Copacetic

 Its not often that there is Goldilocks weather in the Gulf of the Farallones. There is usually either no wind, or way too much wind and always that nasty short chop. I went for a short sail up the coast for lunch at Muir Beach and the weather was, well, just right - 15 knots of breeze, full sail and nice swell with no chop.

So it was a little foggy, but you can't have everything. Great views of the rocky coast to Muir Beach where we had a lunch stop.

Coastal cliffs

Muir Beach for lunch

After lunch, sailed out to catch the NW sea breeze and hoisted the spinnaker for a long run back under the Golden Gate Bridge. Got one or two good gusts inside the Bay and showed 13 knots on the speedo.

This kite, at 240 square feet is about just right for the Bay - it is still manageable in the gusts and seems well balanced with the boat. It is a bit small when the wind is light though. 25 nautical miles this trip.

Heavy Weather Jib

When things start to blow it all depends on the heavy weather jib. After getting some advice from Rory McDougal on sail sizing, I got this from Rolly Tasker. It is their smallest storm jib at 28 square feet. When I first hoisted it I laughed because it looked so small, but when the wind is blowing over 20 knots it looks just fine. I have found that I can have fun tearing around the Bay in pretty much any conditions with the storm jib and first or second reef in 25 knots+. I only have one reef in the working jib and it is still 55-60 square feet reefed, so a second reef in the working jib would also have been an alternative to the smaller storm sail.

28 square feet!

Downwind reaching this sail works great. On a sail last week in SFs windy "slot" between the GG bridge and Berkeley, it was gusting to 30 knots and Little Cat was making 14 knots in places reaching with just the storm jib and a reef in the main. Coming home upwind into the wind and chop was a different story though - we could only make about a knot VMG into a 3 knot tide and wind gusting to 20 knots with the storm jib and two reefs in the main.


The prescription for Little Cat upwind in order of wind strength seems to be:
- up to 15 knots true wind speed is ideal for full working sail, especially in flattish water.
- about 18 knots true reef the jib and flatten the full mainsail with cunningham and sheet
- about 20 knots reef the jib and first reef main (both sails flat)
- over 20 knots use the storm jib and first mainsail reef (no chop) or second reef in the main with chop
- alternately no jib, a double reef in the mainsail, and engine at half throttle has got me home with the wind on the nose gusting over 40 knots in the Bay


I have sailed with full jib and main reaching downwind with the wind gusting over 30 knots - but it is hair raising and I have come close to capsizing. With the caveat that I'm always holding the sheet ready to let go, the prescription for me for safe sailing (reaching) downwind is:

- first reef jib and first reef main (good for around 20 knots true wind)
- storm sail and first or second reef main (25-30 knots true wind)
- storm sail alone (I don't have a third reef in the main, and have not had to try this yet).

One of the things that I have learned sailing in the sometimes gnarly conditions in the SF Bay and beyond is that my little Wharram likes a small jib (and bigger mainsail) going upwind, and a bigger jib relative to the mainsail going downwind. Before I figured this out, in strong downwind conditions I would be battling home in the shipping channel with a reefed main and no jib causing too much weather helm, and a strong tendency to round up (in steep waves and 20+ knots). Now I use the jib/storm jib with a reefed main, and it will surf home on autopilot with a light helm - awesome!

DSC VHF + GPS

That's a lot of acronyms. VHF and GPS we all know about, but DSC is the new coastguard emergency protocol here in the US. When correctly set up, DSC allows an automatic emergency call on a dedicated frequency, which provides the coasties with boat information and position with the press of a button. In order to meet the local offshore racing requirements, I had to install a 25 watt DSC radio with a masthead antenna for last year's Single Handed Farallones race.

The radio is a Standard Horizon GX1600 and is mounted on a ply pad that I glued to the cabin side. That was the easy part! I chose this model, which is a little more expensive than the base model, because it accepts the RAM 3 powered extension microphone that I have outside in the cockpit when things get wet.

VHF on cabin side. Note the coax cable through the bulkhead.

The hard part is installing the VHF antenna. I dropped the mast, and drilled a largish hole at the top and bottom of the mast. I used an electrician's fishing wire, that I bought from the Home Depot for $10, to "fish" the vhf cable through the mast. The cable is marine coaxial and is surprisingly expensive, but has proven reliable in the long term. The coax connectors had to be soldered at each end, so I also have a new soldering iron.

Standard Shakespeare 3dB sailboat antenna

coaxial through hole drilled in bottom of mast

I left some slack coax at the bottom of the mast in case I have to adjust the cable tension, and ran the cable through a simple Sea Dog brand thru-hull into the starboard cabin. I chose not to add a connector at the mast base to maintain a single continuous cable from radio to masthead.

Seadog thru-hull

In order for the radio's DSC capability to work properly, it has to receive data from a GPS. I was too, um, economical to buy a vhf with internal gps, so needed to wire in my hand held GPSMAPcx GPS. This required the purchase of the Garmin accessory cable which I bought online for about $20.

Garmin accessory cable and GPSMAPcx

Here is how I wired the VHF to the GPS accessory cable:

VHF                                GPSMAPcx (via the accessory cable)

Blue GPS in +                 Brown GPS out +
Gray DSC out +              White GPS in +
Green (GPS in - )             Black -
Brown (GPS out - )          Black - (connected to both Green and Black)
                                        Red + (power from battery)

The accessory cable comes with a dedicated ground (black) to run back to the battery. But I found that there was sufficient ground through the (green and brown) negative connections on the VHF, and that the dedicated ground was not required (saving an extra run back to the battery).

The GPSMAP is installed on the standard Garmin mount on a pad of ply that I epoxied to the hull side. One of the unforeseen benefits of wiring in the handheld is that it is powered as soon as the accessory cable is plugged in and I am not changing batteries all of the time. Also, the mount position allows me to read the GPS from the cockpit with the hatch cracked open, and it is not out in the elements.

Everything is wired to a U1 battery which seems the right size for the dimensions of the TIKI 21, and that I only charge up every few weeks. It seems to have plenty of reserve for the mild draw of the VHF + GPS. This picture also shows the temporary battery set up. I plan to mount them permanently under the bunk at a later date. A second U1 battery powers the autopilot.


It is now a year after installation and the whole system has proved very reliable with no problems. I can now sail offshore and up and down the coast with improved peace of mind having the extra range of the installed VHF. Estimated range is 20 miles vs just 5 miles with my hand held VHF. The furthest I've called so far is from Point Reyes to SF coastguard (more than 20 NM) and the transmission and reception was crystal clear.