Sailing 102 The Schooner

Way back in May of 2017 I thought that I would write a few words on sailing a schooner. First of all, few people actually know what a schooner is let alone how to sail one. 

On my schooner, Merrymaid, we normally sailed  around with five sails up. As an aside, Merrymaid was the Middle English word that morphed into Mermaid. I didn't name her. That was her name when I bought her in 1979 and that was her name her when I sold her in 2014. That was thirty five years of unadulterated joy for me. But back to the "How to" part. 

A ketch is, what us  purists like to say, a schooner going backwards. The ketch has two masts, a mainmast in front, and a shorter mizzen mast aft. FYI, a yawl has it's MIZZEN MAST aft of the steering station while a ketch's MIZZEN is forward of the rudder post.

A schooner has it's shorter mast, called a FOREMAST, forward and it's taller MAINMAST farther aft. There is a JIB sail all of the way forward.  Aft of the jib is the FORE STAYSAIL and aft of the foremast is the MAIN STAYSAIL. Above the MAIN STAYSAIL usually is the FISHERMAN SAIL. It spans the two masts and is raised by two halyards, one on each masts. The FISHERMAN has four corners unlike the three on a traditional Bermuda rig. In addition to the TACK and CLEW the HEAD is replaced with a THROAT and PEAK as on a GAFF rig. Lastly there is a MAINSAIL which is hoisted on the MAINMAST. The MAIN SAIL can either be three sided as on a Bermuda rig or four sided if the boat is Gaff rigged.

The trick to sailing a schooner, and yes most every skill set  has it's tricks, is maintaining the "slot". IE keeping the air flow complete all of the sails. I used telltales inserted at two strategic points on the JIB and FORE STAYSAIL. I also had telltails tied onto the outer shrouds of both masts. I initially used two telltails at the luff of the main but after thirty five years I felt I could stop using them. Some people use strips of magnetic recorder tape but I preferred using bright red knitting yarn, it was easier to see. 

The JIB and FORE STAY SAIL telltails were trimmed to keep them all flying straight back, the MAIN STAY SAIL was trimmed so that the shroud telltails would fly horizontally. The MAIN SAIL was trimmed like a main sail as on any other sailboat. The FISHERMAN was trimmed so that it "looked right".

When reaching, which is as good as it gets on a schooner, we took down the FISHERMAN and raised the GOLLYWOBBLER. A  GOLLYWOBBLER is "a very large quadrilateral staysail set between the foremast and mainmast of a schooner". It fills all of the space between the two masts. Because the MAIN STAY SAIL blankets the wind to the GOLLYWOBBLER, we would take the
MAIN STAY SAIL down after the GOLLYWOBBLER was hoisted. The TACK of the GOLLYWOBBLER was led through a snap shackle on the end of the MAIN MAST BOOM. 

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but this should cover most everything. 

Blue Hawaii

BLUE HAWAII

We’ve been busier than a one armed paperhanger traveling this year. We’ve been to England, Fort Bragg, Oahu, South Carolina, Italy, back again to Italy and then to Kauai and Maui.

We spent a week in Waikiki at a time share condo. I haven’t been to Oahu since my Navy days which is about fifty years ago. Jamie wanted me to see the USS Arizona memorial among other things. I’d been past Arizona dozens of times on the aircraft carrier and destroyer but never stopped to see the memorial.

Well off we flew to Hawaii and I was in for a surprise. Actually two surprises. The first surprise was how much Waikiki had changed. The second was how much was still the same.

We did all of the tourist things. Coach tours around the island, foodie tours around Honolulu, a big luau  at the Hawaiian Village, a catamaran sail around Waikiki beach, a sunset dinner cruise on a very big  boat and then a trip to Pearl Harbor to see Arizona.

We bought the required tickets to take a boat over to the old battleship. After we boarded the launch was announced that the dock at the memorial had been damaged and therefore the memorial was closed. Thanks a lot bureaucrats. So I was motored around Arizona as I had dozens of times before. We were in Hawaii for a week and there was an ABC store on the street level of the condo building so all in all, it was still  a very good visit.

On December 29 we boarded a Hawaiian Air jet and flew to Kuai’i. I had been to Oahu and the big island of Hawaii but never to Kuai’i. Kuai’I was a blast. It wasn’t crowded like Oahu and very green. In fact it’s called the garden island. We stayed in another time share and drove all around the island in a rental car. As we were pulling out of the Dollar Rent a Car place at the airport there was a chicken standing right next to the security lady at the gate of the lot. I said “Oh look, a chicken”. She gave me a funny look and off we drove. Little did I know that on Kauai’I there are thousands of feral chickens running around. At no time is a chicken not in sight. They are everywhere. Big really beautiful, colorful roosters and their hens with their chicks. We drove all over the island and had one hell of a nice time.

We went to an old rehabbed sugar plantation and spent time there at a rum tasting and took a ride on the old diesel powered narrow gauge sugar train. A stop at Hanoi Hanna’s, AKA Hilo Hattie’s was a must. We spent six days in the town of Kapa’a.

A quick fifteen minute jet flight took us then to Maui. We stayed in a remodeled suite the was once an Embassy Suite. I love Embassy Suites and stayed at one when I traveled when ever there was one located where I had traveled so I was more than OK with it. We were in Kaanapali Beach  and took walks down the beach, toured the Island in our rental car and took the Holiday Express on the sugar train, an old narrow gauge steam train complete to Santa’s village where we got cookies and milk along with all of the other kids. A drive to Hana  was a must do. The legendary road to Hana is only 52 miles from Kahului, It's fraught with narrow one-lane bridges, hairpin turns and incredible island views. The Hana Highway (HI-360) has 620 curves and 59 one lane bridges. We went to the town of Paia and strolled around town and ended up at Mama’s Fish House and what a delightful experience that was.

There was a day trip to Lanai’I on a sixty two foot catamaran. We spent the day on a beach and had a motor tour of the metropolis of Lana’I City. Larry Ellison owns 98% of the island and since the pineapple industry has collapsed, he has been the island’s sugar daddy.

We stayed in Kaanapoli Beach for six days and then moved to the Pioneer Inn at the harbor in Lahina. The inn is in the National Registry of Historic buildings. It was built in 1901 and is a three star Best Western Hotel. It is literally feet from the harbor’s wharf.

Two day before Christmas, my son Dave and his wife Amy flew in to Maui and we spent two days with them. We went to another rehabbed sugar plantation for lunch and it was fantastic. The next day we met at The Lahina Yacht Club for lunch. The LYC is very exclusive but Dave is a member of the Long Beach YC we got in. Decent food but another Maui great view. The same evening, Christmas Eve, we had dinner at Duke’s back at Kaanapoli Beach. Very good food and, guess what, another great view. We ate outdoors on the beach.

At ten PM Christmas Day, we flew back to good old Long Beach.