Hot and windless.

winter.sail.segue from Frank Messina on Vimeo.

I did manage to catch a nicely powered ocean session at Gilgo on Thursday. I didn't have the good sense to wait for the wind to fill in. Some of the guys just gave up and left. But I tried...and managed to do the walk of shame three times. [BTW thank you again Pete for helping me carry my gear a half mile back upwind.] I just wanted to get a session in before the rain. Before the run-off; before the inevitable sewage spills, and beach closings.

Finally, at about 5:30 Kevin, Florian and I sailed our 5.5 to 6.0's fully powered in waist to overhead swell. We had about an hour and a half before the down pours.

Yesterday, and today; I find myself inside, dreaming of those cold, crisp Winter sails on Segue. All alone, [Segue practically sails herself.] without the Summer crowds.

Segue is a Cape Dory 26. They were built in the mid 80’s as a less well known version of the well known Cape Dory 25.

One thing they did is raise the freeboard by about six inches. This allows for standing headroom down bellow for a six foot tall person, but adds considerable windage to her.

 Next they added another foot to her by stretching out the aft lazarete. This allows for an outboard engine to be hidden just aft of the rudder. While outboards are cheaper than say an Atomic Four inboard, you do lose the ballast of having an engine down low in the CE. As a result, you really need to sail with a full water tank under the forward V berth if you want to sail to windward with any success. Plus the placement of the outboard leaves it in the water all the time and this prone to growth. The great this though; is if you do have a problem it is easily replaced.

Built in 1985, Segue has been in my family since 1986. She is all Cape Dory: Plenty of teak, and bronze; everything is oversized. Thick hull, thick gell coat [can lead to crazing, and a minor blisters ] . Her hull is over-built to the standards of a classic full keel attached ruder sailboat. My only complaint is the balsa sandwiched deck, to save weight. I have seen plenty of balsa decks soak up water, but not mine.

She is not fast, with a hull speed of 6 ½ knots, but she is very well behaved when compared to today’s floating Clorox bottles. The above video was shot with a GO Pro last winter. I often sail her alone. Just set her sails, tie off the tiller, and let her go. You’ll notice at about 1:00 in that I go forward to shake out a reef in the main sail. While I will heave to when shortening sail, you can see it is not necessary, the olde girl just holds her heading. I do wear a climbing harness, and use a jack line in the winter. Going overboard alone is not an option in 30 degree water.