March teases with warm weather, but only teases. Chilly and windy today. Clear and chilly tomorrow and I may put on a few layers for an afternoon sail. For warmer sailing look to this video from Paul showing his very well built Pathfinder Araleun in a wooden boat regatta. Below is his report. Thank you for sharing, Paul.
---------------------------------
I entered Araluen in one of the wooden boat regattas held by the South of Perth Yacht Club last weekend. The wind was a steady 20 to 25 knots and gusting to 30 knots.
Lucky for me I had a great forward hand in Peter Kovesi who expertly handled the main and jib while I steered and shot video.
It was outrageous fun and the boat was as solid as a rock. At no time did I feel as though we were in any trouble.
We had time before the start of the race to test out the breeze and after we sailed across to Royal Perth Yacht Club thought a reef would serve us well.
Unfortunately we were the only boat in our class to turn up so we started with the fleet of H28 and then sailed our own course.
It was an easy First and Fastest placing but seeing as we did complete the course we felt very comfortable accepting the two bottles of Grange.
6 comments:
It looks like the main mast is hinged just above the foredeck. To the right of it appears to be an anchor of some kind going into an anchor well. Rigging details are always interesting.
Good eye! Yes, details are interesting. You should appreciate a hinged mast as well as anybody. The anchor well at the bow is part of the Pathfinder design. I chose not to put one on Spartina for two reasons. 1) I feel it is safer, particularly when single handing and when in rough conditions to deploy and recover the anchor from within the cockpit and 2) I did not want to put the weight high and all the way forward, wanted to keep it low and closer to the middle of the hull. But the Pathfinder has a proven track records as JW designed it, can't argue with success. steve
Humbling vid. Great to see it. Is there a web page this came from steve?
Fun fun! We were sailing Witchcraft on another part of the river at the same time (During Webb's joy-in) and it was a bit gusty. While we watch the smiles on these guys' faces it's worth noting that on another part of the river at about the same time a Couta Boat from the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club was hit by one of the stronger gusts, took some water over the gunwhale and ended up on the bottom. Last I saw of her that day the peak of the main and the head of the jib were still sticking up out of the water. I saw her again today in her pen and she's been dismasted (apparently as a result of the recovery). I hear she'll be back in action soon enough, though, once she's got a new mast and the engine is dry. According to the owner of a neighboring Couta Boat it's all just a part of the experience.
Maybe they won't miss more than a race or two.
Ken
Wow. It did look like a gusty day. How's life on the other side of the world?? Must be nice! best wishes steve
I can't seem to find the North Star and "red right returning" is an extremely bad idea, but other than that it's pretty good.
Post a Comment