Javelin Adventures

[cep32 4]

So I finished the new rudder stock last week and me and a mate decided that if we were going to go to all of the hassle of putting the boat on the road trailer to transfer it to the yacht club we might as well go up the coast a bit to Cable Bay and launch there to sail to Nelson Yacht Club. Just a bit of gentle coastal cruising in a Jav.

 

All good for a start with 5 knot winds but by the time we were out of the bay the wind was up around 10 knots or so which gave us an easy but fun ride downhill with the gennaker up. About a third of the way there the new rudder stock blew up with the obliquitory swim to follow. That's when I learned that anything without a false floor and no ability to get some speed up due to the lack of rudder will sit pretty low in the water.

 

With my mate hanging off the transom in the water to steer and my sheeting the reduced main like a windsurfer we made it to the boulder bank after half an hour of so. Luckily there wasn't much wave action so the hull is still in one piece. A phone call to reassure worried wives followed by a lot of swearing, we had the boat dragged over the boulder bank and into the estury. A pleasent half hours walk through waist deep water later and we were home safe and sound.

 

In all, a great, if unplanned adventure.

[cep32 4]

Lessons learned:

1. Taking a cell phone was the best thing we did. The danger to us from the sea was less than worried wives had we not been able to let them know we were OK.

2. Always assume that others watching will think it's worse than it is and do something silly like call the coastguard. We were lucky that it didn't get that far but it was close.

3. Have a false floor.

4. Halyards are good. Who cares about mast compression.

5. Turning back to your mate in that water and saying "Da Dum" just once in a deep voice will result in you being the one hanging of the back of the boat instead.

6. Don't casually bring up the topic of stingrays when crossing a large estuary.

7. Take heaps of water to drink.

8. What ever you think the loads on a rudderstock are, triple them and multiply by ten and you might get close.

9. Carbon tube has very little bearing strength, it's only good for bending (for a lay person such as me).

[Murky 1]

Very entertaining report.

 

It is a perverse aspect of yachting that, while you would probably have preferred a pleasant amble down the coast and the new rudder stock still in one piece, those kinds of experiences are the ones that you and your mate will still be laughing about when you are both in a rest home.

[smithy09 50]

Lessons learned:

5. Turning back to your mate in that water and saying "Da Dum" just once in a deep voice will result in you being the one hanging of the back of the boat instead.

Great report! Glad you made it home with minimal damage.

[Guest]

What Smithy said and to No 6 as well :)

 

Very entertaining indeed