The Keys in January 2001

The Florida Keys generally have good sailing conditions during the winter season. The sailboat races off Key West each January attest to the expected conditions with easterly winds and temperatures in the 70s. Unfortunately for me, this winter was not one of the typical ones.

I need to drive a little over 1,300 miles from home to Sea Bird Marina on Long Key. I have so far made this trip in two days of about 11 hours on the road each and arrived at the boat in the early evening. This time, the winds were out of the northwest blowing at 20 knots with gusts to 25 and the temperatures were in the high 40s. Being on the Gulf side, there was no protection in the harbor so the boat was bucking at her moorings like a wild bronco.

I boarded and dialed in the combination to the lock - and it did not work! Several repeated attempts convinced me that the lock's internal springs were stuck and it would not open. This was a less than stellar start to a planned six week trip. Since all my tools were on the boat and safely locked away from me, I had little choice but to drive into town and get a can of WD-40 at the nearest K-Mart (25 miles away). Since plan B was to cut the lock, I also got a hacksaw and a few other small tools just in case. The WD-40 however did the trick and no drastic action was required.

By Midnight, the winds were dying down and during the following day, the process continued until by evening, the air was cool but still. This situation was not what I had expected. I was prepared for the lower temperatures but not for the lack of wind.

Solar Wind was equipped with two sets of very heavy duty working sails and a storm sail. I had hoped to get some experience with the boat as is before making any decisions about what additional sails to carry. My experience on the trip down from Tarpon Springs indicated that a light air sail would become a requirement but I had not done anything yet except for making a few inquiries about used sails on the Internet.

I lived aboard Solar Wind for a week while waiting for some sign that the easterlies would establish themselves - but this was in vain. Advance forecasts indicated that while the weather would warm up, the winds were still expected to be 5 to 10 knots and generally on the lower side of the range. Under these conditions I would make little to no progress with the working sails. While I could turn on the iron wind, this was really not my desire. I have motored most of the way to the Marquesa Keys from Sea Bird Marina before and did not want to repeat that experience. This was to be a sailing trip.

Since there was really no plan B and the time window I had allocated for this trip was rapidly closing, I decided to call it a lost cause and head back home. Now the plan would be to use this time to make a drifter sail from a Sailrite Kit.

I had all the boat's dimensions and expected that a drifter would need to be in the range between 135% and 150% to cover the light airs. The genoa track on Solar Wind ends about 5 feet aft of the mast so that would limit the drifter to about 135%. However, I have a full length slotted toe rail on the boat and it would be a simple matter to clip swivel blocks to the toe rail slots in the correct position to take advantage of a larger sail.

After discussions with the knowledgeable folks at Sailrite, I chose a 150% crosscut drifter made from 1.5 oz. rip stop nylon. The intention was to get a sail that would cover the range up to about 10 or even 12 knots and down to about 5 knots. The lighter weight drifters made from 0.75 oz. cloth are only recommended up to about 8 knots so my choice of the heavier cloth was to get a little additional range out of the sail. The choice of crosscut over biradial design was to get a little less weight to help out in the lighter winds. The folks at Sailrite did admit that most individuals chose the Biradial cut but only to get the additional color effects. Color was not an important item to me so I went with just plain white.

I chose to let the sail fly free and did not install any hanks. If I found hanks to be necessary in the future, I could always add them. I did specify the use of an 11 inch pendant to get the sail up off the deck a bit and make it easier to fly the drifter with a headsail bag still in place for the working sail.

The entire sail as specified had an area of 208 square feet and cost a little under $300 for the delivered kit (January 2001 price). The kit was ordered over the phone with a quoted delivery of 5 to 7 working days after the order. In actuality, I received an email confirmation of shipment and online freight tracking information three working days after the order and the sail kit was received 2 working days later.

Sewing is not among my skill sets. However, the Admiral is an accomplished seamstress and promised to either train me in this art; or failing that, she would sew the sail. We had a standard sewing machine and both of us felt that it would not present any problems with the lighter weight material. I suspect that sewing normal sail cloth on this machine would be a different story altogether.

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