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I have a check list to make sure I don't forget anything when I launch the Skerry.  Why the heck don't I use it?  

On impulse today I decided to launch the Skerry, as the rain seemed to be holding off and the predicted winds were light.  I got down there, rigged the sails, talked to Ron, a member of the Port Phillip Dinghy Cruisers group who happened to be there, and discovered, at the last moment, that I had forgotten the tiller. And the side seats. 

I managed to make do sitting on the floor and steering with a rope tied to the rudder stock.  Turning to port was easy thanks to the leverage of the asymetrical rudder stock, but turning to starboard required a bit of force.  But we got along, about 5 miles, over to the jaw bone, back past the red stick, a bit of footling around tacking backwards and forwards.

I sent of photo of the Skerry under sail to Mik Storer at Really Simple Sails, who made the sail for the boat.  I mentioned that I was trying to dial out excess weather helm.  He suggested that it might be the gap at the throat of the sail.  I made some other adjustments, basically moved the whole sail back a bit, and today I had a slight lee helm.  A couple more sails and I can nail it I hope.

It was exceptionally nice just to be pottering along on the water today, even in the light rain that set in when I was coming back home.  I am coming to seriously love the Skerry.

The crew show their excitement

 It was a lovely sailing day yesterday. At last, with our 4 hour window, we could get the Core Sound out. The crew demonstrated their excitement.

I made a sort of wooden tiller extension, so I can steer better with the Torqeedo, and a wooden chock so I can tilt it up. At this rate I will have an all wooden Torqeedo soon.  It worked quite nicely. At about 3 knots, the gps on the throttle was telling me I had 19 miles range. It is lovely and quite, and none of the engine starting rigmerole of the outboard. It is a short shaft, which means i and passenger have to sit watch where we sit or the blade gets too close to the water surface.

Paul, Andrew and Sandra all got out too. It was nice to have some  other friendly boats about. Snapper season is upon us, and the ramp was busy and a bit stressy. I think I will be using Derry the Skerry a bit more for the next while. I was pretty rusty with the Core Sound - I forgot to put the centreboard down to start off with. It was only when I saw  how well Paul in the Sabre was pointing that I twigged. But I do love that boat. It has a bigger boat feel that I really like. It is nice to be able to walk around a bit, and let it take care of itself.

Weather helm

 

Light winds, 4 hours outside time, time for a sail. A bit more sunshine and a bit more water at the launch ramp would not have gone amiss. I cleated off the main and fixed the tiller, and Derry jogs along nicely, good for having morning tea. I can imagine making some long trips in this boat.

Paul and Sandra in their Sabres, and Andrew in his laser, all got out. They sail rings around me, literally, but I the sailing performance is improving. Though, from the photo Sandra took I can see I considerable weather helm. My research says the solution is to move the sail force forward, so that is next. Also, I will invest in a better cleating arrangement for the downhaul. It was good to get out though.

The WBA had its club night via zoom last night. The Williamstown St Ayles Skiff group gave a presentation. Like many small community groups they are struggling in these covidy times. It is such a nice idea, I hope they can find a sustainable path into the future.

Three in a row

 

It was another blue sky light winds morning, and my rudder repairs seemed to have worked ok. It looked like a perfect morming to test it out, so I loaded rudder, centreboard and sails and we set off down to the launch spot. While I was walking Oz, I realized I had forgotten the tiller. After his walk, we drove home, collected the tiller, and drove down to try again. As I was unloading, I realized i had forgotten the mast as well. At that point I decided that the universe was telling me I was too stupid to go sailing today, so we went for a row instead. 

Two nice ladies in sea kayaks caught up to us. They thought Oz was a good sea dog. The sea kayaks can move along a fair bit faster than I can in the Skerry. 

We rowed past the pier, then back home again. From Saturday we will be able to get out for four hours, which is much better, it will be worth rigging up the sails, and I will be able to get somewhere a bit different. And launch the core sound, yay.

In the afternoon I flipped the Skerry and sanded and painted some of the gouges on the bottom, and epoxied where a chunk had been taken off the wormshoe. I am not sure why the bottom seems to be incurring so much wear and tear. I might get some better rubber pads for the trailer and trolley runners. 

No more good sailing days for a while so I am glad I got out while I could.

 

Twoareen

 

Another lovely spring day. We got the Skerry out for a row, with Anne in forward station. I think she was a bit dubious  about it.

Oz was pretty relaxed about it all, old seadog that he is.

A pigeon took up residence on the seat in the sun in the garden this afternoon . We sowed some grass seed earlier, maybe he was too full to fly off.

On the roof

 Another light wind blue sky spring morning this morning. Anne had some medical appointments in the afternoon so Oz and I went for a one hour row. It was lovely. 

Later in the afternoon I tried putting the Skerry on the roof of the car using the loader.

It is a bit of a work out, but doable. Proof of concept successful, which means we can think of some boat and teardrop combo trips. But the trailer is so much quicker and far less effort and stress. I would need to be somewhere for a few days to make it a worthwhile return on effort.

Maggie was a huge help though.

While the boat was upside down I could see that I need to sand and repaint the bottom, as some of my rough launchings have left their mark. Lucky I have plenty of time to do the boat maintenance.

Father's day

 

Because of the lockdown, the kids couldn't come over. Anne made a memorably splendid dinner, which was some compensation.  

Free entertainment

 

A beautiful sunny early spring day today, with light winds, so I gave the Skerry's sail a try. It took me longer to get set up than I had managed in the driveway, and I was a bit disorganized. I forgot both hat and oars. 

I had the sail set too far back I think. I tried multiple times to sail out of the shallows but kept getting blown back onto the sandbar. It would have been good free entertainment for anyone watching from shore. Eventually I twigged, and adjusted the sail, and we had a lovely sail, tacking back and forth in the little bay there, for about 20 minutes. Frank saw me out there and sent the photo below. Just as well he didn't come along earlier.

A lovely day to be on the water and, as always, I learned a few things. 

oarlocks on backwards day

 

Even though my horizons are somewhat circumscribed at the moment, I am trying to do at least one different thing a day.  This morning I walked with Oz down to Ransom Reserve, to suss out the launching options down there.  Hmmmm.  Soft sand, very shallow.  A high tide required to have any chance of getting in and out. No trailer space, so it would have to be a car top trip.  It is potentially a good trial exercise for cartopping, so I will put it on the list of things to do.

Another thing I have been wanting to try is walking the Skerry round to Flemmo's, the local beach, where I used to launch my kayak. The Skerry is a good bit wider and a bit heavier than the sea kayak, but I got it down there ok.  The wind, a South Westerly, had kicked up a bit by the time I got down there (16 knots at Laverton), and the tide was about half in so I had almost no sand beach to wedge the boat on, and a steady stream of small choppy waves bouncing the boat about.  I got Oz in, put the oars in and rowed off as best I could.  It was not my most graceful or organized launching, but we managed to miss the the various rocks that I saw sliding past on either side.  Rowing into the wind and chop was interesting, particularly as I discovered. after a while that I had put the oar locks in backwards, which didn't really help.  But we had a good row, over to Altona Pier.  I decided I didn't want to try my luck again at Flemmo's, so we rowed round to the Red Stick, then back into the little beach at the base of the Revetment.  There was just enough water to get in there and it is nice and sheltered compared to round the point. 

Getting the boat trailer over the soft sand was a work out, but doable, and we got home, pretty much within the allotted hour of outside time we had left.  

Oz found a noisome dead something in the sand when we landed.  I made him come and sit in front of the boat for a photo.  You can tell he was a bit peeved.

It is good to have the folding trolley, so I can launch and land in different spots without running around.  We rowed about 2 nautical miles, top speed 3.9 knots, probably down a wave face, average 2.5 knots.

Driveway sailing

 It was too windy, and too busy, to get the boat out today, but I tried some driveway sailing instead.  I wanted to try and set up a topping lift/lazy jack arrangement, which required a bit of fiddling.  And it was good to practice raising the sail and rigging everything.  Sail set looks much better.  I timed my last attempt:7 minutes to raise mast, fit rudder and tiller, raise sail, adjust topping lift and down haul.  About 5 minutes to put it all away again.  I think it is worth giving sailing a go, I could get an hour or so of sailing in I rekon.