Saturday 31 May 2014

Home from Windermere

The weeks sailing came to a total of 27nm, not a lot but the light winds meant that little proper sailing was done and more time was spent motoring around the lake. I have sailed on Windermere in the past and always had good winds. In fact last year I hired a Beneteau 21.7 and spent most of the week reefed. Like much inland sailing the winds, when they do blow can be very erratic and influenced by the surrounding hills. Despite the poor winds its a good place to sail and holiday and there is plenty to keep the kids happy. We went to have a look ay Ullswater for a possible holiday next year and found a couple of spots to launch and when we went into one of the marina boat parks there was the Manta 19 I sold a couple of months ago. The recovery onto the trailer and packing the boat up for trailing went smoothly, the facilities at Ferry Nab are very good, particularly the hut selling Bacon sandwiches.

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Little wind at Windermere

Since saturday's problems with the outboard it has worked faultlessly and started 1st or 2nd pull of the cord. I think that after being laid flat in the car boot an air lock might have formed in the fuel line and caused the problems. Since then the weather has been good apart from very light and erratic winds. A couple of hours sail this evening has been superb and we were the only boat in sight. The lake is a good place to sail, in the day you share the place with everything from Pico's and Topper's to 40 foot AWB's. By evening most have gone home and you can sail in solitude.

Windermere

Meg is on Windermere for a week, we have rented a holiday cottage with access to the lake and a jetty to tie up to. I have had Meg registered for Windermere which unfortunately means adding registration numbers to her topsides, these are a bit ugly. Rigging and launch at Ferry Nab went smoothly. The slipway is wide with temporary mooring on both sides and there is space to store the trailer for the week. unfortunately it rapidly went wrong after launch. I've not used the outboard on Meg before, but it started after a few pulls of the cord and ran smoothly. I planned to motor down to our jetty and tie up for the night and so the main was lashed neatly to the boom and the Mizzen was furled. The oars were in the garage at home, what do you need oars for when you have 4 horse power at the transom? So 50 meters from the slip the motor cuts out and refuses to start. The wind rapidly catches Meg and starts to blow us across the mornings towards a Lee shore. Unfurling the jib gave a little control but without the mizzen it wasn't a lot. After a few minutes we finished up on the shore near the chain ferry. As it was 18.00 and raining there wasn't to many onlookers so hopefully I'll not be appearing on YouTube. After what felt like ages I got the motor started and I headed for our jetty without further problems. But lessons have bean learnt. Had I rigged the mizzen properly then I would have been able to sail out of trouble, alternatively had the oars been in board I could have rowed to a mooring or out into clear water. The rest of the week should bring some good sailing allthough I think our wet weather gear is going to get some use.

Tuesday 20 May 2014

Boat Jumble

Sunday saw a trip to Snaith near Goole for a boat Jumble. I have no chandlery close to home so it’s a good opportunity to pick up a few odds and ends. Boat Jumbles are interesting place and the stalls varied from new shiny electronics to the blokes who appear to be doing Noah's shed clearance. I picked up rope, shackles and split rings and managed to get a sail cover. The Bayraider needs a long sail cover as when the Gunter yard is on the boom it’s 14 feet from the gooseneck to the end of the yard. A used and very tired sail cover was picked up for £8. It’s not going to be used often but hopefully after a bit of patching it will do the job. I also got an ensign and now have to work out how to fly it from the mizzen, my daughter was keen to buy a flag and so for the grand sum of a pound now has what google tells me is a No 6 pennant. Not sure when we’ll ever need to communicate the number 6 by flag but you never know, perhaps a Prisoner type “I am not a number……”

Friday 16 May 2014

Rowing, drifting and a little sailing

The BBC had promised sun and light winds at Rutland but while I got sun, the wind was non existent. Rutland is about 90 minutes drive from home and is big enough to offer good sailing. I stored my last boat at Rutland but the Bayraider is a lot easier to trail and rig so it lives on the drive at home. Only the fishermen are allowed petrol outboards on the reservoir, some of the yachts have electric outboards but I have oars that until today, had remained unused. Even when there is a good wind blowing on the main body of water the creek were the slipway is can be very, very sheltered. The lack of wind in the creek has led to some comical efforts of trying to get back to the pontoon, the last 100m has taken 20 minutes on a few occasions. Today I had to row out of the creek and then drift around in the sun before a breeze arrived and got us moving. Despite very little actual sailing being out in the sun was worth the trip and it certainly beat mowing the lawn.

Saturday 10 May 2014

Welcome to Meg's blog

Meg is a Bayraider 20 a water ballasted trailer sailer made in Wales, She is an open boat with a big cockpit area and sprayhood for the kids to hide under. The boat is Ketch rigged and the Jib and Mizzen are self tacking, the main is Gunter rigged which gives a short mast that can be raised and lowered without difficulty. Meg is my second trailer the first was a Manta 19, I learned from the Manta the value of a boat that can be launched without getting the trailer hubs wet and the difficulty of raising a heavy mast. In comparison the Bayraider can be rigged from towing in 20 minutes, raising the mast is a non event and launching a dream and all can be done single handed. The Bayraider lacks the Manta 19's cabin but I soon discovered that In good weather everyone wants to be out in the cockpit and in bad weather I'm sailing on my own. Hopefully ill be able to use the blog as a log of my sailing and give some useful info about the places we have sailed. Owning a trailer sailer means always being on the lookout for a good slipway. Further info on Bayraider's and the other swallow boats can be found at http://www.swallowboats.com/