Arwen back on the slip after her epic voyage clearing the breakwater!!

Below is a picture taken by my wife at the end of our epic voyage out past Plymouth Breakwater.

Must clean off that rust on wheels and repaint them!

You can see where I have moved the oars forward. Originally they lay a lot further aft alongside the coaming but they were such a pain to climb over.......so I pinched the idea of moving them further forward almost to the bowsprit from a character post boat!

The wheels are rusting and paint is flaking off....another job to sort. It's a very good trailer (a degraaf) but you need to run it right into the water until the wheels are virtually submerged before Arwen rolls off it........I grease the bearings to form a waterproof seal just before I immerse the trailer....so that prolongs the bearing life ....but it isn't ideal. It gets washed off (along with the boat) after every dip.

The main mast was made by Noble Masts of Bristol. You often see them advertising in Watercraft Magazine (a magazine I heartily recommend for all those interested in the construction of small wooden boats). Noble Masts used some scrap wood they had left over from constructing 60' wooden main masts ( their normal business I think)....Arwen's was the smallest mast they'd made when I went to collect it. Hollow inside, sealed on outside and you can pick it up in one hand - fantastic!  The mizzen mast I made......I felt I ought to give it a go - it isn't hollow...but easily picked up again in one hand.

Watercraft Magazine...do a google search

This has been a source of inspiration to me

over the years......Thanks Pete and the Watercraft team!

I hadn't stowed sails at this point very well ........I find it difficult to get all the battens lying flat; also, I decided to turn head to wind and drop the sails in the Cattedown...not my normal policy ( I drop them normally off outer Mt.Batten breakwater and motor back in.  Anyway, unknown to me it was the gathering of the Round Britain Race which starts here at the RWYC on Sunday....so several boats were coming in to be moored and it got a little hectic and so I stowed sails very rapidly to get out of every one's way!!

You can find out more about the RBI race at www.rwyc.org/rbi

The logo for this year's Round Britain and Ireland Race

This was one of the boats moored in the Cattedown when I returned

Things I did that were slightly different to the original plans?

Well, firstly, I added an outer stem to give the bows a more pointed appearance. I added the full backrest panels above thwarts with cut outs so that all sorts of stuff easily needed could be stowed without having to go into lockers each time. I added a stainless steel fishing rod holder in the aft starboard side deck. She has a fishfinder/echo sounder attached to transom and the spare cable is stored in a watertight plastic BDH unit under the port aft side deck where the boomkin is secured. I made a homemade outboard bracket and secured that to transom with four stainless steel bolts(by the way I made the transom thicker than on the plans to take this into account). I also added a brass fold down step on the port side of transom and a small rope ladder which fits under the side deck same side and can be pulled out in event of an emergency ....i.e. capsize! Simple lazy jacks have also been added - another idea pinched from my friend's post boat.......and that is it really

Things I wish I'd done?

1. a curved tiller with a point at which it folds up - see Barrett Faneuf's Yuko for that idea

2. I did that hatch in bulkhead 2 right in the centre as per plans - and wish I had offset it because its right behind the mast and a real pain to access!

3. I wished I'd finished off the top of the coamings more nicely - perhaps hardwood mahogany strips either side

Other than that - I'm pretty pleased with her.......for a first effort not bad and she is a great design as I discovered yesterday. Well done John (Welsford)!

Steve