Swell day

 

I arranged to meet Ian with Westy down  at the ramp yesterday.  It was a perfect spring morning, beautiful blue sky and light wind. Andrew from the WBA was down there with Mars. He took the photo above,for which I thank him. Andrew came out in his Laser too, but got cold I think.  The laser is not what you would call a comfortable boat. Ian tried raising his spinnaker, which sent him off on a down wind tangent towards the dog beach. 

It was very light airs, so I raised the staysail, and got it set on a broad reach, after a bit of faffing around. I am very glad to have a photo that shows how it sets, as it is hard to tell from on the boat.  After watching me fiddle round with the staysail for a while, Anne asked:"Do you ever, you know, just go sailing?"

I was also testing the outboard bracket box for the Torqeedo. It works very well indeed. Puttering in and out, quite a way, at 4 knots, I burned up 28% of the battery, so with care I could get about 4 return trips with it. It does make everything a bit more relaxing, as it is quiet and just goes, unlike the Honda which always adds a bit of suspense, and a lot more noise. Anne likes it a lot, and enjoyed our outing.

Coming back in, we saw a pod of at least 4 dolphins, quite close by. I wonder if they were investigating the torqeedo noise.  Coming into the jetty was pretty good too, a touch of reverse and we stopped right next to the cleat. 

All in all a great outing, but I was seriously stuffed last night, and I have been pretty useless today. I hope I have not got out of condition.

Mistakes and projects

 

Last year I made a terrific batch of marmalade from Seville oranges. For some unkown reason, I went and bought a pile of blood oranges this year. 

I've made the batch. It is a bit a case of bad news good news, the bad news is it doesn't taste or look so great, the good news is there is plenty of it. Oh well, I guess it is good vitamin c.

I got out for a great sail in the Skerry late last week and took some great footage. As I was uploading, a bit tired and distracted, a notice flashed past on the computer monitor something like "can't load profile" but I uploaded, deleted media from camera, viewed it all and was having a great time till I went to edit. No video editor available, so I rebooted, and all media files had vanished off to that big hard drive in the sky. Oh well. So no photos from last sail.

Last time I took the Core Sound out, I felt that the Torqeedo prop was too close to the surface of the water, and definitely too close to the rudder. After a huge amount of faffing around I have built a ply outboard extending/lowering bracket, basically a box with a bit that drops over the transom. I managed to make version 1 of this just a little too small to actually tighten the outboard clamps. Version two I tried to be clever and got in a huge mess with angles all over the place. Version 3 is hopefully large enough and strong enough. I plan to test tomorrow.

My other project is making a sort of spray dodger for the Skerry. Poor Oz doesn't like getting splashed and blown around. 

I am making a prototype with an old  blue tarp. I am sure there are plenty of mistakes in this project also, but I am not far enough advanced to have discovered them. If the prototype works, I will make a better one from canvas.

 

Northerlies

 

I got out Wednesday and Friday, basing my decision on BOM forecasts of 5-10 knot winds. Instead, we got gusts round 20 knots Wednesday and 17 on Friday. Northerlies tend to be very gusty here, and given to sudden shifts in direction, so concentration and attention are required. I tried out the reef on Wednesday, and full sail yesterday. Derry the Skerry handles very assuredly, it seems to have a lot more stability than a Sabre or Mirror. There is still a touch of weather helm - when the big gusts come through I was fighting the boat wanting to round up into the wind. But I am starting to learn as muscle memory how the sail needs to be setting, and sailing is becoming more instinctive. 

We sailed over to T28 to visit the seals. One was in residence swimming in the water nearby.  That sail along the coast is splendid. Only two hours on the water but I felt like I had been on voyage.

Neutral

 A light airs day with some sunshine, and Andrew was getting out,  so despite the Sunday crowds I got Derry in the water. We met Bjorn and Poppy down at the AYC ramp, which cheered Ozzie up - he likes a dash around with Poppy.

I think the sail is getting close to right.  I could tack ok, and there helm seemed pretty neutral.  It will be interesting to see how it goes with more wind. 

We had a few brief interludes of good pressure, and recorded a max of 5.1 knots, but our average for the outing was 2.2 knots.  Still, a lot easier than rowing, all that free energy!

Listless

 

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.