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Trying out the toy


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Well, thanks to Greg W giving us a very big hand yesterday, we finally got a little sailabout in the Strike tri today.

 

There wasn't much breeze about, and we were forced to sail with a reef in due to a technical "Hitch" but even with that and a very badly set up number 2 jib, the speed potential was obvious. So there's a tick from me..

 

My dearly beloved was also comfortable and enjoying herself, and the kids loved it, so there's another tick.

 

Reaching back and forth across the harbour just out from little shoal bay, I reckon we were pretty close to hitting double digits, Sadly I left my phone, hence GPS, in the car, so unable to verify.

 

We have a few very minor bugs to iron out, but I think for us, she's a pretty good compromise. A sun/rain canopy, and a boom tent, and I think we could easily sleep the six of us. Not bad for an 18 foot boat!

 

The mast is like a powerpole tho, so we need to work out some system of easy raising and lowering it. It's just too heavy for one person to handle. On a positive note, I guess it should handle the furling screecher without needing runners!

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What is an 18 ft?? 

I hope it's not a modern boat with fibreglass, carbon etc being measured in a 300 year old English Kings Shoe size???

 

But congratulations on getting on the water as well!!

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Well it is a British design! They're still in feet and inches over there.

 

Ply and glass but no carbon, designed 2009 by Richard Woods.

 

It's one of those "build a main hull and add it to a beach cat " designs, in this case added to a Jim Young design which some random guy on the beach on Sunday called a Tigress.

 

Looking forward to a breezy test run, should be fun

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I think Richard left the UK well before 2009 but I may be wrong. He is mostly operating out of British Columbia now.

 

/Martin

 

You are absolutely right, but when I lived in the UK I was still known as a kiwi sailor :)

 

until Aaron gets pics of his strike up

 

i think this is what we're talking about

 

Also absolutely right.

 

I'm going to need to read up on adding pic's! I have the one in my avatar big, but that's all.

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at the very top right, just left of sign out

 

should be your sign in name and a small triangle

 

click on the triangle, then my gallery

 

then create gallery

 

something llike that

 

or you could probably add pics to the old multihull album 

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So, prior commitments meant we couldn't meet up with the multi fleet at Motuihe on Saturday, so we shot out fairly early Sunday morning. With no breeze at all, we slowly headed down harbour, joggling about in the ferry wakes.

 

A bit later when the wind had arrived, we saw Hard Drive heading home, I tried to get a photo but it's fairly distant, we were on opposite sides of the channel.

 

For light winds, we got along nicely, even hoisting the screecher for a bit, but the breeze was really shifty and patchy so I soon got tired of furling and unfurling it every couple of minutes.

 

We stopped in at Browns Island for a while so the kids could play, building sand castles and finding starfish. Then they decided to try some bombing off the side in the sheltered bit. I need to get a boarding ladder for that!

 

After a wile we headed for home, straight into a nice 10-15 knots SW.

I soon discovered that I couldn't get enough luff tension on the genoa, and that it is sheeted too far forward for upwind work. I can lower it maybe 150mm on the forestay which will hopefully be enough to fix both issues. Also, there are no cleats for it, so my hands were a little raw by the end of the day.

 

Still, although my GPS was set to km/h ('cos the marine version of the same free app is crazy money) it says  we had 14, so around 8-9 knots on the way home. Most of the time we were sitting at around 9-11km/h, so around 6 knots. Not fast, but a little sail and controls improvements should help push those numbers up quite a bit. I would have swapped to the no.2 but it's a skinny deck up front, and nobody else felt like driving for a bit. 

 

Freeing off bought a notable speed increase, with two small rooster tails from the main and leeward hulls.

 

Photo's to come, for some reason I can't upload them tonight.

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Another couple of metres LOA would help, then we  could have actual beds! We're gonna invest in a big boom tent for the odd overnight. Parents on the tramps, kids in the cockpit. Sideways. The weekend version has a slightly longer roof, and you sleep across-ways.

 

I've had my eldest girl up the mast a few times, but she's been unable to untie or cut the string we used to stop the shrouds falling out while rigging, which is why we are reefed in the pics.

 

On Anzac day, it took us 2 hours+ to get down to devonport in a drift, then about 15 minutes to get back to the Richmond start buoy under shy kite, in maybe 10 kts wind. Can't wait to get out there with full main and some breeze!

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Yeah it gets close!

 

On a positive note I can walk to the boat at low tide, and as long as the breeze is from the southern quarter I can keep my nether regions dry.

 

The downside is I don't feel I can leave the outboard on 'cos thieves can walk there too.

 

I'm waiting to find a cheap older motor to leave on because swapping it from the dinghy to the bracket is a bit dodgy in a chop.

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