Singlehanding

[Jonathan Woytek]

Hello list! I’m a new member (thanks for the add!). My wife and I are considering the purchase of an owner-built Jason 35. We have looked her over and have been out for a beautiful sail on her. We found her before we intended to start looking, so I’m trying to get the financials lined up to make the best of the boat fund we had started several years ago. I had one (for now, at least) question I wanted to post to the list: How many here have singlehanded a Jason? While we were out sailing her, it seemed quite possible. The owner had her set up pretty well to handle most every task on his own. My wife is still learning and gets nervous when she doesn’t understand something yet, so it is important for me to be able to handle things on my own. After seeing how this Jason is set up, I am pretty confident I can do it, but I was hoping to hear a bit from the hive mind, too.

Hoping to be her next caretakers, if all goes well!

Fair winds,
Jonathan

[Christine Booth]

Hello Jonathan,

My name is Christine and I have single handed my Jason for at least nine years while owning her. All my halyards are on the mast. Only the sheets lead to the cockpit.

She is cutter rigged. On lazy days I only run the Genoa and Main sails. Otherwise if driving into the wind, a yankee, staysail and main works best, but more challenging by oneself.

She is tiller steered so I just tie off the tiller when I go forward on deck.

It is a nice sized boat for me to take to and from docks. Midship lines are valuable. I nearly always anchor while out and about which is possible single handed too, but much nicer with two people from my perspective. I have a manual windlass that serves me well.

I have now purchased a wooden ketch with my newly found partner and have put my Jason on the market too.

I wish you and your wife a wonderful experience on your new Jason. Hopefully your wife will want to grab the opportunity to single hand the Jason in her own time.

Cheers,
Christine

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[Alan]

Hello Jonathan

Good question. The answer depends a bit on what you mean by "singlehanding". If you mean long offshore passages with only one person on board, the Jason 35 is an excellent choice, especially if you have a good wind vane steering rig, such as a Monitor. Although there have been many famous singlehanded passages in various boats, I personally do not approve of this and agree with the opinion of various admiralty courts that this is bad seamanship. If you want to do his, however, Jason is a good choice of vessel.

If you mean that you want to cruise from anchorage to anchorage in, for example, the Salish Sea or the Sea of Cortez, that is a somewhat different matter.  You will not need to sail singlehanded through the night very often, if ever. What would be a big help, would be a good autopilot. Without an autopilot or another hand on the helm, it is actually quite difficult to raise the main on a sloop or cutter the size of a Jason. An autopilot also facilitates motor sailing, which turns out to be something you need to do a lot of the time inshore. 

The Jason is not the easiest boat to maneuver in a marina. It is difficult to steer her astern, and she much prefers to turn in once direction rather than the other. Norwegian Steam has a left-handed prop, so she maneuvers much better to port than to starboard, utilizing prop-walk. I marvel at the way a rather inexperienced owner of a Beneteau yacht, for example, can back his boat down a fairway and then into a slip as if he were backing his automobile into a garage (assuming it is not windy, since Beneteaus have a lot of windage).

For short handed sailing, it is quite useful to have a roller furling yankee. I found, as I got older, that bringing the yankee down short handed in a blow was difficult, if not dangerous. Much better to just roll it up. I switched from hank-ed on to roller furling a few years back and have been happy with that decision. Committing your head stay to roller furling, however, introduces a possible problem. If you have a storm jib, you will no longer be able to set that on the head stay. Instead it must go on the staysail stay. For this reason, I absolutely do not recommend roller furling for both forestays.

The majority of the time, I no longer can assume I have young hands to help me. For that reason, I have been equipping my boat for what I call "single handing with guests aboard".

[Alan]

On Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 10:24:48 PM UTC-7, Alan wrote:

Hello Jonathan

Good question. The answer depends a bit on what you mean by "singlehanding". If you mean long offshore passages with only one person on board, the Jason 35 is an excellent choice, especially if you have a good wind vane steering rig, such as a Monitor. Although there have been many famous singlehanded passages in various boats, I personally do not approve of this and agree with the opinion of various admiralty courts that this is bad seamanship. If you want to do his, however, Jason is a good choice of vessel.

If you mean that you want to cruise from anchorage to anchorage in, for example, the Salish Sea or the Sea of Cortez, that is a somewhat different matter.  You will not need to sail singlehanded through the night very often, if ever. What would be a big help, would be a good autopilot. Without an autopilot or another hand on the helm, it is actually quite difficult to raise the main on a sloop or cutter the size of a Jason. An autopilot also facilitates motor sailing, which turns out to be something you need to do a lot of the time inshore. 

The Jason is not the easiest boat to maneuver in a marina. It is difficult to steer her astern, and she much prefers to turn in once direction rather than the other. Norwegian Steam has a left-handed prop, so she maneuvers much better to port than to starboard, utilizing prop-walk. I marvel at the way a rather inexperienced owner of a Beneteau yacht, for example, can back his boat down a fairway and then into a slip as if he were backing his automobile into a garage (assuming it is not windy, since Beneteaus have a lot of windage).

For short handed sailing, it is quite useful to have a roller furling yankee. I found, as I got older, that bringing the yankee down short handed in a blow was difficult, if not dangerous. Much better to just roll it up. I switched from hank-ed on to roller furling a few years back and have been happy with that decision. Committing your head stay to roller furling, however, introduces a possible problem. If you have a storm jib, you will no longer be able to set that on the head stay. Instead it must go on the staysail stay. For this reason, I absolutely do not recommend roller furling for both forestays.

The majority of the time, I no longer can assume I have young hands to help me. For that reason, I have been equipping my boat for what I call "single handing with guests aboard".

     Fair winds!

     Alan Westhagen

     SV Norwegian Steam 

[Jonathan Woytek]

Replying to both Christine and Alan here!

First, thank you both for the replies and comments that were encouraging and helpful while we make our final decision. This particular boat has halyards and jiffy reefing at the mast, and nice mast rails/guards for working there safely and stably. The staysail is self-tending on a spar, and the jib is hanked-on. The owner said he will often run main and staysail when short handed or just out for a short sail, and staysail and reefed main in a blow. We sailed main and staysail for a while and the boat balanced well. Putting up the jib added power, and dropping the staysail reduced power a bit but everything stayed balanced. 

To Alan’s comments, we intend to mostly keep to the Great Lakes, without any unattended watches. The boat is equipped with an autopilot and is set up for a windvane, but does not have one. We exercised the tiller pilot while we were out. It was a great help when raising sail (and while we had lunch :) ). This boat also has a variable-pitch prop, which provided for amazing control. Additionally, Since the engine could run in reverse with the prop turned for forward thrust, it would also be possible to control the direction of prop walk. This boat did not seem to exhibit strong prop walk as it is, but I’d have to take it out in the open and play a bit to see how severe it really is. The owner’s slip is a starboard tie, and he had no difficulty making it smoothly (though admittedly probably with lots of practice). 

To Christine’s comments, my wife is excited to learn, but in small dinghies and the like, she found herself concentrating more on helping to keep the boat in trim (i.e. not going over), and couldn’t concentrate on the sailing part of sailing. She also had a really bad experience with an instructor from the local sailing club yelling at and belittling her while she sat in our boat tied to the dock waiting for me to return from parking the trailer. The instructor asked her some question where she didn’t know the term, and that apparently set this woman off. I didn’t know about it until later, or I would have let her have a piece of my mind. I’m hoping that we can go back to Jenny learning at her own pace in a stable environment, and that she’ll get comfortable enough to pick up the tiller again. She was getting good at it before that incident!

This list has been a good resource already. Thank you all!

Jonathan

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[Christine Booth]

This is Christine again,

You are welcome.  It sounds like your potential new Jason is nicely set up.  I do agree with Alan that a  roller furling head sail is not only convenient, but rolling up the sail when the wind starts picking up is quick and efficient (no tending the sail once it is furled like a hanked on sail) — plus your wife can unfurl and fuel from the cockpit if your are steering —  I would sail her as is for awhile and see how the rig works for you as is.

I encourage your wife to keep at it a bit at a time.  The Jason is one of the most stable feeling boat’s I have experienced.

I am happy to see that you are out sailing still Alan!  Thank you again for sharing your knowledge with me quite a few years ago when I was figuring out sail balance for Melatar.  

Cheers,

Christine 

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[Jonathan Woytek]

Regarding the roller furling on the headsail, I do think we're going to take the advice to sail her as-is for a little while to assess the situation, but I can definitely see the advantages of a furler. At the least, I'll probably rig a downhaul so we can drop it and secure it down without having to go all the way forward. It would still require a trip to the mast, but with the mast guards and good non-skid over the entire cabintop, that felt pretty secure. It will probably take us a bit to build up some weather confidence in her. 

... of course, we still need to get an offer submitted, or else this discussion is entirely academic. :) 

jonathan

Jonathan Woytek
http://www.dryrose.com
KB3HOZ
PGP:  462C 5F50 144D 6B09 3B65  FCE8 C1DC DEC4 E8B6 AABC

[Jonathan Woytek]

I’m happy to report that our offer was accepted! Now for the surveys, insurance, etc., and if all goes well, we will become the next caretakers of a really great sailboat. We will be keeping her in her home port of Erie, PA. 

We are pretty excited. Photos to follow once the sale is official. Thanks for the replies and assistance as we made our decision.  

Jonathan

[bnb.n.lapaz]

Congrats! Now the dream starts.

Sent from my Galaxy Tab® S2

[Jim Neuman]

Congrats!  Which boat and where are you moored?

Jim

On Friday, September 21, 2018 at 5:34:00 PM UTC-7, Jonathan Woytek wrote:

[Alan]

Congratulations on entering the elite society of Jason 35 sailors.

I learned to sail on Lake Superior. I think the Jason 35 is an excellent vessel for cruising the Great Lakes because there is usually plenty of wind. Even in the summer, a reefed main and club-footed staysail may be all you need to move smartly to weather on typical days. 

If you happen to get to the Apostle Islands, anchor at Sand Island in East Bay, which is well protected from the westerlies and not even all that bad in a nor'easter. I spent some very happy summers there.

Fair winds!

Alan

W1AW

SV Norwegian Steam

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Jonathan Woytek
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KB3HOZ
PGP:  462C 5F50 144D 6B09 3B65  FCE8 C1DC DEC4 E8B6 AABC

[Jonathan Woytek]

Thanks all!

Jim, I’m holding off posting the boat name or photos until everything is final. I’ll be nervous until the papers are signed! We are keeping her in Erie, and are probably going to end up at the Perry’s Landing marina, as right now, they’re the only place that seems to have a spot available. We are on waiting lists for the Presque Isle State Park marina, but they estimated it could be a year or so before they have any openings. We would like to investigate the Presque Isle Yacht Club, but won’t be able to set up a potential tour for at least several weeks. Also, for that location, we would probably have to pay for a good portion of the required work hours, as we would not be able to come out weeknights to help get those hours worked. Commodore Perry Yacht Club has a fairly lengthy waiting list right now, or we would also consider them. I think the state park is going to be our preferred spot, unless someone convinces is otherwise!

Alan, thanks for the information. Our first season is probably going to be mostly us learning the boat and seeing what, if anything, we want to change or upgrade. Then, hopefully, we will start to branch out, eventually working the boat up north for further exploring. That’s probably a ways off right now, but we will have to see how things go. We spend some time in the eastern UP every summer, and I’d love to work her up that way and do some more exploring up there. We are both still working full time, though, so we need to balance the desire to work her out of easy driving range with the limited blocks of time we might have available to do that. 

Jonathan

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