Cruising Tips: Wind Indicators and Spray Bottles
Get the Best From the Wind Hawk Wind Indicator
A masthead wind indicator is now standard equipment on most yachts. A quality example is remarkably stable, and apart from a natural-born adventurer of my acquaintance who bent his during some unpleasantness in a famous English Channel tide rip, I have never known one to fail. Did you realize you can adjust the angle of the arms? Some have neat screw arrangements. Even at the bargain basement end of the spectrum you can always bend them so that the arrow sits over the tabs when close-hauled. For a modern cruiser, a total angle of 65° is about right, which will coincide with an apparent wind reading from the masthead transducer of 32½°. For those of us who operate in open water, 70° or a bit more is probably more realistic once the waves kick in.
Using a spray bottle will save your fresh water.
Photo Courtesy of Tom Cunliffe
Waste Not Want Not
Back in the days when my boat carried only a pathetic amount of fresh water, looking after it became something of a fetish. Hopping from marina to marina it’s not important, but once you get away on the summer trip and are anchoring regularly, it becomes an issue. It’s the same when you have large crew such as on my old training 32-footer (water capacity 22 gallons). Assuming you ignore the shower—if there is one—the killer punch is the washing up. I’ve watched people do their stuff with the faithful soap suds then rinse the lot under a running tap. Doom! If you like your plates rinsed, fill up an old spray bottle and use that instead of the tap. It saves half a gallon every time.
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November/December 2024
