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

Saturday, 7 February 2015

Another test

I've had a great day. I've had to sit my compulsory basic training certificate again. It expires every two years. So it's been a busy day doing figure of eights, emergency stops, u turns, clutch control etc etc. then two hours road ride through heavy city traffic.

But it is done and 'Stacey' our 1971 motovespa super 125 behaved impeccably. Phew!!

3 comments:

Rik said...

No no more wheelies with the vespa?

steve said...

HaHa!
Funny man! If only my friend. Sadly stacey is well capable of them...her owner on the other hand is not.......he'd embarrassingly slide off the end and plonk his ar..... On the road!
How is your sailing going?
Steve

Rik said...

The trick is to keep your feet on the pegs so u can break the rear wheel (if you feel falling backwards is imminent) and the weight of your legs stays in front. Never mind. Be safe.

Sailing is awesome. Travel is keeping me off the water too much. But if they did not fly me off the island i would not get any work done because I would be on the water the whole time.

I have added 25kg fixed ballast in lead form. Some water containers will be added when necessary. She is a very solid sailor.