Now that we've run the electric motor through a number of trials it turned out that it was time to see how things performed in rough weather and high winds. Braving gusts up to 30 knots, with steady winds in the 20 knot range we began our sail in lighter winds earlier in the day. Reversing out of our slip on this windy day meant thinking about the last time we had winds coming in hard from the north. In preparation I had told the crew, Scott and Paul, that we may need to turn south rather than north as the bow might get swung around to the south before we could make any headway and get any steerage. As you may recall this is what happened when we had a mishap with our dinghy motor attached. I've learned you want to try and work with the wind especially when it is blowing hard.
So, with a our boat out into the QCYC lagoon and the bow quickly being blown to the south I decided we'd loop around south with the wind, do a U-turn and then head out into Toronto Harbour. This monoveure worked well and we began to head for the high winds out in the harbour. The electric motor provided good steady thrust as the wind began to hit us harder and harder rounding the corner out into open waters. With the extra winds I maintained extra speed to ensure we had good steerage and momentum goind directly into the wind.
With all of this being a new system I wondered if we'd have enough power to drive into the wind so we could raise our sails without being driven in reverse by the waves and wind. To my pleasant surprise we made good progress forward and were able to raise the sails with ease despite the two to three foot waves and heavy winds. I took some care to keep us moving directly into the wind as would be expected. All went well. I kept the motor ready as we sailed for the eastern gap to head out onto Lake Ontario. At one point the wind completely died for a minute or so. I ran the electric for that time to keep steerage and progress especially as I knew the wind would come back hard as we passed the southern edge of the gap. It did start moving very vast once we passed the southern end of the gap. Off we went at full steam. We got her up to about 8 knots sailing. It was a great steady hard wind with some really exciting gusts that got us really heeled over.
After sailing out on the lake we made our way back into the harbour to drop Paul off city side. This was another first for me and the electric motor. We lowered the sails in even heavier winds...apparently getting up to the 30-40 knots either during or shortly after we brought down our sails. The main sails topping lift that is clipped onto the end of the boom popped off as we lowered the main sail. Fortunately the figure eight knot caught on the pulley that attached to the topping lifts line and it only fell a foot or so. Still, we got the main sail down okay and repaired that problem at dock. With the electric going about 80% we powered towards the city in the heavy winds and waves. Fortunately the city buildings provided some shelter from the winds out of the north as we neared the public dock behind the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. With fine control I pulled up to the dock, used heavy reverse to bring us to a full stop, Paul jumped off and up onto the main land, and off Scott and I went back to QCYC to pack up for the day. All went very well and the Electric Yachts motor felt very sure and steady in these rough conditions.
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