My summer sailing area

My summer sailing area! This is Studland Bay, just outside Poole Harbour, where I like to coast along in the sunshine. Photo from the Daily Mail taken on November 15, 2009. Shows the wisdom of hauling out for the winter. I hope Old Harry and his wife are still standing when I get back next year.

Updates on winter work to Daisy G

Daisy G is now ashore for the winter, currently under a tarpaulin, but I hope to get her under a roof at some stage. I have recently been reading about dreadful after sales service from some yacht builders, so I thought I would give my own experiences.

Daisy G had very few problems, but the only one of significance was the rudder blade, which got steadily stiffer and stiffer in the rudderhead. I could only raise or lower the blade by getting into the dinghy and forcing it up or down from outside the boat. Not good, and when I told Matt newland at Swallowboats he immediately said "That's not right, we'll have her back and sort it out". The little video on the previous post was her going off to Cardigan behind Matt's car.

Two weeks later, Matt towed her back to Gloucestershire and handed her back to me. Brand new rudder blade installed. I had also said that the jib sheets chafed the edge of the cabin top. Now there is a hardwood edging with a brass rubbing strip behind the cleats. As you can imagine, I have the greatest respect for Swallow Boats.

The new rudder blade is interesting. if you compare the old and new in the pictures, you will see that the new blade is narrower and longer. The old blade stuck vertically down, which meant it got quite heavy on the helm in a blow. The new blade will stick down parallel with the transome, which means it will point forward slightly. This should make it much lighter, and is the form adopted for BayCruiser no2.

Now there is just the work that I want to carry out in the cabin to make it a bit more homey. I think Matt is worried that I am going to double her weight and then complain she is not as fast as she was. He probably has good grounds.