Shakedown..

At bleeding last..  the first sail on Sparrow for the new season - almost three weeks later than last year.. 😏

No major reasons or excuses for the delay, it was just a matter of weather and tides..  we had a stonking week of warm weather the week after I launched but there were no tides that week, and then a period of rain and cold settled in - hail, sun, wind, rain, repeat.. and then I needed to get the mast up....   and and ad..  If the weather gonks are to be believed next week we're getting a heatwave, I'll believe it when I see it..

Either way today looked to be the best bet to get the sails up and the first miles under my belt, and it turned out to be.... OK... 

Don't get me wrong it was bloody awesome to get the sails up and go sailing, the new roller furler is an ABSOLUTE joy, but it was grey, and it was chuffing cold in the wind..

Anyway, on the boat for half 10 which was two hours before HT (12:40), sail cover off, tender secured to pickup buoy, engine started and cast off...  with the wind being almost westerly (almost - there was a tadge of south in it), I took the opportunity to put the main up in the pool by the bridge, and then bore off for a gentle run down the ditch for the first time this year..  big tide - 4.7m - but even so we were seeing 3's...

Rolled the genoa out as we went - fantastically smooth - and just kept going, bearing up as we came round the corner by the beacon..  winds were a fairly solid F3, but every now and again something really fractious would come through, definitely higher F4. Tacked up and lit the afterburners to head back to Northney - despite what the GPS reports I was seeing 5.8/5.9 and 6 SOG (tide assisted 'natch 😏)

Tacked again - headed to Marker - almost got there, but it was so damn cold I bailed..  I had three layers on and it was still cold. Enjoyed that immensely, but now I'd like some warmer weather, please..

Sailing club duty tomorrow - I'm duty helm on the rescue boat for the second launch week..  should be fun but must remember a coat... 😁

Log:

Distance: 5.84 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 gusting F4; WSW
Sail Plan: Full main/90% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.6 / 2.8

So little expected..

..yet in the end so much delivered!

First though - I've treated myself.. Back in 2015 the Jolly Boys were their when one of the preliminary races for the 35th America's Cup were held in Portsmouth - fantastic day out, we anchored in the middle of a plethora of other boats, watched some racing, had no idea who was doing well or otherwise (better to watch it on the haunted fish tank if you want an idea of who is actually leading or not) but the atmosphere was excellent, and back then Ben Ainslie Racing had no connection to INEOS/Ratcliffe.. indeed his primary sponsor was Land Rover of all people. My baseball cap for that years team is one of the most comfortable I've had (I have a big head and it just fits well 😏) but not surprisingly 9 years of sun, salt, a couple of immersions, oh and some oxalic acid, has taken it's toll - and then I found a replacement on eBay - I'll leave you to guess which is the old and new one in the following.. 😁

How smart is that...

Anyway - new hat safely ensconced on bonce (with a bungee to stop it blowing away) and Tuesday morning found the Jolly Boys round Rod's gaff at 0830 for yet another day on the water - just the three of us this time as the Smithster had other things to do..

After a period of quite glorious highs, warm, sunny, and with a tide that was in totally the wrong place and time - we have entered a period of lows, with northerly winds, and a noticeable drop in temperatures..  the day we picked was the best of the forecasts, but the wind was far from being the best direction - it was showing light'ish and westerly.. dead upwind for anywhere west of Portsmouth, and dead downwind for coming back...

On the boat by 0915,  sails read and we cast off at 0930 with obligatory cup of coffee and pastry in hand..  the dockyard was almost empty as we came round the corner - both of the carriers are out at the moment and although it was clearly busy it looked weird not seeing Big Lizzy or the Prince in..

Main went up just off the ammunition pier, and we moved off nicely down harbour in a reasonable breeze.. as we came round the corner of Fort Blockhouse at the harbour entrance we were met by a decent breeze..  rolled the genoa out switched the engine off, put her hard on the wind, and gave this guy a little "race"..

..he was going well, and left us behind in the end, but we had a brilliant sail to the island, fast, single tack, unbelievable - there was more north in the wind than we expected!

Ended up putting the engine on and dropping sails at Castle Point before motoring in for a stupendous lunch at the Lifeboat in East Cowes (we toyed with the idea of the Island Sailing Club for a change, but we love the food at the Lifeboat and decided to go with our usual..)

Always some lovely boats to look at in Cowes, this is the Reichel Pugh designed 42 footer ‘Khumbu’ - more on her here: https://www.owenclarkedesign.com/128m-fast-40

After the almost set in stone requirement for a nap following the carbohydrate overload, we eventually dropped the moorings at about half 3 and headed for the mouth of the ricer in what was looking to be an increasing breeze..  now that was what the forecast has promised but on the sail home, in challenging downwind conditions (it was veering almost constantly between the north and south of SW'ly..  which made sail balance difficult) but with tidal assist, we were absolutely motoring.. the afterburners were definitely lit.. I was seeing medium 20's in knots on the wind instruments even going downwind! All in all we were pleased we'd put in the reef when we left Cowes.

Brilliant days sailing..  and the hat stayed on... 😁

Log:

Distance: 25.86 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 in the morning/F4 gusting top F5 in the afternoon; SW'ly
Sail Plan: Full/reefed main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 7.7 / 4.3

Catch up... mast up...

Bit quiet on the log here but things have been going on..

First and most importantly, the mast is up, and this time no (major 😏) issues or concerns like we had last time. A close eye was kept on the flag halyards and they remained well behaved and out of the way - in fact the mast positively shot up, and before I knew it the mast crutch was down for the first time in just over 6 months, and the various wooden supports and the A frame were packed away for yet another year, libations were poured to skipper, boat and Neptune (in reverse order), and my mast raising crew lounged in the cockpit in the sun drinking beer, eating pork pies and talking nonsense..  it was a good mast raise and the Jolly Boys did me proud (as ever)

So I mentioned no major issues - just a minor one - despite having checked twice that all was clear at the mast foot, the cable for the mast head light got trapped in the gap between mast and tabernacle! Irritating but not a show stopper - one, I haven't ever used the mast head light in anger since I bought the boat and installed it, and two, if I have a moment this summer I can just cut either side of the trapped length of cable, connect in a new length of wire, rewire the pug to the new cable and ignore the bit that is trapped until I drop the mast at the end of season (when I'll just throw it away, anyway)..

Then a couple of days later and still aching in every bone (and also with a bad back - I must have twisted awkwardly when raising the mast 😐), I went out to put the sails on..

Again no issues, just a few technical challenges..  

The main was first, which requires main halyard and topping lift to be installed/routed, and also the mainsheet and kicker to be attached, but all done, and a quick raise of the main to confirmed it was running free. Flaked it down and then fitted the new sail cover*.. 

Then it was time for the genoa - now we'd found when we trial raised the mast a few months ago that the luff bread on the genoa was too big for the new furler - simply out it was too thick and wouldn't fit. I'd taken the sail in to the local sailmaker to have a new one fitted, but this was the first opportunity to see if  it would now fit, so there was slight trepidation.. 

Happily no issues at all with it and it fitted exactly, though the slot is definitely snug..  even had to use my old windsurf downhaul tool (like the one pictured left) a couple of times just to get the necessary grip but either way it was up, I then, for the first time ever, got to roll the sail away and my goodness, the difference between new and old was chalk and cheese..  it practically rolled itself away!😁

Shame it rolled the sail inside out (so the UV strip was on the inside), but having unrolled it completely and then rolled it the opposite way and all was done.

Pausing only to tighten the stays slightly, and then put some temporary lockwire on the bottle screws (they'll need tightening again I suspect after the first shakedown sail) to stop them coming undone, I called it a day and dragged my sorry arse, err back, home for a well deserved beer - now all I need is  a decent time of  tide for the first sail of the year - but before that the Jolly Boys are going sailing beginning of next week!

*quality of this was a little disappointing, to be honest - I don't expect them to last for ever, usually I get about 6 years out of them before the material basically disintegrates (and at roughly £60 that works out at a tenner a year - good value basically), but this one is a bit flimsy by previous standards, time will tell...