Small Reach Regatta Day 2 in Drake Rowboat

I was a little nervous beginning day 2 on a long reach with a potentially gusty offshore breeze that would carry the fleet 8+ miles to the lunch stop. The cracked mast step was only glued back together last night. Would it hold? This was going to be the same tack that I was on when it snapped. I didnt want to ruin this sail!

While the rowboa

ts and sailboats waited for the whole fleet to be launched and hoist sail for the departure, I

lounged on the floorboards enjoying an egg sandwich made by the caterer who cooks for the event. The food is great and the camaraderie while dining is something I enjoy every year. I saved my sandwich for this moment, laying back on the thwarts in the morning sun watching all the sails around me skitter about waiting for the moment when the lead chase boat would say "every body is in, lets go!".

The sail was east to Flanders Bay where we were to lunch at a bar connecting Ash and Sheldrake Islands (family islands that I arranged for us to have as a lunch spot). The fleet sailed on port

tack on a beam reach for all 8 miles to the stop. It was a hoot to say the least. Drake was right up with all the Caledonia Yawls and other larger sail craft. People were quite surprised to see this long, skinny rowboat pass them or hold position next to boats with much larger sail areas. And to my delight the mast step held.

But this morning was proving something that I try to espouse whenever possible: a rowboat with at least some keel to it can sail downwind quite

fast, but not up wind. And you dont need to ruin

the lines of the boat for rowing and you do not need to add the complexity and drag that a centerboard or daggerboard introduces. Lee boards are simply not necessary for off the wind sailing. Drake has enough stability and keel to even sail without any slippage on a bean reach, and this was a revelation this morning on Frenchman Bay.

The lunch was quick as the tide was eating up the bar -- we arrived a little too late. But the scene was quite spectacular with MDI and Tunk mountain and islands all around. I was the first boat to the bar and the 50 or 60 boats sailing into the bar was just a blast to watch.

The return trip was a 8-mile row to windward, through Sorrento Harbor right by Hancock Point and dir

ectly to Lamoine State Park. Drake showed her stuff by being able to row a steady 4+ knots back to the start line and beat most of the sailboats that had to tack many times to get home. This is what she was designed to do: sail smartly off the wind and row efficiently upwind. If this were a real RAID I would have no doubt t

hat we could be very competitive and with a larger boat for two rowers, probably win. But I enjoy the autonomy, privacy, and relaxation that rowing and sailing alone can bring.

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Small works

About that dumb idea, some really, really good advice, and in the "not exactly surprising is it" department...

Heres some proof positive from David Bold that you dont need a fifty-foot boat to sail across the gulf stream and cruise the Bahamas with some style.


Cruising the Bahamas in 3.6 meter ENIGMA from David Bold on Vimeo.

Listening to a whole bunch of good people

So it goes...

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Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival and Maritime Model Expo

The Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival takes place every year at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St Michaels, Maryland. It happens next weekend Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th October. This is the 33rd running of the very popular event and this year it has been joined by the Maritime Model Expo.

Hundreds of amateur and professional boatbuilders bring their boats to this event, to participate in on-the-water events and to show their boats. This festival has a full program of boatbuilding demonstrations and other educational opportunities, in addition to the many permanent and temporary displays of the Museum. The model displays and exhibitions will take place on and around the model pond. There are also opportunities for scenic boat rides all weekend and a race to watch on Saturday afternoon, as well as live music and plenty of food to keep you going.

The floating fleet of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. CBMM photo

I will be there for the weekend, with my Paper Jet skiff. When not on the water sailing, my boat will be somewhere on the waterfront and I will be somewhere nearby. If you want to chat about our designs or my books, ask questions about boatbuilding, sailing or ocean-crossings, or just to talk boats, come looking for me, I wont be far away.

I will also be at the Festival Dinner on Saturday evening and will be the speaker for the evening. My subject will be my boat designs, concentrating mostly on those under 20ft long. This will include the open boat circumnavigation of Anthony Steward on one of my 19ft designs.

Anthony Steward leaving Cape Town at the start of his circumnavigation.

If you are looking for something to do next weekend and are within driving distance of St Michaels MD, come to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum for a memorable boating experience. I look forward to meeting you there.

To see our boat designs, small or large, go to http://dixdesign.com or http://dixdesign.com/mobile.

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How good are small boats

My three sons (one of whom built his first boat at thirteen, and a lapstrake sailing dinghy at age fourteen) seem to have picked up one of my bad characteristics - that is, having too many interests.

The boatbuilding boy is obsessed with sailing, model aircraft, engines, quality cars, and full-sized gliding. He recently confided in me that he had plenty of other potential hobbies, but time and space have already become critical. Welcome to life, I say!

Recently he and I went for a really good day of sailing in his recently-acquired-but-very-old Jack Holt-designed Lazy E (a.k.a. National E). We experienced 20 to 25 knot conditions, and had to work very hard indeed to keep the old boat on her feet. But what a ride we had! Lots of trapeze work, and lots of planing. At one stage as we were planing on a reach, my boy yelled from the tiller that if Green Island hadnt been in the way, we would have had to keep going to New Zealand, because it was too much fun to change tacks.

This reminded me once again just how much satisfaction you can get from sailing dinghies (dinghys? - I dont know how to spell it...). The interesting thing was that when I questioned this young man about which activity he would keep doing, if only one was allowed, he was emphatic in saying it would have to be sailing. This is despite the obvious attraction of the aviation and mechanical interests.

I have a theory that the human brain stores away the sounds, and sights of a days sailing, and that the beneficial effects last for weeks or months. It doesnt take much to keep me going, although more is always better.

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A small thought about budgets and boats

Making a very good point, on considering the price tag, and about how theyre spending your tax dollars...

Ive been researching a lot lately about the costs involved in buying a boat, setting it up for cruising, and actually cruising and, for the most part, what Ive been looking at is pretty depressing reading.

If you go over to the Retirement Project (a very good blog by the way) youll find a lot of links to various cruisers budgets and in the process going through them I noticed something that bothered me...

Hardly anyone writing about budgets has apparently made any mistakes.

Now, maybe its just me, but lookng back at my spending habits where boats are concerned over the last forty-years is chock full of WTF was I thinking, I spent HOW MUCH for that, and Boy-Howdy-Ill-never-make-that-stupid-mistake-again moments.

Maybe Im just the only guy who has made mistakes where budgets are concerned or, just maybe, other folks dont look at their budgets with the same critical eye or dont care to share their WTF moments with the public at large.

Of course, the downside of not being self-critical or not sharing your budgetary lapses of judgement when posting your budgets and thoughts on what boats, stuff, and cruising actually costs is you send the message that your budget is what boats, stuff and cruising should cost and folks reading your budgets will think thats the best they can do.

What we need is more talk about boat and cruising budgets with hindsight sans the rose-colored Ray Bans.

Just saying...

Listening to Hanna Rae

So it goes...

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Small Reach Regatta Finishes in Drake Rowboat

This sail is right off a Shellback dinghy, but a new more efficient downwind rig is in the works when we arent making other peoples rigs!

(photos by Christophe Matson in his Goat Island Skiff)

My wife, Ellie Chase, and I finished up a fabulous 3 days of rowing and sailing in Drake along with almost 40 other boats ranging from 12 foot dinghies to 15 sail and oar boats, to 22 foot daysailers. Drake often got to the lunch stops first because we were able to row upwind and sail downwind. It turned out that most of the time we rowed in tandem.

We love this mode of boating for getting around but you have to like to row and be in a good rowboat. And there is no need to ruin the lines of a rowboat by making it be able to sail, as long as you stick to sailing off the wind. We can sail easily on a beam reach down to a run. In the above we maintained 3.5-4kts in maybe 5-10kts total true wind.

See more at http://www.facebook.com/groups/104933556820/

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Rig 6 from 100 Small Boat Rigs 103 Sailing Rigs

One of my boys built himself a lapstrake (clinker) dinghy. At the time, we were working very long hours in the Brisbane workshop and I couldnt give him much of my time to help. But, he was surrounded by timber, glue, and tools, and with space in one corner and a ready-built strong-back he was on his way.

The boat turned out very well indeed, especially as the builder was only fourteen years old.

The owner-builder (Dave, in white) with Cousin Kevin lending a helping hand.

Hull nearing completion

After the building process, Dave was keen to get on the water, and he decided to purchase a carbon windsurfer mast to speed the launching, and a friend gave him an old Laser sail, which happened to be the same size as the designed sail.

Builder, carbon windsurfer mast, and Laser sail

The boat sailed reasonably well with the windsurfer mast, but it was too flexible down low and when sheeted on, the whole rig bent aft inducing weatherhelm and other handling problems - still it was fun.

Sailing nicely in light conditions...

...but in the gusts and sheeted hard, the rig bends aft, and you can see that the boat is becoming difficult to control

Eventually, Dave stashed away enough money to get the proper sail made. It had a fair amount of roach and leech battens which were too short. The leech would not stand as the flexible mast bent back, and it flapped uselessly. I dont have a photo to hand, but below is one of a boat we built earlier to the same design. This one had a nice, hollow timber mast which I made using the "Birds Mouth" method. Although a lot stiffer than the windsurfer mast, the leech problem is still evident.

Stiff mast on an earlier boat, but still having problems with the floppy leech

We decided to do something drastic, so we cut the roach off Daves new sail, removed the battens, and sewed on a new leech tabling (hem, I guess you would call it). This improved the set of the sail, as I had put a slight hollow in the leech and it worked well without battens. But the mast was still too whippy.

The final stage was to install a forestay and two shrouds (side stays). In order to retain the sail-shaping advantages of the bendy mast, we attached the stays at a point only a fraction above the half-height point on the mast (as per Rig 6 in Phil Bolgers book, "100 Small Boat Rigs", which is now published as "103 Sailing Rigs").

The improvement has been astounding. The handling issues have been resolved, and with the mast held at the half-height position, all sorts of sail shaping options are available by using the main sheet, the vang, the halyard, and the outhaul. We made the stays from 4mm Dyneema without an outer sheath as an experiment, and it has worked very well indeed. I couldnt work out the correct method for splicing the braided Dyneema core, so we ended up just doing plain bowline knots around the stainless thimbles - not very neat, but they work fine. I dont have sailing photos, but here is the boat on dry land as we set up the stays.

Stays attached halfway up the mast

Simple lashings

Mast far better controlled, and showing a little 11sq.ft. Heron jib set as well. The original boat carried quite a lot of weather helm and the jib helps to balance that out.

Sail plan in cat-rig form. The alloy sleeve around the lower part of the mast was an earlier attempt to stiffen things up.

All of this shows how much fun you can have messing around with rigs and layouts. A great source of satisfaction.

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Up Date Rig 6 from 100 Small Boat Rigs 103 Sailing Rigs

UP_DATE

Back in early April I wrote an entry about the above rig. You can find the article here http://rosslillistonewoodenboat.blogspot.com/2011/04/rig-6-from-100-small-boat-rigs-103.html

At the time I wrote the piece I didnt have any sailing pictures showing the modified rig in action. Now I can show you a couple. They are low-resolution, but they give a good idea of how much the rig has been improved.

The mast used to bend back alarmingly when sheet and vang were tensioned - now everything stays where it should be and the boats behaviour has been improved dramatically.

Setting out for a day of pleasant sailing with a vastly improved rig

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Day Three in Drake The final day of the Small Reach Regatta

The final day was going to have big shoes to fill after an incredible reach and row day 2. The rowing group gathered at breakfast to scheme a separate rowing group to explore along MDIs north coast and down to Bar Harbor. We did just that with the generous support of the chase fleet whose member take very seriously there job to watch everyone, help us stay safe, and get us out of trouble when we need it. The sailing fleet (most of the boats) went to Bean Island just east of Hancock Point and the rowing group (5 boats) went south to Bar Island on an absolutely windless morning and a fast outgoing tide. After lunch on Bar, we had a rolicking return as the seabreeze turned on and was blowing a steady 15 kts. Drake shone again as we surfed down the white-capped, following sea. I had left the sailing rig ashore to be a pure rowboat today. The timing was perfect on the way back into Lamoine Harbor area: the entire sailing fleet was also returning. After a little racing in the rowboats, we coalesced into a parade of sails past the state park where onlookers marveled at the sight reminiscent of the age of sail when it was commonplace to see so many sails filling a waterfront view.

Learn more about the Small Reach Regatta

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Drake in the Small Reach Regatta on the Coast of Maine Day 1

The Small Reach Regatta was the next stop in my busy summer. The SRR is a gathering of 70 sail-and-oar boats, this year, at Lamoine State Park and put on by the Downeast Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association. Irowed and sailed (downwind) his rowboat design Drake and consistently finished in the front of the fleet (but of course it wasn’t a race!).

This event is an annual gathering and a wonderful chance to test and showcase the boats CCBB sells and builds to designs from around the world, for example Michael Storer in Australia, Francois Vivier in France, Eric Risch in Maine, Bruce Elfstroms beauties and my own designs. We will be carrying kits and building boats produced by a Finnish builder, Suomen Puuvenepiste. These are unique, semi-exclusive agreements to bring new sailing and rowing boats into the US market as CNC cut kits, bare hulls, and finished boats up to 25 feet. My hope is to bring a demo boat from all these folks to boat shows and events like the SRR. Next year well have a Goat Island Skiff Yawl to show off like this one built by a kit customer in TX for the Texas 200:

The event was three days. Day 1 was a short windy upwind row and downwind return to a classic small Maine coast island. Every day features an interesting lunch stop, a wonderful opportunity to rest and to look at others boats. Moreover, I see it as a learning experience to talk to the builders and owners of the boats. I learn something new from every one of the boats. For me, the SRR is about the finest form of professional development I can get.


On the downwind return to camp, a small squall came through and the force overcame my mast step..."WHAM!"...I heard the snap and the boat lurched and we nearly capsized. The first night was a quick repair with polyurethane glue while the sun set. Day two was to feature a long, fast broad reach to the lunch spot, and there was no way I was going to miss sailing that stretch! I was repairing until I couldnt see anymore boat...will it work?

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