10 March 2008

Green Monday - first sail of the new year

9 nautical miles

Well... the boat is back at the club and Green Monday (start of Lent for the Orthodox) sounds a good day for a first sail.

But... look at the weather. Still as a mill pond. and slightly misty.

But eventually we get a little bit of wind.

So we launch the boat and go out for a very gentle sail around the bay.

I suppose first sail of the season is best to be very gentle.

We have made so many changes to the boat over the winter... she is almost a different boat from last season.

Amongst other things we have replaced the main halyard with rope rather than wire, and the sheave at the top of the mast - so it runs much easier... and comes down amazingly fast. Now it runs down, last season we had to pull the sail down!

We have also put control lines for the uphaul/downhaul on the centreboard, with cleats. One reason for this is that when Blue turned turtle the centerboard dropped into the case so Neil and Paula could not use it to right the boat. With a centreboard downhaul cleated the centreboard will stay fixed even if she does turn turtle.

Even with little wind, its good to be back out on the water.

James decides to come out with us too rather than with his parents.

As we drift around in this calm we do a photo-shoot with Blue.

From the photos I can see the sails are setting much better, pity there is not more wind to fill them and have something that looks more like sailing pictures.

Anyway, its good to be back out on the water again.

There is only one trouble with the work we have done...

...the blue paint on the floorboards has not really set and is still tacky even 4-5 days later.

I end up with blue knees.

Daniel ends up with blue knees

James ends up with blue wet suit.