your art, and now I know why.
Jim
Arch, very interesting story, thanks for sharing, and I especially like your drawings!
Yep, gotta listen to that small voice! Had a little lesson in humility about a week ago.
Loved it. So many near tragedies in younger days and so amusing in the retelling.
Sometimes I think the only way to really learn something is to screw up. And hopefully live to tell about it.
I sail one of your Penobscot 17s and even with a couple of people onboard, I feel it gets pretty sketchy around 15-knot winds. I do love the boat. In 10-12 knots it is perfect!
My wife is also sometimes reluctant and does NOT like to get wet so I’ve learned, just put a reef in and relax. I want to sail, not race!
I also have one of Arch’s Penobscot 17s. She is a dream to sail and I’ve had her out in challenging conditions when everyone else was going over. I do have a reef point in her mainsail and have had to use it, then she settles right down to docile.
She’s a beautiful swimmer.
Arch, I found it interesting you couldn’t tack in high winds, with the jib up, and then found you could tack when you took it down. In my Montgomery 15, in high winds, I definitely cannot tack unless I’ve got that jib up, too.