And.... BEEN SAILING!!!!

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There was one last piece to the puzzle, a license plate for the trailer. With the holiday season the DMV took an extra couple of days and next thing you know I was on a family trip to Atlanta.

On my return I drove from the Airport to pick up the plates, attached them to the trailer and by mid afternoon was somehow magically sat becalmed and waiting for a puff....

Eventually it came and Farrout and I took a trip across the harbor. It was a bit of a mess to be honest, sail all out of shape and tacks a mess as I tried to find out how to get my body across the boat with the extension in the right place and that pesky mainsheet still attended to.

That was Friday. On Saturday I went out again with a bit more breeze but still no trapeze and John Wilson in an FJ to run against. We skootled out past the seals on the outer buoy and generally worked up and down wind. By the end I was feeling more comfortable.

Sunday, I took another sail. This was a quick sail post Christening ceremony (delayed until my family was back in town also, I'd asked Farrout to allow this) and again in about 8kts of breeze but this time my tacks were working, my downwind speed felt better and I even got a little bite at some waves in the harbor mouth.

And oh, this is soooo fun!

I'll be honest - I started the day with some revision. Dave Barker's boat started with the same configuration as Farrout and I watched a video he made to see how he was managing the forward sweep on the tiller extension. This helped a lot (his Farr 3.7 Summer Sailing video is very useful!)

Next sail Saturday, will have fixed some of the issues but not sure we'll have any wind - strong offshores are fighting the sea breeze at the moment - best time for sailing seems to be 3am :(


Ready for first sail


Back at dock after sail 1


Docked at OYC with the FJ we used as a testing partner. 


TODOS

Ended up with a few TODOS....

  • [Done] Boom sleeve to keep main sheet snug
  • [Done] Control lines are too thick
  • [Done] Vang soft shackle attachment is annoying, will switch to a snap shackle
  • [In progress] Rudder attach and detach is annoying. The problem is the pin it hinges on requires the tiller arm being removed from the rudder
  • Shroud tangs need bending more
  • [Partially Done] Tape on the tiller extension
  • [Done] Ratcheting block on main





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