shakedown sail part 1

well, I have to say it was not a catastrophe, but also the piece of the rudder I was worried about pulling out did, in fact, pull out, and the rudder itself came off, but I think that was because it couldn't kick up and it just boosted itself off its pins.

After further scrimmage Matt and I decided, with white caps developing on the DAR pond, that a small craft advisory was in effect and we should not, in fact, be attempting to sail today. SO. Really - I'm pretty sure it was Beaufort 4 with gusts on top of that. It would have been fun if we'd had some practice in quieter wind, but it was entirely too much. It was hard work rowing upwind.

We came home via Local Burgy, and then measured all the things that we could think of, and Matt in a fit of brilliance measured some more things and we went to Foster Farrar (the local hardware store) and found a shaft bearing and some largish diameter pins with holes through them for a cotterpin, and came triumphantly home... only to realize the shaft bearing we'd gotten had the inner diameter to match the inner diameter of the hole. We needed the outer diameter for the shaft bearing. So we went back to Foster Farrar, and got a new shaft bearing with the correct outer diameter.

Once home again, I had out drill out the threads on the shaft bearing, so we found a big heavy vise to hold it down and used the drill press. the little brass tube holding the string fit right in, and we used the vise again to press-fit it and get the cord through it and tie the stopper knot (a surprising number of things on this boat are held with stopper knots - the halyard, the downhaul, the down-string for the kick-up rudder).

Matt wanted to put a cotter pin in the pintles so the rudder wouldn't leap off the stern again, s he accomplished that. I got the shiny thing in place on the rudder (picture for shiny) and then slathered everything with epoxy+wood flour which honestly looks exactly like peanut butter except for the way it hardens to rock, basically.

the breeze feels glorious, but it really is 14-15 knots with gusts past 20, and I am hoping it might moderate some and be ok to try again tomorrow.

shakedown sail - too fast too furious

After all the thrashing around we did yesterday before leaving, and at the pond, and after coming home, today was super simple.

We remembered the paddles for the kayak shaped pool toy (it is a real kayak, and one of the earliest designs for people who wanted neither river running nor sea kayaking but just to poot about on a pond. It is perfect. I needlessly malign it because I think it is delightful and also hilarious. Now these are almost all of what you see on a pond, and at LL Bean and Walmart even, and this one is so old it is Vintage and I love it.) and the pfds (personal flotation devices, I dunno why we have never called them lifejackets) and all the rigging and claptrap necessary to drive the boat including the replaced and mended parts, and boom - we were on the road.

The wind today was SW swinging S, enough to make little ripples, not enough to be a hazard, and also blowing off the beach, making leaving possible and coming back, erm, tricky. One bystander thought it was an antique boat, anyone who talked to me said very nice things about building it. There were many people there experimenting with fishing, so the beach was full and the pond was also full.

I got everything rigged up the second try, and got turned around and headed out to sea, um, the center of the pond, and proceeded to experiment with angles of sail. It is speedy across and at an angle to dead downwind, trying to head too close to the wind causes the steering to go wonky. I had a lot of trouble tacking - bringing the bow through the wind - so I did a lot of 270 degree turns putting the stern through the wind and heading up onto a new tack. The wind was shaped some by the shape of the pond, so the wind direction was not entirely clear. I think I need a masthead pennant to clarify relative wind direction. The centerboard popped up whenever the boat was flat, but once we had any speed and heeling it was tight and solid.

Because it is small and lightweight, all the forces are manageable with one person and two hands.

Matt was paddling about in the little kayak, chasing me and taking pictures, and cheering me on. It was reassuring to have another person out there, even though I had fair faith I could cope with most things.

I ended up having to beat to windward to get back to the beach, which took a long time, but then just before the beach and docks, the wind was stopped by the trees on shore and actually a very faint tail wind appeared, and bumped me gently right into the dock. I couldn't have done better if I'd tried. I mean, I was trying, but also I was intent on not sweating the details, and instead the details landed neatly at my feet and i looked like a goddam genius.

New KNowledge:

I can definitely sail this boat
I need to learn if I have the sail in the correct place/position, and remedy that if not
I need to build a better tiller, because the one in the kit is inadequate, and should be different
It will be easier when I have some kind of wind indicator at the masthead
It will also be easier in more open water
I feel like I might be able to cope with more wind next time