Never sail to a schedule. Tides, weather and most of all safety dictate when you get there.

 

Our goal was to sail over to Mattituck, Long Island, spend the night and in the morning head for National Long Island Golf Course where we had a one o’clock tee time. The plan was good except my friend Sharon was unable to get off work before one o’clock in the afternoon on Friday. This meant we needed all the elements to work in our favor to make Strong’s Water Club and Marina at the head of Mattituck inlet; 18.9nm. The inlet is a narrow, shallow channel I feared navigating at night, especially given it was to be my first visit there.

 

We needed to average 4.5nm/hour, a stretch for Brisa, along a near perfect course with minimal corrections. Fortune favored us as we parted the dock at two in the afternoon and quickly made our way out of Branford cove. The reports had a NE wind blowing twelve to eighteen knots, which was perfect for a desired heading of 137⁰ and the tide was outgoing. As we rounded Branford cove’s nun #6 headed for open water, main sail and genoa (135⁰ the breeze greeting our sails was strong but from a WSW direction of 115⁰ to 120⁰; close hauled we pulled 160⁰ degrees at best.

 

We lay across the waves and Brisa jumped for all she was worth but we were doing no more than 4 knots. Also a fairly large correction would be needed to hold the rhumb line. An hour later the breeze stiffened to a steady 15 knots and shifted to 110 degrees. I dropped the Genoa and replaced it with my mid size jib (100%). Our new course of 150⁰ with the aid of the outgoing tide nearly paralleled our rhumb line. Our tack correction was going to be small and at 4pm we were with 12.5 miles from the mouth of the inlet.

 

Racing a boat is exhilarating and if you’re in the hunt the tension is a welcome feeling. Racing a setting sun brings more of an anxious tension. The stronger breeze had us moving at greater than 5 knots. Brisa was hauling in the Long Island coast quick time. It also had our rails at the water line.

 

I don’t mind sailing aggressively, Sea Sprites are well known for their seaworthiness but Sharon is new to sailing and I didn’t want to scare her. I didn’t fancy the idea of wedging myself in place for the next two-and-a-half hours either. Heeled over sailing is exhausting. So the decision was made to reef the main. While securing the third reefing line the canvas ripped. To paraphrase from Apollo 13, we had lost Mattituck.

 

I quickly dropped the jib and then the main while Sharon held the rip. Once the main was secure we turned to home and fired up the engine. I reset the jib to steady Brisa and we made excellent time.

 

What I did wrong,

First, I let time constraints alter my thinking regarding safety and set sail under maximum canvas. Had I started double reefed and the storm jib up I could have gone up in sail area if I found it safe to do so. The wind was strong enough from the beginning I could have come close to the speeds I achieved under maximum sail.

Second, I waited too long to reef. Had I sailed off the wind and taken a close reach point-of-sail I would’ve faced more tacking but eventually arrived safely and I could’ve anchored inside of Mattituck Inlet at the opening and motored up the next morning.

 

What I did right was immediately accept that continuing onward was potentially risky without the main and returning to homeport represented the safest course of action.

 

Sail Repairs ran $300 and included rip repair, reinforcing all the battens and the seams at the head.