Cruising Issues

Catalina Direct Discussion Topics / Catalina 22 Discussion Area / Cruising Issues / Singlehanding a C22, autopilot or not?
 
 
Author Singlehanding a C22, autopilot or not?
Robert Thomas
Wakefield, RI

Boat Name: Nautigirl

Model/Year: Catalina 22

Hull No.

Hailing Port: QDNYC, N. Kingstown, RI
08/27/2005 3:11 PM Pacific Time

I mostly sail in Narragansett Bay which is a great location but often I would like to sail and cannot find someone to go with me. I can singlehand the C22 pretty easily but the trouble I have is raising and dousing the sails on my own. I have a slip in a marina that requires a fairly lengthy ride to the bay through channels and such so I don't have the luxury of hauling up the sails while on the mooring and then simply dropping the mooring line and sailing away. I am considering either a Davis Tiller Tamer or an autopilot from Simrad or Raymarine. Obviously the Tiller Tamer is the cheapest solution but to me the autopilot makes more sense. The pilot will allow me all the time I need to set the sails and also will really help me sail singlehanded since they have "autotacking" features. Any ideas appreciated. RT
Michael Smalter
Webster, NY

Boat Name: Marrakesh

Model/Year: 1986

Hull No. 13645

Hailing Port: Rochester, NY
08/27/2005 5:04 PM Pacific Time

I've had an Autohelm AH800, since 1988. Its great. I highly recommend it. I think the ST1000 is the closest thing to it nowadays. Annualized, it has cost me about $26 a year.

Another excellent tool is a jib downhaul (if you don't have roller furling. Install a large pulley at the bow behind the forestay using a clevis pin. Run a long line from the cockpit to the pulley, and tie it to the jib shackle. It raises with the jib, and if you loosen the jib halyard, you can drop the sail on the foredeck from the cockpit, provided that you head into the wind.



Boat Name:

Model/Year:

Hull No.

Hailing Port:
08/28/2005 4:36 AM Pacific Time


Robert, I bought a Raymarine ST1000-Plus last year and had nothing but headaches with it.

See:
"Installing the Tiller Pilot"
http://www.chipford.com/tiller_pilot.htm

and, "Working with Raymarine on the Flawed Tiller Pilot"
http://www.chipford.com/tiller-pilot_problem.htm

When it worked, it was invaluable, especially for the reasons you cited -- but it keep breaking down when I was depending on it. I took it back a number of times and Raymarine (which is up in Nashua, NH, close enough for me to drive) service people were great. They just never could find what was wrong with the TWO units I had that didn't work.

Finally, on my third trip up to Nashua, I traded up to an ST2000-Plus (for an additional $100), and it's worked fine since -- I stuck it in the ST1000's mounting hole and plugged it in. I used it all the way along my recent 3-week singlehanded coast of Maine cruise.

It, and all my lines leading aft (with a roller-furler) has made singlehanding a breeze.

Chip Ford --
Marblehead, Mass.
1974 Swing Keel "Chip Ahoy" #3282
Chip Ahoy website: www.chipford.com
Peter
Stamford, CT

Boat Name: Au Contraire

Model/Year: Catalina 22 1986

Hull No. 13325

Hailing Port: Stamford
08/28/2005 6:13 AM Pacific Time

I do a lot of singlehand sailing. It is great! There are some boat modifications that make it much easier and are worth looking into.
1. For single handling or not, get a good roller furling system. It keeps you off the foredeck. Whis is especially nice when the weather gets heavy. It allows you to reef the jib or even douse it quickly. With roller furling your boat is always at the ready for a quick sail.
2. Run all the halyards, downhauls, etc back to the cockpit. It is easy to do and makes for an easier and safer sailing experience.
3. If you want to buy yourself a big anniversary gift (the date you met your boat) and if it is a big anniversary (defined as anything prior to the first 35 years) or if you are not married and just want to get something for the boat, there is nothing like a set of self tailing winches. They really are great!

The Tiller Tamer and/or the the Canadian one, that I have, is a waste of money. A good shock cord works just as well.

Before leaving the dock I take most of the ties off the mainsail. I leave 1 on and also tie it to someplace on main halyard (so the halyard forms a triangle with the mast). When I am ready to raise the main I can easily untie the last sail tie from the cockpit and prevents the main halyard from flopping around. Dousing the main is easy, head up into the wind and drop it. Then while the boat is floundering around, just run up on deck and secure everything. It is really simple.

I am currently trying to set up my boat so that I can use the asymetrical spinnaker singlehanded. I am using a "Chute Scoop". It is a bit of a challenge, but I am getting closer. If anyone has advise on this I am all ears (as the short Texan used to say)


Bill Seger
Lombard Illinois

Boat Name: "Free Willy"

Model/Year: swing 1988

Hull No. 14282

Hailing Port: Winthrop Harbor,Illinois
08/28/2005 12:25 PM Pacific Time

Regarding single handling, I saw a tip in a magazine I've used for several years. I take an average size bungee cord and make a clove hitch in it,slip it over the tiller and attach it to two loops of line secured around my rear docking cleats.While under sail I "roll" the hitch under my hand to keep the boat on course. This method allows me enough time (thought out in advance) to drop a jib,furl the main,or go below for a few moments.
Bayard Gross
Greenwich, CT

Boat Name: Baby Blue

Model/Year: 1981

Hull No. 9911

Hailing Port: Greenwich, CT
08/28/2005 10:35 PM Pacific Time

I use the Tiller Stay offered by Catalina Direct.

Unfortunately, I get the impression that most people do not understand the principle behind the operation of this item.

This holds the tiller by friction via running lines taught from a stainless steel spring that wrap around what one calls friction spools. While this holds the tiller in place, one can still turn the rudder without removing the Tiller Stay. Beads on the line permit an increase in friction when sailing in rough seas.

I put mine on and leave it on. I can easily adjust the rudder as I sail and yet still have the freedom to grab a bottle of water, adjust some sail control, or even when conditions permit (and as I just did) go up to the bow to reattach a shackle for my jib clew.

While I have a mooring, its low tide depth and the prospect of hitting an old mooring mean I must go to deeper water to lower my keel and then raise my sail. The tiller stay is wonderful for holding my heading upwind with the motor running while I raise and lower the main.

Nevertheless, on a Catalina 22, installing the friction spools is difficult so that the line does not interfere with the lazarette covers. I put these friction spools below the aft edges of the lazarette covers on the aft sides of the cockpit so that the lines do not block access to the lazarette covers. You can see this at:

http://tinyurl.com/7mlo8

The picture in the Catalina Direct catalog for the Tiller Stay has the friction spools mounted on the transom. However, to prevent these lines from running into the lazarette covers, they also show some eye straps that hold the line inside the lazarette covers before it goes onto the transom. This is a better arrangement and I have recently changed the manner in which I attach the friction spools to a fashion akin to the picture in the Catalina Direct catalog.

The reason for this change is to allow full turning angel on the rudder. In the arrangement I have in my web site, I restrict the rudder travel. While this was not significant while sailing, it was annoying in tight areas like docking.



Boat Name:

Model/Year:

Hull No.

Hailing Port:
08/29/2005 2:30 AM Pacific Time

Peter Herz ("Au Contraire") wrote above:

"Before leaving the dock I take most of the ties off the mainsail. I leave 1 on and also tie it to someplace on main halyard (so the halyard forms a triangle with the mast). When I am ready to raise the main I can easily untie the last sail tie from the cockpit and prevents the main halyard from flopping around. Dousing the main is easy, head up into the wind and drop it. Then while the boat is floundering around, just run up on deck and secure everything. It is really simple."

On Chip Ahoy, I added a roller-furling system for my headsail last year and can't say enough about it for sailing singlehanded. When I did my all-lines-led-aft project, I added a downhaul for the main. It attaches to the next-to-top slug on the sail then runs down through the deck organizer and back to the cockpit.

See: "The All-Lines-Led-Aft Project"
http://chipford.com/lines_aft.htm

When I'm ready to drop the main, I point the boat using the tiller-pilot. Then I uncoil and release its halyard, haul it down immediately and smoothly with its downhaul. I can control it completely: one line is going up as the other is coming down. If it sticks, I hoist it up a bit. I've run into that a few times when a batten snags a lazy jack line.

I've added lazy jacks, so the sail pretty much falls onto the boom within the restraints. Then I cleat off the downhaul and halyard, throw a sail bungie around the sail/boom over the cockpit just to keep it out of my face, coil the halyard and hang it on its cleat, and I'm done until I can better wrap and cover the sail at my mooring. With the mast gates, the sail luff is all the way down against the boom. Once the downhaul is cleated, that sail isn't going anywhere.

Going out, I do the reverse: At my mooring I uncover the sail and remove all the bungies around the sail/boom but for the one above the cockpit. Uncoil and uncleat the downhaul and halyard and I'm ready to hoist the main.

I've got the same problem at my mooring that Bayard has: Chip Ahoy is in less than four feet of water at mean low tide, so its keel must be up on my mooring. I'm in a very tight, large "parking lot" of a mooring area, thus I must motor out some distance before I can lower my keel and point into the wind.

Chip Ford --
Marblehead, Mass.
1974 Swing Keel "Chip Ahoy" #3282
Chip Ahoy website: www.chipford.com
Robert Thomas
Wakefield, RI

Boat Name: Nautigirl

Model/Year: Catalina 22

Hull No.

Hailing Port: QDNYC, N. Kingstown, RI
09/06/2005 7:23 PM Pacific Time

Thanks for all the replies! I already have all lines to the cockpit and a jib downhaul. The downhaul has been great. Never need a downhaul on the main, it seems to come down on its own just fine. I looked into the roller furling setup but the price didn't warrant the advantages. I just rig the jib, secure it with the downhaul, sail out into the wind and haul it up. Chip Fords website has been invaluable in setting up my boat so thanks Chip! I read the problems with the Raymarine and was leaning towards the Simrad. I have thought over using a Tiller Tamer or that other tiller control from CD but I have come to the conclusion that more lines in my way around the tiller obstructing access to the outboard, etc. is not what I want. The autopilot would also allow extended time away from the tiller so I can sit, relax and watch the water go by. Oh yeah, and I like electronic stuff. RT
Larry
Greenville, SC

Boat Name: Kemo Sabe

Model/Year: C-22 , 1973

Hull No. 2229

Hailing Port: www.keoweesailingclub.com
01/29/2006 11:04 AM Pacific Time

You WILL NOT be disappointed if you buy an autopilot for your boat. Quite frankly, in some regards, it is like having another person aboard who will keep your boat in the correct position for sailhandling when sailing alone.

Other methods of trying to keep the boat on course (tiller tamer, etc.) are fine for whatever, but will not maintain a prolonged course for you in order to do the work with the sails you want to do.

Anyway possible, get an autopilot! I have had one on every boat I've owned for the past 15 years and will not own one without this 'friend'.

Larry
Stuart
Red Bank NJ

Boat Name: Across the Universe

Model/Year: 22/1985

Hull No. 13077

Hailing Port: Fair Haven, NJ
03/12/2006 5:13 AM Pacific Time

I use a tiller tamer that was installed by the previous owner. It looks like the one from West Marine and works adequately during the short time that I need to raise and lower the main.

I read an alternate method, though, in the latest "Good Old Boat" and was wondering if anyody here had tried it: get the engine going and point the boat into the wind and then attach a short bungee between the tiller and the boom. This will keep the tiller in a reasonably straight position initially. Then go and raise the main. As the main rises the boat will inevitably swing but the bungee between the boom and the tiller will not allow it to swing far and both the wind on the main and the movement of the rudder will cause the boat to point back into the wind.

In theory it sounds like this would work much better than a basic tiller tamer and even an autopilot as this method will actually ensure the boat remains pointed into the wind - even if the wind slowly changes direction on you. My only concern is the amount of swaying and if this would make it difficult to move about the boat etc - I imagine the tightness of the bungee would determine this.

Has anybody tried this method?
Stuart.
Ed Boochard
Kingsport, TN

Boat Name: Tai Pan

Model/Year: C22 / 1987

Hull No. 13833

Hailing Port: Muskegon, MI
12/30/2008 6:11 PM Pacific Time

I purchased my C22 new in '87, and added an AH800 in '88 because I single hand all of the time and thought that it would be a great help, which it is if you need to motor any distance. The Autohelm has performed without trouble for 2 decades and has been a good investment, but I don't not use it as an aid for sailing. To set sails I motor to a clear area on the water and turn the boat into the wind with the motor just above idle. The Honda has a friction brake on the stearing so it will self stear for a minute or so allowing time to set the main. Just as the boat begins to tail off down wind I pull on the jib sheet and it unrolls the jib. Tie off the roller unit, sheet in the main and jib, and you are done in 30 seconds.
 
 
Cruising Issues
Catalina Direct Discussion Topics / Catalina 22 Discussion Area / Cruising Issues / Singlehanding a C22, autopilot or not?