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 23 January 2016

To lash or not to lash......this is the question

I had to seek advice during a fit of paranoia and as normal John Welsford had the patience of a saint and answered. My dilemma, how to attach the clew to the aft of the sprit boom. Three options came to me as I walked past some boats the other day

Option one: just attach it to an eyepad with a stainless steel carabiner.
Option two: lash the clew to the eyepad using three or four mm white braid
Option three: have it on an outhaul which runs back along the boom to a jam cleat

For years it has been lashed to the boom as per John's plans and this has worked well so I really don't know what bought on a fit of uncertainty. However, after a chat with John I concluded that possibly the best of two worlds would be better i.e have a lashing of braid onto a carabiner which can then be attached to the clew.

Of course I then implemented this action which took a pleasurable twenty minutes to fulfil and then twenty minutes later realised it was a futile gesture because I can't detach the sail anyway because of the reefing system.

Still as 'her indoors' said, it kept me busy and out of her hair for a bit.

I think I have said before that if God had given me a brain, I would have been dangerous!

2 comments:

Paul Mullings said...

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, or, if it isn't broken don't fix it!

steve said...

Paul, there is so much truth in that statement. How are you...well?