2003 Michigan Challenge
A Learning Experience
By Michael Lynskey (aka RubberDucky)
Now that all of the hubbub is dying down I thought I'd give a little
report on my all too brief experience during the Michigan Challenge. As
a pretext, let me state that although I have been kayaking for several
years I have rather recently gotten the sailing bug. I have taken a Red
Cross sailing course using little Sunfish boats & done a couple of trips
on larger "yachts" but am still fairly new to the sport. I started
experimenting with sail rigs for my folding kayak but decided to get a
more dedicated sailboat when I ran across a good deal on a Klepper
folding dinghy last summer, complete with sloop rigged sailing kit. I
let the boat sit until this year when I decided to prepare it for use in
the Michigan Challenge. For a number of reasons I was late getting the
boat on the water this year and was only able to get a few weeks
practice in the boat before the Challenge. I probably should have used
my kayak for the race, which I am more familiar with, but a few sails in
the Klepper convinced me that it was plenty seaworthy and easy to
handle. The Challenge seemed like a good crash course to get some
experience in the boat in a short period of time. In my limited testing,
I did notice that it did not point well into a strong wind but I was
hoping for enough favorable winds during the early part of the Challenge
to get some miles under my belt and make up for a couple of slow days. I
had also bought some oars and locks for the boat but because of a hectic
work schedule in the weeks leading up to the race I didn't even have
time to test them. Not good, I know, but I figured a week on the water
would give me more time to learn about the boat than I would have
otherwise this summer.
After a hectic trip out to Michigan and little sleep leading up to
the Challenge I was anxious to get out on the water and leave the
stresses of everyday life behind. It was great to see some familiar
faces from last year on the starting beach and make some new friends as
well. With boat assembled and things somewhat in order I was able to get
a good night of sleep at the KOA campground the night before the race
thanks to Mr. & Ms. Pelican, who I shared a site with. The start of the
race came all too quickly on Saturday morning, with me still struggling
to get the boat rigged up and not getting off the beach until about
7:00, in last place but not too far behind Vanman & Draco in their
mega-yacht. A cold front had just passed through during the early
morning hours bringing winds directly from the North -- exactly the
direction we were headed. There were even a couple of light
thunderstorms moving through as I made my way from the beach bringing
winds which eventually built to the 10-15mph range (estimate), maybe 20
at times, for the remainder of the day. North winds on Huron mean big
waves, which stayed in the 2 to 3 foot range, bigger than anything I see
on Minnesota lakes but which the boat handled well. I was sailing
close-hauled, "beating" from wave to wave like a roller coaster but it
became quickly evident that I was making virtually no headway into the
wind and waves. I was only able to get within 50 to 55 degrees of the
wind before the jib would luff and I would lose momentum. I tried
dropping the jib to see if I could sail closer to the wind (seemed to
work once at home) but it didn't help my pointing ability and my speed
dropped quite a bit so I again hoisted the headsail and tried to make
progress. I was sailing along at maybe 2.5 miles an hour, "pinching"
into the wind and getting frustrated. The boat would pick up speed
dramatically as I bore off but at that angle I would never get where I
wanted to go. I actually hit over 10 miles an hour as a max speed on the
GPS and even after being reset I consistently would get 7 to 9 mph as a
max speed but normal speed was 4 to 5 mph when on a close reach. When
close-hauled, however, I stayed in the 2-3 mph range and was only making
about a half a mile every hour of forward progress. I kept trying until
after noon when I was still within site of the starting beach. It was so
incredibly frustrating to watch the tenths of miles to my next waypoint
creeping by. I knew this was futile and I should be trying a different
approach, so sometime that first afternoon I surf landed on a beach with
the idea of trying to row for a change but after all of the trouble I
had in the surf trying to lead my boat through by hand, barely able to
control the boat against the wind I decided it would also be futile to
try to row against such headwinds and waves. After a short break, I
decided to get back out there and try to make whatever progress I could
sailing into the wind. I just didn't seem right to try to row when there
was so much wind out there. I flogged on all day trying to figure out
anything I could do to make better progress, but to no avail. Finally at
about 8:00 PM, the wind died down a bit and I decided to once again try
rowing. The waves had subsided, making me think that I could make some
progress under oars but it became quickly evident that rowing was not
going to work very well. The ergonomics just weren't right (I think I
need shorter oars) and my lack of practice showed as I just wasn't very
coordinated trying to row. I also had a canoe paddle handy, but it
wasn't going to work for any long period of time in that wide of a boat.
At that point I had been sailing all day in heavy weather and had only
made about 5 miles towards the 87 miles I needed to get to Checkpoint 1.
Things were not looking good but I did not want to give up yet and
decided to anchor and rest for a few hours to re-think my situation.
According to the weather radio winds were supposed to switch a bit to
the Northeast during the night so I was hoping I would be able to make
better progress once that occurred. I donned my drysuit as the sun was
going down and settled in for a beautiful nap, bobbing peacefully on the
water with a full array of stars & moon overhead. That was actually the
highlight of the trip for me, being able to anchor the boat and sleep
comfortably on the water like that enjoying the fine night air.
I awoke at about midnight as waves once again begin to build and rock
the boat. I could not tell until I poked my head up out of the boat but
the wind had returned and had indeed shifted a bit to the east. I got
everything ready and raised my sails hoping to make it to Harrisville
State Park by morning, another 10 miles or so north of my current
location. I headed out under full sails and as the wind begin to build I
wished I had reefed down a bit but didn't want to stop because I was
making pretty good progress. The Northeast wind shift allowed me to stay
on one tack most of the time, parallel to shore, but I would eventually
get pushed too close to the beach and had to correct a bit. The more
easterly wind direction had made the waves grow probably a foot from the
previous day and were quite large to me. It's probably a good thing I
couldn't see them clearly at night or I might have been a bit more
nervous. The boat kept me amazingly dry with just an occasional splash
from an errant wave. I had a little too much sail up and had to let the
main out a little in a so-called "fisherman's reef" to spill some air.
It was exciting sailing, heeled over with the leeward rail almost in the
water. I had at least one close call with a huge boulder sticking up out
of the water maybe half a mile from shore, and almost ran aground on
some rocks again as I waited a bit too long to tack. I was able to work
my way out of it, just barely, with the rudder & leeboards scraping but
I made it back out to deeper water without having to exit the boat. It
seemed like I was flying along in the water but the constant beating
against the waves and the headwind still kept my speed down below 3 MPH.
I was within 3 miles of Harrisville when I started to become fatigued
and need a break. I wish now that I would have pushed on a little more
but at the time I really needed some rest. It was about 4:00 in the
morning and it was way too rough to heave-to and sleep on the water so I
again had to do a surf-landing on a deserted looking stretch of beach.
My technique for this sort of landing was to get in close to shore, bail
out of the boat and lead it the rest of the way by hand. I always
misjudged the depth of the clear water and ended up tumbling out of the
boat in almost over my head. I managed okay, though, but this time
discovered that I had forgotten to rezip the relief zipper of the
drysuit at some point and ended up with water in the feet of my suit.
Not a whole lot, but it could have been a big problem if I had been far
from shore. I had to take the whole suit off to drain it and still ended
up with a little residual water and wet clothes underneath. I did have
quality Polartec clothes on, but was still a bit cold sleeping in my
boat on the beach with a tarp wrapped around me for extra warmth. I
awoke at about 7:00 with the surf still crashing on the beach and a
friendly beachcomber stopping to chat and wondering what I was doing out
there in those kind of conditions. I set back out on the water, fairly
gracefully launching through the surf, and headed towards Harrisville,
which was my first waypoint location and had been my goal to reach the
night before. The wind seemed to have shifted back to the north slightly
and I wasn't able to keep on one tack as much as the night before. In
retrospect, I think that on the second day when I was sailing with a
slightly reefed mainsail the jib was probably creating more leeway than
it had the night before when I had the full mainsail up and luffing a
bit, possibly working to keep the boat more on track. The waves were no
doubt pushing me towards shore, too, making it hard to keep my position.
At any rate, the wind and waves were as bad as the previous night and I
was back to making less than a mile an hour of forward progress. It took
me until noon to reach the State Park, which was only 16 miles into the
race. The winds weren't predicted to shift anytime soon and it was
obvious that I would never make it across Thunder Bay at the rate I was
going so I decided to stop at the State Park, where there was a
campground available and a town nearby where I could possibly arrange
some sort of transport back to my car. All in all I sailed something
like 45 miles just to get the 16 miles to Harrisville, along a track
that on paper looks like a plate of spaghetti.
I was disappointed at myself and the boat for only making a measly 16
miles into the race by the second day and not at least making it to
Checkpoint 1, which I had at least planned on reaching. I had been
worried about being able to make it there in the time limit but never
thought that I would be cut so short of my goal. At least I had a nice
place to camp for a couple of days while I figured out how to get back
to my vehicle or to the first checkpoint. If I had only parked at the
starting point of the race I could have made it back in no time, sailing
downwind. I hadn't planned a bailout strategy at all and luckily was
helped out by the tribe members, especially BlackSun who had to drop out
early as well, and graciously picked me up the next day (in Danimal's
car, no less) and drove me back to my vehicle on the other side of the
state. In future challenges I would recommend parking your car somewhere
that's easily accessible via Greyhound Bus or close to a rental car
drop-off point to facilitate multiple bail-out points (just in case
they're needed). Also, I would recommend that if you do have to drop out
early by all means stay around for the rest of the week and take it
easy, help man the checkpoints, or whatever. I did the wrong thing by
returning home and to work. Although I was able to conserve precious
vacation days for future challenges, it feels like I never even had a
vacation and that I missed the race altogether.
Now as to my fundamental problem in the race, I still need to figure
out why I was able to make such little progress into the wind. Most of
the time I was only able to sail within 50 degrees of the wind. The boat
really wanted to sail at 55 or 60 degrees off the wind, when it would
pick up a lot of speed. If the winds were really light I was able to get
closer to 45 degrees. I was also getting a lot of leeway which was
adding to my trouble. As I stated earlier, I am not a very experienced
sailor but it seems like I should have been able to do better than that.
I keep thinking that there must be some fundamental problem with my sail
setup or rigging. One thing I noticed is that the luff of the jib always
seemed a bit loose, even with the halyard pulled tight. I noticed a lot
of stretch in the halyards when I would try to tighten them from the
cockpit, as well. Could it be that the wrong type of rope was used for
the halyards and that the extra stretch was preventing the sails from
being trimmed tightly enough? The line seems pretty old, possibly from
before they had all of the new high-tech fabrics. The halyards also act
as forestays so that would also let the mast bend too far aft, possibly
creating more problems. Also, maybe I need a smaller jib for windier
conditions to prevent leeway, etc.? I was sitting pretty far back in the
boat, too, possibly upsetting the balance of the boat. Would moving
forward, closer to the leeboards, help with the tracking? I have a lot
of unanswered questions and will be looking for any possible help from
you more experienced sailors out there. I don't want to give up on this
boat yet since I still love it quite a bit and find it to be a very
comfortable and capable cruising boat if I can just work out some of
these issues. I'll also need to work on my rowing ability and possibly
experiment with a long kayak paddle for no-wind situations. To be able
to complete a WaterTribe challenge in this (or any) boat I think you
need to be able to make at least 2MPH of progress under any sort of
conditions. It may be that this boat is not capable of that goal and
will be relegated to more leisurely weekend trips, but I'm not going to
give up on it just yet. I will most likely be bringing my kayak to the
Everglades Challenge, just for ease of transport, etc. but might like to
try the Klepper again next year in Michigan. For all of you future
WaterTribers -- get to know your boat before you go!!! (I know Chief has
said this many times before).
I would like to sincerely thank Mark & Emily for putting this whole
thing together and for all of their help before & after the race. The
same goes for all of the other great WaterTribers involved in the race.
Special thanks to Andrew who sent me his EPIRB to use all of the way
from the East Coast, and to BlackSun & Danimal for the help getting back
to my vehicle. You won't meet a better group of folks anywhere. I am
very impressed by your performances in the race and look forward to
chasing you down the coast in Florida. See you next time!
© Michael Lynskey (aka RubberDucky), 2003
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