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

Sunday 16 February 2014

The opportunity arose...........

A 15% discount in the sale at my local kayak shop.
I have bitten the bullet and replaced my old crewsaver PFD with a new one. It had served five years and had failing zips, a small tear or two and some general wear and tear which had taken its toll. It has been consigned to the "spares" locker for now. It is still serviceable. 

I spent ages looking around and followed the advice of Osbert who owns a JW 'Walkabout'. I looked at lalizas PFDs but they had only one or two I liked. At the end of the day I went on practical recommendation of some sea kayaker friends and a couple of sailing instructors I know and plummed for the palm kaikoura. You can read about it in a post from a few days ago. 

First impressions......
  • Good fit with plenty of adjustment straps
  • Very well made.....typical palm attention to detail
  • Love the foam flex body curving flotation panels
  • Front zip .....tough and much better than my old over the head PFD
  • Excellent adjustment......an anti ride up waist strap; side straps; and then shouldr adjustments. All straps can be tucked out of the way. 
  • It sits low on me and feels very comfortable
  • Plenty of pockets. I've managed to stow safety knife, mini flares, windy anemometer, hand held GPS, sunnies, fingerless gloves and still have room to spare. It doesn't feel bulky although I suspect it looks so. 
  • The fleece lined hand warmer pockets......very nice touch
I've attached a new strobe lifejacket light to one of the attachment points. Below that is my SPOT PLB; on the other side is my VHF radio. 
It has 70 newtons so I shouldn't sink!!!
It sounds bulky but so far I have been able to sit, bend, squat and the arm movement freedom is fantastic.

So now all we need is the sailing weather....preferably around force four/five as opposed to gale force ten which seems to have been most weeks since december! 

Steve

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