Upgrading to a smaller boat

A great day for the launch on Victoria Harbour at Docklands in Melbourne, Australia. There were still a few things to be done on the boat and Mack and Silvain helped me out with trying to sort out the final rigging problems. In the end we all agreed that I just needed to get it on the water and figure out the problems as they emerged.

The sun was out all day and we had light winds with a few stronger gusts during the launch and for several hours afterwards. I was even able to take Alana my wife with her champagne glass in hand out for a sail with the two of us crammed into the cockpit. Not too uncomfortable for a short sail and good fun with Mack cruising around us in his pedal boat and Richard in his recently finished trailer sailer. You can see them in one of the videos that I’ll post up once I figure out how to do so. Me sitting on the leeward side on a strong gust was the most water we took which came over the gunnel and up to the deck coaming. But there was no fear of going over with two of us in, just good fun whilst I tried to make the boat go faster and Alana tried to steer.

Then the wind picked up and I was able to push the boat hard on a couple of solo runs. Mack and Silvain both took a turn and we all agreed it took a bit getting used to the push pull tiller. After a while I didn’t notice it so much, but I still found the lack of reference for where centre was, and the amount of play to both be a bit annoying. Foot pedals or a short side mounted tiller in the cockpit might be an option. I tried managing both sails at once but when the wind picked up I eventually just cleated off the mizzen sheet and focused on the main sheet and tiller which worked fine.

I played around a bit with the centreboard to make the tacking a bit more fluid, but it was generally well balanced. Tacking was a bot awkward and the main problem was that I had to drop everything (sheets and tiller) to move from a sitting position with my legs out in front of me by ouching down with both hands onto the floorboards, just to shift about 30cm to port or starboard – as opposed to a larger boat where it’s easier and quicker to move from a seat or bench without having to drop the tiller or sheets.

Moving the CLR aft/CB-up, helped a bit with both sails and moving the CLR fully forward/CB-down was better for the single main sail in the second mast position. I’m still keen to try and sail the boat with the main only, in the first mast hole to see how it differs from two sails and being in the second mast hole. Will try that today. That’s the advantage of this boat, I can launch it from the Wooden Boat Centre and then haul it in for a few quick mods before taking it out again. The other advantage is that I can sail it whilst building the next boat 😉

On the big gusts and fast runs the boat would kick up a bit of a rooster tail with lots of white water coming off the back and sides. In the really strong gusts the boat would heel suddenly and I would be leaning out to windward but I never had to hike out. At the most I found that if I just shifted my sitting position to the windward gunnel the boat would settle back down immediately. A couple of cushions on the back rest and to sit on helped also. Some water came into the boat but only from wind chop when the big gusts came through. It was meant to be blowing 5-10knots early on and then 15-20knots in the afternoon, but the advantage of Vic Harbour is the lack of chop or swell. I was also worried that I had made the masts too light (40-45mm each), but even on the strongest gusts there was no bend in them. I was really happy with how the Duckworth sails set.

Another feature of the leg o’ mutton sails that worked well was how the boom and sails rotated completely around the mast. With no shrouds or stays I could easily just let both sheets go either running downwind, on a reach or heading into the wind. The mizzen also worked well for heading into the wind while I sorted some part of the rigging out. There was also never any fear of the booms hitting the water when he boat heeled as there was plenty of clearance.

All in all a great day and I sailed it for several hours until the wind died off. There’s still a few mods to make and I should probably put some more coats of varnish and paint in some areas but that can wait until the winter. The boat came in a little heavy and probably weighs about 60kg/125lbs. A little too much for car topping but a small and cheap 4×6 trailer might solve that issue. Overall I’m really pleased with how it turned out considering that I took a big gamble trying to modernise a DN Goodchild design that was originally designed as a sloop with canvas stretched over a wooden frame. Now just managing the sunburn and dreaming of the next sail.

(More photos to come as Nick took plenty of shots from the shoreline during the better part of the day when it was blowing harder).