Blog of S/V Salty Beach

 A couple years ago, I was sorting through sails from my parents old Tanzer 22 and came across a spinnaker that was unfamiliar. Looking closer, I realized it was an old cruising asymmetrical, specifically a Thurston Thrasher (Thurston sails is now part of Quantum). I don't recall ever using it, nor seeing my dad use it. We always raced with the traditional symmetricals. I figured it would be perfect for Salty Beach , which lacks the hardware for a spinnaker pole, and would be easier to rig for short-handed sailing. I decided to try it on the next outing. Today was that day. It was drifter conditions, which was perfect for experimenting with the chute. Thankfully, I have two masthead halyards. The further forward of which I used for this spinnaker. It had a spliced tack line and, curiously, a single bronze hank near the tack. I figured the bronze hank was simply to stabilize the tack by clipping to the forestay, so I attached it. I failed to think through this though, and I ran my s...

The Conanicut Yacht Club Around the Island Race is an annual tradition for Floating Point (my old Frers 40). I didn't have any desire to race it in Salty Beach , but I figured I would take the opportunity to do a little single-handing and hopefully nab some photos of Floating Point and others racing. My initial plan was to leave early and sail around Beavertail at the south end of Conanicut Island (aka Jamestown) to hopefully capture the boats setting spinnakers after rounding the usual windward mark. I was far too late leaving though, so I took my dad's suggestion and drove to Beavertail State Park. Since I now had plenty of time to wait for the boats, I thought to stop at Fort Wetherill on the way to get some upwind photos. I'm glad I did as my favorite picture of the bunch was from that stop! I watched as Floating Point hoisted the very-recognizable blue and red spinnaker, but it apparently came out of the bag early and ripped near the upper part of the leech. Thankf...