Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Trailing edge

 




The good news is I have collected my new trailer. More good news, it has a seriously long drawbar which hopefully will make launching and retrieving easier. The flat frame makes life easier too.  It came without winch post, which is probably as well as I had not grasped the importance of a longer winch post when I ordered it. But a winch post, winch holder piece and winch will not be cheap I fear. But the bad news is, once I resolved issue with VIN number (the manufacturer had stuffed up) the earliest I could get an appointment was 10 April. Oh well, this too shall pass.


The late, great Cisco Kid had a motto: "always keep another horse in the bushes" . Luckily I have another boat in the bushes. I got out in the Skerry on Tuesday last from Werribee South, with Chris in Ysolde and Wayne in his Windward 15. It was great to be back on the water, by golly I am out of routine. It was not till after lunch, when we were getting organised to sail back, that I realised my life jacket was still in the car. I managed to get those darn lazy jacks in a tangle too. I think I will try a different arrangement: once is misfortune, twice sheer carelessness. Bottom line is, I need to get out on the water more. There are so many little details that get smoothed over with plenty of doing. 


I used Stephen's trailer for one last launch, at the Warmies, for the WBA trip up to Herring Island. Chris came, and brought his torqeedo batteries, and just as well as I emptied my first big battery getting up to Spencer Street. I think headwind and current drained it fast. We were using round 720 watts to go 3.8 knots upriver, round 450 watts to go 4 plus knots coming home over the same stretch. It was a very pleasant day on the water.



Cathy, who was on one of the Hartleys on the raid, was very taken with the SCAMP and took the photo above. For some reason I got photos of every other boat but forgot the SCAMP. 

Really looking forward to getting the trailer sorted and actually getting some good, undistributed SCAMP time on the water!