Coffee and sail trim

At last, I have a picture of Vagabond under sail.  It was taken at Rutland Water, at the beginning of May and shows the Pursur at the helm with me grinning inanely. OK, there's a bit of string (technical term) hanging out of the hawse hole in the bow.

But she looks pretty.

Under way on Rutland Water

At a local coffee house the other day, I proudly showed it to "the skipper".

He pulled a face.

 

'What's wrong with the rig?', I asked as I recognised the look.

'It's the jib', he replied, 'It shouldn't crease like that, there's something wrong with the way it's set up."

We then had technical discussion about the sail. The skipper phoned the admiral for confirmation.

 

'The sail is too tight on the wire that runs up the leading edge", he said.

 

(Well, not exactly as he used a lot of jargon terms for the wire and the parts of the sail which I can't remember as I'm afraid that stuff tends to pass in one ear and out of the other but I at least retain the gist of what was said).

 

'You should be able to loosen the top of the sail and slacken it off on the wire' he said.

 

Work in progress........

A sailing date and an artefact

Whilst I was out for a walk a few evenings ago, mulling over tide times and social commitments and generally putting off the decisions I need to make about the resumption of our wanderings, my eye was caught by a flat piece of flint, lying on the track in front of me.

I stopped and picked it up: it showed the tell tale marks of having been knapped into shape.






It lay in the palm of my hand, with a large, flat, knapped surface uppermose and a knapped edge towards my finger tips.





 



It seemed to me to be asking to be balanced on my index finger and gripped by my thumb.



I think I had found a stone age tool, a scraper of some sort, perhaps (as my vague recollections of history lessons suggested) used for scraping the back of a hide before treating it.



OK, so the tool (if it is one) was made getting on for four thousand years ago and the edge was blunted.

But it fitted my hand is if it had been made for it yesterday.



I strode home with a new clarity of thought.


Vagabond will be back in the water at Burnham on Crouch sometime during the week commencing 3rd June and we'll be setting sail a week or so later.

The first port of call will be somewhere on the River Deben. Then on to Felixstow and a long slog to Wells Next the Sea. After that it the future becomes a bit more murky - do we head for Saltfleet (described to me by someone as 'a miserable little creek' ) or further on to Grimsby. Here, the name is enough to put one off!

Then north, to hide behind a headland or two before reaching Whitby, and then harbour hopping up to Holy Island.

After that, it all depends. There is one fixed date in July for which I need to be at home so will have to find somewhere to abandon Vagabond for a few days. I'll keep you posted.

After Rutland

Attentive readers will remember that Vagabond was at Gwbert, in a queue at the Swallow Boats yard, waiting for a few changes to be made.  These were to be completed in time for me to collect her and take her to Rutland Water for a meet up with other Swallow Boats and their owners.


A queue of Bay Cruisers at Gwbert

Matt and his team had done the work and I just had time to collect her and tow her across England to arrive at Rutland Water on the Friday evening before the meeting. I slept on board. Ice formed on the cockpit. It was cold and I had forgotten to take any gas cylinders for the heater, so I was up early the following day and started to rig up. 
I had persuaded the Purser to join me as I thought he might like a couple of days sailing and because I needed his muscles  to help me get Vagabond into and out of the water. He arrived just as I was taking the mast down  (I had forgotten to rig the main halyard).

Anam Cara BC 23 at Rutland

We were on the water by midday and pottered about around the lake, in and out of company with several other Swallow boats, including one immaculate BayCrusier 23, which sported a Swallow logo and a sail number.
 
Vagabond was very jealous and I have now ordered the necessary for her!


Vagabond gets under way at Rutland, the Purser at the helm

Vagabond sported her new name plates on either side of the bow, the improved tension in her mainsail and a less raked rig thanks to an extra couple of inches added to the lower part of the mast. This last is an attempt to reduce the weather helm by bringing the centre of pressure forward (that sail trim book I was talking about....)

With the exception of the new wind speed indicator, all seemed to be "shipshape and Bristol fashion" in the F2 - 3 winds that we had on the Saturday and we found that the dinghy oars, when used as paddles, could get Vagabond moving quite well in the nil wind conditions on Sunday. I'll have to learn how to scull with one oar over the stern....

She's now back in the barn and Freddie has been collected from the outboard specialist so I need to get on with planning the northward journey in earnest. I'll have to have meaningful discussions with the Owners Agent to find out when we can leave....

Nearly spring

Vagabond is (I hope) having a few changes made by Swallow boats. When I took her down ther the yard was full. So she lies in a queue, waiting for the work.

In the meantime, I can get on with planning (no), sorting out the new house (sort of) and generally daydreaming about the forthcoming sailing season. She must be ready for the Swallow Boats get together at Rutland Water in early April.

There, I can sort out the new bits that have been added and generally get "in the groove" ready to put her back in the real water in May. We are definitely going to start in Essex (as last year) only this time I'm going to turn left every morning until I meet myself at Balvicar some time in the summer.

I've been reading about sail trim during the winter.......

A Frame!

Dedicated readers may remember that I had used some aluminium* tubing (the leading edge of my old hang glider) to make a simple A frame which should make it a bit easier to raise Vagabond mast. This had lain unused all winter as Vagabond was snugly lying a barn whilst the snow and frost lay around.


A frame in position

This week has seen a marked change in the weather and yesterday was almost balmy at Little Kings Ash farm so Vagabond was brought out into the sunshine and the A frame assembled on the foredeck.
Various pieces of string were tied to it to hold it in place, the forestay and shrouds were attached to the mast and the forestay led through a block on the A Frame. A strong heave on the forestay showed that the device worked and the mast rose into position.
When the time came to lower the mast, it descended onto the rest under reasonable control. All that has to be done now is to work out how to store the frame whilst at sea!

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Voacabulary Notes:
US readers: Aluminum

Errors and Omissions

I was a bit hurt the other week, when out to lunch with the Insurer(Retired). He wanted me to start including details of the menu's at each pub I visited during the last trip. Clearly, he is finding the blog dull. A bit like the  recent weather then.

But things may be changing.

We've had some sun today, the first (it seems) for weeks and the temperature is almost warm. I'd better go and have a look at Vagabond tomorrow to see how she has weathered the winter. I'll ask the Owners Agent if I can have time off from putting up shelves and all the sort of stuff that is assoicated with moving into a different house.

As a bit of light relief, I've been preparing for the illustrated talk that I've got to give to the GXSA (see link) early in March. I've discovered that the blog was a bit economical with the truth. There was no mention of running aground in the North Haven of the Isle of Skomer!

All is revealed in this "clip" from the recorded track:

I was concentrating on where to park amongst the half dozen or so boats already nodding to their anchors. There was a scrunch and a lurch, and the line securing the centre board went slack for a moment or two. Then Freddie powered Vagabond over the outcrop and we carried with my pride and the centre board gel coat both hurting!
I retreated from the pack and anchored in 12 metres at the western end of the bay!

Shoreham to Gosport (Track)

I had inteneded to publish the plotted track of each section of the voyage last summer. On reflection, it's probably not too good an idea at this late date as the individual trips are now comparitively ancient history in this age of twitter and instant information - besides which I managed to press the wrong button on the Garmin GPS and have deleted several of them.

So I will only publish a selection between now and our resumption of the trip in May.

You may recall that we left Shoreham at about 9 o'clock and were whisked along by the 18 KN wind and the tide. It was a good thing because we had to get through the Looe channel off Selsey Bill before the tide turned against us.  The various large kinks in the track are (from right to left) where:
- we hove to, whilst I put on some warmer clothing
- we tacked to avoid a large bulk carrier and head vaguely for Chichester
- we turned for Gosport.