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, 9 May 2021

A much needed shake down cruise

 At last. It has been a long, long wait but finally, finally, I have been out on the water in Arwen.

The log details are simple enough:

  • Force 3 winds with gusts to 17knots; SE around to SSW
  • Low tide at 10.00am; high tide at 16.00pm
  • passage plan: to sail across to Cremyll, just inside the entrance of the river Tamar and then back out into Plymouth Sound, with possible end of day trip up the river Plym before returning to Queen Ann's Battery marina. 
In a shake down cruise I would expect to do sailing on various points of wind, practise some reefing and heaving to, re-stow some of the onboard equipment and possibly practise using the anchor buddy by landing on a near by beach.

All that went out the window. The winds were perfect for just settling back and reaching back and fore across the sound. And why not?

So, I am baffled as to how I managed to take chunks out of my rudder! A mystery; but tomorrow is clearly going to be another 'repair' day! 

Ho hum!




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