First sail

Listmates: Cal 20 #1220, the lovely /Martha C/, launched on Wednesday, May 9, got her mast stepped a week later, and set sail for the season on Thursday, May 17, at 7:14pm. It's summer! Well, almost. The sail was short because there were some black clouds moving in from the NW and, with light wind, I wasn't going to be able to dash for the mooring. But everything worked fine with no glitches. I picked up the mooring under sail just perfectly. This matters because I'm the first mooring off a busy restaurant ashore and any blunders are very visible. My boat was the 5th in the mooring field this year when I launched and 7th when I sailed. We hard an odd early spring, with March warmer than April. And then on Sunday my other boat, the old Seafarer Polaris /Bakers Dozen/, was under sail for her 52nd season, my 45th year of sailing her. There was no wind on Saturday and a bit more than I hope for for a first sail on Sunday, but I was surprised all over again at what a huge difference last year's new working jib makes. This boat is a shallow-draft keel/centerboarder with hard bilges for form stability. I was making almost hull speed on a broad reach leaving the river mouth and feared it would be a hard slog back to windward. But when I came about, she just sailed beautifully, traveller down and mainsail flat with a little luff as needed. What a pleasure. Of course, when i got back to the marina I had to deal with the downside, which is a sail that feels like it's made out of cardboard and that causes all sorts of windage forward because it can't be scrunched into a little wad like the old one on deck, but it's worth it to have a boat that moves forward instead of sideways. Chris Campbell