28 April 2014

Trying to secure the trailer lighting board on the trailer.

I've been working on the trailer board support arms, to see if I can come up with something which will actually hold the board on. Originally there were steel brackets on each arm. One just seemed to have fallen off. The other is so sharp edged it chafed through a bungy cord. So I have drilled both end plates and bolted on a marine ply upright, with a lip to take the weight of the board, and a bungy which is only in contact with wood, not steel. Hopefully this might work. I have little faith in trailers. I have found that I have to order the board specially because no local trailer firm carries 6ft boards in stock.
When the boat is on the trailer, there is no problem, the board is supported on the boom gallows on the boat, where it is secure, at the back and very clear. I am sure that a board underneath the boat is just about invisible in practice.

21 April 2014

Launch day and so quick I sailed around Brownsea Island (7.2nm)

We have  been away for three weeks, so I am very late launching this year. Easy tow down to Poole, and I took the easy option of getting the marina to pick her up and drop her in the water. So much easier than struggling on the Baiter slipway on my own. It should have taken me just a few minutes to raise and rig the mast, but it finally took an hour. No problem with the mast. Just that I had every rope tangled, then lost the lazy jacks up to the top of the mast. After lowering it and putting a bungy on the ropes, I found I had put the bungy so high up I couldn't reach them. After some antics with the boathook I finally got them all rigged. It is much quicker to lower and raise during the season, because all of the ropes are in place. But at the start of the season they have all got to be re-rove.
It was so sunny that I spent a couple of hours just cruising around Brownsea. Every things seems to work, but the new furling line for the jib is a bit too thick, so I can't get enough turns on the drum. I'll have to get a thinner line.
Towing the trailer home was more complicated as I can never get the lighting board fixed securely. It fell off three times and broke a couple of lights. Happens every year.