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.
I have the same problem with my lighting board. No matter how tightly I screw the extension rods in place, they fibrate loose. I'll have to rig stopper nuts to prevent this happening.
ReplyDeleteI actually lost the extension rods from a previous trailer somewhere between Poole and home. They were done p tight but stil worked loose and fell out. There is something about traler design which just doesn't work.
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