Arwen's meanderings: Returning home from the River Yealm in the John Welsford designed navigator 'Arwen'

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 between 2009 and 2025.

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. Although 'Arwen' has now been sold to another family and is sailing in new water, this blog will remain a source of inspiration and information for those interested in dinghy cruising and sailing the local waters around Plymouth Sound. So, continue to drop us a comment or ask a question and happy sailing and fair winds to you. Steve and Arwen

Steve and Arwen

Sunday, 29 September 2019

Returning home from the River Yealm in the John Welsford designed navigator 'Arwen'

Here is part two of my mini day sail over to the Yealm and back - enjoy. Part one can be found in a previous post last week.

3 comments:

Bursledon Blogger said...: Would have been an interesting trip this weekend !! :O) I'll bet as the harbour master once said "blowing a hooley down at misery"; 29 September 2019 at 20:03
steve said...: I think probably so - interestingly I live on a north facing hillside overlooking dartmoor and have a small woodland area at the top of the garden - thus we are very sheltered from the south west.
The number of times I have gone down to the river and then discovered a howling gale whilst back home nary a leaf stirs :); 29 September 2019 at 22:58
Nitro4Me said...: tHANK yOU; 5 January 2020 at 16:10

John Welsford's 'Navigator' design

The 'Navigator' is a 14' 9" yawl with a beam of 5' 10". She weighs 309 lbs and has a sail area of 136 sq ft. Rigged with a standing lug sail, she has side, centre and front thwarts and space for four although she is an ideal single hander. There are a huge number of locker spaces. For more details about the design of navigators go to www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/navigator/index.htm

I have added two portable galley boxes, a collapsible sleeping platform, boom tarp tent and outboard bracket along with re-boarding straps. Details of all these adaptations can be found in various blog posts. Use the search blog facility.

Arwen's meanderings