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, 13 January 2024

Fixing a jamming keel roller

 The last few times Arwen has jammed on her trailer at launch and I have had to resort to roping her down part of the slipway to get the trailer deep enough that she just floats off. 

It took me time but finally I discovered the issue - two things - one a badly positioned keel roller (which jammed against the aft end of the centreboard casing) and secondly, the brass skeg band had come adrift and was digging into the roller on occasions. 

And so I jacked up Arwen and put her on blocks along the trailer keel support - moved the roller along so it sat under the centreboard casing in a better position.

Hopefully this will work. A good job I did it though as I have discovered some rot in the skeg and some touch up painting on the hull bottom that needs doing. That winter maintenance list is growing again! 


 

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