|
PmWiki /
SailingAlex
Performance, Heather Mary January 2008.Conditions, 2m swell, 1/2m seas, 15-20 kt winds.The Heather Mary handled the conditions extremely well, we were four adults and she was extremely impressive. Her weight meant that the seas did not stop her way as can happen with some trailer sailers and she ploughed on manfully (womanfully) pointing suprisingly high. I learnt one very important lesson and as I already knew the advantage of this type of rig is to shorten it down and bring it inboard. However I left the mizzen up too long in the strengthening wind and the steering vane effect on the rudder meant that I snapped two lamminations in the tiller from the strain. All fixed now with brass bands on both sides of the tiller. Thanks to the lazy-jacks I could get the mizzen down without fuss and made it back to the sheltered anchorage with no other problems. Next time out I'm going to practice heaving-to if I can remember how to do it. I have discarded the slab reefing and have permanently bent on reefing pennants on the luff and leach. As I have to be at the mast to reef I saw no advantage in the long lines for the slab reefing and they became a nuisance. I know some will have their throat and peak halliards taken back to the cockpit but I find that in a gaff rigged boat this leaves an awful lot of "string" in the fairly small cockpit. With the reefed main the wind spilled from the top of the sail without pressing the boat at all. The HM was very dry with no green ones on the foredeck and the lee gunnel at least 150mm from the water. Very very impressive, well done Iain O. I decided to see how she took the ground and intentionally ran her ashore on a falling tide and she was fine. I've e-mailed Richard some shots so you can see how she looks when high and dry. I slept on board at an angle but it was very comfortable in the lee berth. When the tide came back in she just quietly floated off with no banging or worrying moments.  |