Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Jobs done

Reefing ties have been lengthened and replaced using hardy hemp rope 4mm.....it's in keeping with my policy of  changing halyards over to synthetic hemp which has a more traditional look. The eye on the boomkin has been replaced with a homemade mahogany block which seems to be working better. The boat has been baled out...the tarpaulin seems to be failing. All sails have been removed and dried out and hung in garage over the winter months.

In the meantime I have constructed from mahogany offcuts, a binocular rack. This will be attached to the coaming mid ships and the binoculars held in ace by a Velcro strap. No more scrambling around to find them under the side decks behind the coaming. In a similar vein, another little rack has been constructed for the handheld compass. I just need to attach them in such a way that they don't interfere with being able to lean back against the coaming when relaxing.

In the meantime, I now have to compose a difficult email to my brother. My nephews have just started fishing. Very excited they are. Santa bought them new rods and a generous uncle sent them a huge parcel of spinners, rigs, floats etc. my nephews live in New Zealand by the way. So the news that my 7 yr old nephew has just spent sseval hours in casualty having a deeply embedded hook extracted from his thumb....well uncle's popularity has probably hit an all time low and I have no idea how to redeem myself.  Any helpful suggestions gratefully received!!!

In the meantime, whilst not such a great start to the new year....happy new year to everyone else!

Steve 

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