by JonLee on Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:31 am
I sail a lot singlehanded. With some basic preparation (i.e. having the dock lines where you can reach them), it is a piece of cake.
I've launched/retrieved with winds several times. Fortunately for me, the prevailing wind at the boat launch just pushes the boat back toward the trailer. When there are crosswinds, I generally have the option of choosing a lane with the dock to leeward.
Of course, when I have a crosswind AND I don't have the luxury of choosing a lane with the dock downwind, I generally get the rudder involved in the game. Since, I'll be standing on the trailer, with the bowsprit in hand, I mostly have control where the bow is going. To control the stern, I will have lashed the tiller so that stern of the boat will move into the wind. For example, If I'm retrieving the boat, I'll be pulling the boat forward onto the trailer, and I'll want to lash the tiller to windward some amount so that as I pull, the rudder will push the stern to windward. Likewise, when launching, to get the stern to go to windward, I lash the tiller to leeward.
In any of these crosswind scenarios, to reduce exposure to panic and increase your bacon-saving power, you'll also want to make sure you have the bow and stern lines in your hand throughout the process. 'Cause if the boat gets away from you, things can get exciting quickly. Ask me how I know.
This still doesn't address the "what if I don't have a dock" thing, but I'd think that have a long bow line (and maybe a long stern line), plus lashing the tiller appropriately (whatever that means...straight ahead in calm conditions and maybe something different in wind) should generally give you adequate control of the boat to manuever it to shore and scramble aboard.