Thread: Ubeaut's Wooden Boat Squadron - SA division

Originally Posted by Daddles

Just set a day, time and place and go from there Alex, or ask the question. It worked for us (check the start of this thread) ... but do it in your OWN thread (getoutaours )

Richard

seriously, I'm surprised none of the other states have done this, the days are a lot of fun and it's a great way to make real friends as opposed to the imaginary friends (as AJ's missus calls us) on here.

Weeeell....I thought I'd covered myself by calling it the NSW chapter of the SA division . heh heh.

As to time, date and place: who knows? if I manage to fool around with the foils for another few weeks, then stuff about with the sail, it could be munfs.

Cheers,
One of yer "imaginary friends"

Originally Posted by AlexN

Cheers,
One of yer "imaginary friends"

Nah, you're real (the dog still has the shakes)

Richard

Originally Posted by AlexN

Weeeell....I thought I'd covered myself by calling it the NSW chapter of the SA division . heh heh.

New thread mate, otherwise events will be lost amongst the chatter and confusion about which state. Sure, use the name, that's why I chose the name I did, it's transferable. But keep these threads for local (to the chapter name) boating arrangements and they should work.

Richard

Originally Posted by Daddles

New thread mate, otherwise events will be lost amongst the chatter and confusion about which state. Sure, use the name, that's why I chose the name I did, it's transferable. But keep these threads for local (to the chapter name) boating arrangements and they should work.

Richard

OK, thanks for the tip. I'll make a new thread right away . What I'll put in it to start it off is another matter entirely .

Cheers,
Alex.

Originally Posted by AlexN

OK, thanks for the tip. I'll make a new thread right away . What I'll put in it to start it off is another matter entirely .

Cheers,
Alex.

Done . "SA Division" now has a sibling (thread).

Cheers,
Alex.

Crook today, so tomorrow is out, but going sailing this weekend come hell or
high water. "Need" to test Teal's new dagger-board.

Forecast for both days is around 22C with light NNW.
Figuring on Sandpiper Cr at Westlakes again.

If i promise not to cough upon you, is anyone else interested?

cheers
AJ

Originally Posted by b.o.a.t.

Crook today, so tomorrow is out, but going sailing this weekend come hell or
high water. "Need" to test Teal's new dagger-board.

Forecast for both days is around 22C with light NNW.
Figuring on Sandpiper Cr at Westlakes again.

If i promise not to cough upon you, is anyone else interested?

cheers
AJ

Love to but I'm under orders, Sunday is definately out for the family get together and Saturday I've booked #1 son for a big glue up. Besides the boats are at Goolwa at the moment.

G'day AJ,

I'm interested and Jan's not working, but I'd promised the day to her and I should drop in to see my mum. Jan's working tonight but I'll have a chat with her tomorrow arvo. I'd like to be there but can't make any promises. For what it's worth, sunday is the pick of the days judging by the farce that passes for weather forecasts on local telebox.

Richard

Update AJ.

Jan and I will be able to attend.
Sandpiper Cr like last time?
Lunchtime?

I'll have Redback - maybe that'll give you a benchmark for the new dagger board seeing you've sailed against her before.

Would you be able to bring the blue kayak as well please?

Richard

Lunchtime, Sandpiper, it is.
Teal plus bloo canoo.
See how wet we can get Jan.

Crikey Richard...
Have you read what Clinton has on offer on the NSW Division's thread?
Might have to change the venue for termorrer from Westlakes to Kogarah !!

AJ and I did get out on Sunday, just the two of us ... though we nearly didn't get back.

Twas a beaut day - mild temperatures, gentle breeze, blue skies. Lovely.
AJ was still trying to shake off a dose of broncitis - you can't fault the man's enthusiasm.

AJ launched Teal with her new dagger-board (looking at her, you'd never know he'd cut the old case out and replaced it) and judging from his reactions, his opinion of the change goes something along the lines of She works rather well now.

I had Redback, with the sail up and the dog up front. After banging around the bay at the northern end of West Lakes for a bit, AJ suggested we head off up the eastern channel ... so we did ... under the footbridge, all the way to the road bridge at West Lakes Blvd which we couldn't get under with the masts up, so we turned around.

The wind had been light and flukey and if you got bored with it blowing one way you only had to wait a moment for it to blow another. We got back to the footbridge okay. AJ beetled through but I seemed to take about a thousand tacks to get anywhere near it. Eventually I was through though ... and the wind died. As in nuffin.

Still about a zillion kilometres from the cars, with the sun heading behind the houses, the water was like a sheet of glass ... so we started paddling - AJ with the wee paddle he keeps for the purpose, me sculling by waggling the rudder backwards and forwards. Twas rather an effective way of moving ... not, but it was better than drifting nowhere. After a bit, AJ decided he could go quicker with the paddle than I was doing with the rudder, so he tossed me a tow and we worked in tandem, getting back so close to dusk that we loaded the boats in daylight but drove off in darkness.

It was a good day though ... and my first long sail in Redback. Previously it had only been banging around off the beach but this exploration stuff was rather fun. She's still chronically short on space. I can sail her quite effectively if I don't have to move ie, sit in one place and tack, but as soon as I have to move from one side to the other, she's hopeless.

I also need to look at the amount of twist in the sail as when going downwind, with the top spar at 90 degrees to the boat, the boom was quite a ways behind it ... and man was she unsteady when going directly down wind. Methinks I have some stuff to learn before trying it in stronger winds.

At one point, as the wind was teasing us by giving gentle puffs rather than being of any use, AJ suggested I let some tension out of the sail. Not having an adjustable downhaul, I released the halyard and retied it with a 'slacker' sail. The effect was instant and quite noticeable - much faster (ie, she started actually moving) which was quite a good demo for this muggins sailor of the advice to have a loose sail for light winds and a tight one for stronger winds. I immedately started having thoughts of fitting an adjustable downhaul but really, for what I'm doing, maybe just mucking with the halyard is the way to go in the short term.

AJ also gave me some tips on reading the sail, which was effective because I was watching the wrong edge of the thing. This improved my upwind performance but I was still rubbish. AJ sportingly blamed the boat but I'm more inclined to blame the inept captain.

Then the wind dropped.
My dog curled up in the bow and went to sleep.
You could read a newspaper in the refection off the water.
So we started paddling.

Next job? See how I can strap the oars into the boat ... hmmm, 7 foot oars in a 7'6" boat shaped like a bath tub, methinks they'll be sticking out the front where they'll look unsightly and get in the way.

Anyways, I finally got to have a decent sail. I can now claim to be super experienced and skilled and once I've worked out where to store the oars, am ready to set out in Redback to circumnavigate the globe ... provided I can work out how to carry enough Mars Bars and Scotch for the trip. Maybe I'll just stick to West Lakes until I get a bigger boat.

Richard

Not a lot to add to Daddles' monologue.
A photo & a track file of the last 2hrs of the day recorded on mobile phone
..... (change .txt to .kml & it opens in google earth - forum won't allow .kml attachments).
and to mention that Daddles was supposed to have presented himself, all scrubbed &
tidy, at a Mother's Day family 'do' about half an hour before we got back to the ramp..
oops...

Very happy with the new board.
Southern part of track file shows where I was beetling around while Daddles wrestled with the shifting winds.
No way could Teal have gone to windward in such light air with the old board.
Period.

Redback shares approximately the same foils & sail area, and Daddles seemed to be
doing more-or-less the right things despite spending much time facing backwards
(wishing he was rowing?). Ergo, it is reasonable to conclude that the difference is in
the effectiveness of the sailing rig. Has to be some tweaks to fix that. Offered to
swap boats for a bit but was declined as Daddles didn't want to wake his savage
hound ("Skipper"... Gilligan's Island anyone?).

Track doesn't clearly show where I tied off the tiller at 30deg & did donuts for 10 minutes,
but it does show a couple of times I experimented with sailing backwards.
I think Teal does go a little faster in reverse...
Where the track straightens out is pretty much where the wind dropped to a zephyr.
We ghosted for a few hundred metres - makes for easy & relaxing chatting. Then it
died completely so we sculled & paddled the remaining km or so, arriving in semi-darkness.

And despite the bronchitis, I felt better by day's end than I have for ages.
cheers
AJ

How do you get that track file to work AJ? It insists it's a txt file, no matter what you do (swearing didn't work either).

Richard