Preview: The storm trysail: A faithful and forgiving foul-weather friend, by Ed Zacko

October 12, 2016

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This is an article from Good Old Boat (a magazine we like a lot), written by Ed Zacko. Good Old Boat and Ed have graciously allowed us to republish it for OCH members.

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Ellen is on top of me! Our legs are entwined! We are lying against the starboard side of our cockpit footwell. It is horizontal, parallel with the sea, and seawater is pouring over us from the lee side cockpit coaming. Without any warning, ENTR’ACTE has been knocked down by a ferocious gust of wind and is on her beam ends, mast and spreaders in the water. To reach the mainsheet is nw a vertical climb against gravity and the wind. Finally, one of us manages to let the sheet fly but the line jams. By this time, like a panicked tightrope walker, I am crawling forward through the water along the starboard lifelines, all the while praying for the mainsail to “please blow out” and end this thing. Does anyone actually wish for a sail to blow out? Well, it’s not every day that a sailor gets to see his cabintop rising vertically from the sea.

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