About steering...

About those recent job numbers, something Mitt should read, and in the total BS department...

The really big thing people sailing sailboats need to keep in mind is that the best course is seldom the direct one. It actually bothers me to even mention it being such a basic premise and all but since I keep observing people bashing dead to windward under power that, just maybe, it deserves a mention from time to time.

Have you ever sat at anchor and just watched the wind? Wind is interesting and it is always shifting... I don't care if the weather report says it's blowing from the east (that's an average of course) it is seldom just blowing from the east. It moves, it shifts, and if you're not sensitive to its minor changes, you're not going to be sailing to your best advantage.

Since wind is a fluid thing, a course needs to be fluid as well to be able to get as much oomph as possible which is why you might not want to be slavish in following that heading to the next waypoint...

Which, as it happens, is why self-steering gears work so well. They track every little wind shift and keep you in the groove. Sure you might not be steering a perfect straight line on the chart but since the wind is not blowing a perfect course either it all works out for the better.

Autopilots on the other hand, unless integrated to your wind instruments, will force you to  sail a direct course but autopilots are idiots and, since most folks using them simply dial in a compass course, you're not going to be in sync with the wind...

Not so long ago I realized that my chart plotter had a problematic effect on my sailing ability. Seeing my current course as a graphical interface, while being neat and all, had a real tendency to distract me from the course I should be steering in favor of the subliminal desire to make for a straight line on the chart plotter. Put the cover on the chart plotter and, hey presto, all of a sudden I'm going faster towards where I want to go. Take the cover off the chart plotter and I'm losing a knot or more...

Kinda like Kryptonite for boat speed...

Which, I suppose, is why so many folks sailing from St Thomas to St Martin simply wind up motoring on a straight line course into the wind and swell as they're addicted to those nice straight lines on the chart plotter.

Listening to Ezra Furman & the Harpoons

So it goes...