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ROWING YOUR TRITON INTO A SLIP

Mark Harrington, #166 Ananke

My oars are about 11 1/2 ft. long (cheap sculling sweeps), and I have the oarlocks mounted about 18 inches aft of the main winches. I have often thought you could get by with a rope loop around the oar and over the main winch to use as and oarlock as well, for a short term fix.

The boat handles well in even medium to heavy air, as long as you have the sails down and bundled. I row facing either forward or back, with the tiller held steady between my legs (it sometimes wants to move when you turn, and then doesn't want to move back to center).

The boat takes a few strokes to get it moving, but then it moves right along, and is easy (real easy) to turn with the oars. The only tricky part is making sure you have a place to swing the oar to (where it will stay!) as you come alongside the dock, and (as you know from single handing) have your bow and stern lines draped into the cockpit ready to grab, step off the boat and cleat it off.

When I was in Berkeley, I had an upwind slip, and just sailed into the slip. I would pull down the jib in the fairway, and then as I turned along the slips (beam reach), I would walk out of the cockpit and push the boom all the way out till it hit the stays to make sure the mainsheet was all the way out and untangled. Then back in the cockpit I would grab all four lines of the mainsheet in my left hand and steer with my right (starboard tack) which allowed me to keep a steady pull on the main, easing in the gusts, and pulling in in the lulls to keep a slow steady speed on. Then when I turned up into my slip, I could just let go of the mainsheets, which would dump the wind (remember, I had already pulled the main all the way to the shrouds, so it was free to swing wide), grab the dock lines (pre draped in the cockpit) and step off.

For downwind slips. Put the sails down in the fairway and row to near the slip, pivot the boat and back in to the slip, as it is a downwind slip, you will to be able to sail out.

Remember that the carry of the Triton is considerable, so you have to let off on the main a little early to depower, so the boat doesn't just run up on the dock.