Tuesday 19 August 2014

post 'mini-adventure' reflections

What have I learned from my little jaunt?

In no particular order............
  • spend more time on day sails practising set manoeuvres to build up experience - sailing on and off moorings in various places; sailing onto and off anchor in various places; heaving too; reefing afloat; MOB drills with a fender and bucket; anchoring on a beach; using my anchor beach pulley system until I gain familiarity with its benefits and pitfalls - I just don't do enough of this and should dedicate a set portion of time afloat each trip to doing one of these  
  • on a similar note - spend a bit of time when afloat doing pilotage - taking transects; bearings on things; calculating leeway; calculating speed etc
  • stop off and enjoy places on route and plan more time into extended passages for such things - I should have stuck my nose in around Forder Lake and Tematon Lake; I could have anchored for lunch on one of the other remote beach spots; I should have gone and at least taken a look at St Germans from the water.
  • rethink how I pack expedition kit on Arwen. That inaccessible front locker hatch below deck and blocked by mast is driving me insane with frustration! I need to repack Arwen so that one centre thwart locker is given over to cooking gear and food. The stern thwart locker needs to be reorganised so that clothing and sleeping gear goes in that one. Spare ropes can be stored in one side thwart locker; in the other can go spare lifejackets. Cushions are squashable and lightweight and could be stored in the forward under deck locker.
  • I need to build some sort of raised ring protection on the deck around the mast hole. When washing down the deck water disappears in it and collects in the boxed in mast step way below - a nuisance and something I forget to sponge out quite frequently.
I am sure other things will occur to me as I potter about over the next few days.

Steve
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous25 August 2014 at 05:09

    This winter i have stepped my mast onto the seat, gets rid of exactly that problem , Having water go down the mast tube, and not being able to escape. Cant see why it would give any problems?
    Martin Wellby

    ReplyDelete
  2. steve25 August 2014 at 08:11

    Hi Martin
    Quite like the idea of stepping the mast to the seat. What were the advantages of this and what alterations did you have to make?

    Steve

    ReplyDelete
  3. Martin and Nikki29 August 2014 at 05:03

    Advantage is mostly that you dont get water going down tha hole, and forget about it! Dont know that there is anything else much. All i did was cut the required amount off the bottom of the mast, and put a wooden pad over the hole in the seat. The drain pipe that lined the hole i left in as a compression post. Havent actually used the boat since then, as it is still pretty cold here at the moment, but dont envisage any problems.

    ReplyDelete
  4. steve29 August 2014 at 09:30

    Thanks Martin

    I'll give this some thought over the winter as to whether it is feasible and beneficial enough to warrant some surgery on Arwen. Appreciate you getting back to me
    Thanks

    Steve

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking a look at my blog. All comments and advice are welcome - drop me a few lines. You can always find videos about Arwen at www.youtube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy. Look forward to hearing from you.
Steve