Where did you go on your sailing boat today?

Spending a few weeks on Lake illawarra sailing under the full moon and enjoying the water.

Come off the slips. Sailed down the creek on a broad reach with just the mainsail cover towing my mate on his paddle board. Fresh Southerly. Always pleasantly surprised how satisfying it is to sail with a clean bottom! Just went back to my mooring. Six more Saturdays to go sailing this week.
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The neck on my Maton is Queensland Maple, lovely tone wood but weak along the grain, and years ago a friend had it perched aginst the door for a photo..... wind gust, door moves, guitar neck broken. So repair #1. It was the mid 70's and we where on a trip in the Vic high country, so a trip into Omeo for a clamp and wood glue! Here is a pic of me working on the guit in the Nunniong High Plains from a CD i put out for the Frankston Guitar Festival.






As time went by the repair wasn't holding so i fitted two Honduras Mahogony blocks going across grain.

That seat is as long as my vessel.

i assume that forward tilted slip position is so you can clean and antifoul the bottom of the keel, Ramona. nice.

My Maton ended up in many pieces as IOhad it tied to my stomach going around a armoc bend at 90 mile an hour only to find Id left the side stand down ( to many beers the night before) there was a cutting in the armco for a farmers gate I didn't have time to lift the stand up tried so I aimed the bike between the armco and the bare wire fence the Maton saved me but I couldn't save the maton

cought freeballin again buga

What do you think spongeblob? (courtesy of windows paint editor)

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brizzydave said..
What do you think spongeblob? (courtesy of windows paint editor)

That's a small boat on a large ocean.

When you get the hang of using that windows paint editor thingy you can reverse that and end up with a big boat on a small ocean, just think that could be a real cheap Bav, Ben or Jen you could have. .... here have a rum

Having owned "Second Wind" for seven months I have at last had a chance to have a sail on her.

The trip up from Lake Macquarie to Bundaberg as I recall only afforded one opportunity to turn the engine off and sail for about half an hour near Tacking Point.

Due to circumstances, weather and opportunity it has not been until last Tuesday that I have been able to get a sail out of her.

My sister in law is visiting from Switzerland and we couldn't not take her out for a spin on the yacht.

My task was to row out to the yacht, haul the anchor and put her alongside the marina so the ladies could step aboard easily and then we could enjoy the yacht. Enjoying the yacht is what it is all about. "Second Wind" is a Lotus 9.2 which is designed by Alan Wright and built by Lotus Yachts N.Z. and the design and build has an excellent reputation in New Zealand. There are not many of them in Australia and they were never designed to a race rule. They were designed to be the best 30 foot yacht that money could buy.

As far as accommodation, comfort and handling as a boat goes, that was proved on our trip up to Qld which was motoring all the way.

This Tuesday proved to me what a fantastic yacht I have got hold of.

When sailing out of the Burnett River you are 50 miles from an anchorage North or South so if you are not intending to spend at least two days out, you exit the river, have some fun sailing or fishing and come back in.

The B.O.M. forecast for the day was 10 knots NE and I reckon we had 6 to 8 knots. Over 8 knots and there should be some "white caps". Look at the pics and you will hardly see any "white caps".

We left the channel at the third mark past the South Head Light, rolled out the head sail, turned the engine off and sucked it to see what we would get.

At the time of that day there was not much of a tidal effect and the GPS gave us an SOG of between 3.5 to 4.5 knots for the whole time we were out for 4 hours and that was towing the dinghy.

Do you think I am stoked with this yacht. You better believe it. I can hardly wait to get her out in 20 to 25 knots of breeze.

Edit: - The photos were taken with a $60 water proof to 3m camera bought at Aldi which you can also buy at AusPost shops with a different brand name. Top bit of kit.

I doubt whether that sail could be raised higher. The usual routine is to have a sail use the whole of the headsail groove. Close hauled the sail would probably be inside the guardrails. Sailing free it would not matter much.

Impressive quality photos from such a cheap camera, isn't technology wonderful? I will be expecting a few underwater shots of your mooring shortly.

The tack and clew points should be kept as close as possible to the deck for best sail shape.

The 2 luff grooves will enable you to perfect headsail peels.

With your genoa furling in anti-clockwise, use the starboard groove to make initial furling easier with less of a fold along the luff.

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brizzydave said..
One for you Spongey....what do you reckon?

Love it Brizzy !
Heaps better than the standard dog house flopped on top.
Ive copied it to my paint program.
I used to think the 23 was small but the 20 is so bloody tiny,
but thats what I love about them.

or you could run dual jibs for downwind cruising, assuming you have two independent halyards.

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DrRog said..
fun little vid of our sail to pittwater a couple of weeks ago with a groovy tune...

enjoyed that thank you