I did a fair amount of cruising with my Paradox sailboat, but the most memorable cruise was in 2008 when I sailed her to the Scilly Isles from Burnham-on-Crouch. During the cruise I took a good many photos, a small selection of which I shall be publishing here at my Blog.
Al Law joined me at Plymouth with his Paradox, ‘Little Jim’. This photo of Al’s boat proves that Paradoxes have full standing headroom!
‘Faith’ was the smallest yacht at Brighton Marina.
I was at Plymouth for several days before Al could join me, and I took the opportunity for exploring the River Tamar as far as Morwhellham . Here’s a photo of ‘Shamrock’ at Cotehele.
Francis Chichester’s ‘Gypsy Moth 1V’ was a visitor to Sutton Harbour Marina at the Barbican.
I will publish more photos tomorrow.
Links
Morwellham Quay
http://www.morwellham-quay.co.uk/
The Tamar Barge ‘Shamrock’
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2258969
‘Gypsy Moth 1V
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gipsy_Moth_IV
The Cruise – the first page of ‘Faith’s’ cruise log, 2nd April, 2008
http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2008/04/cruise_06.html
Al Law’s Website featuring ‘Little Jim’
http://www.little.jim.freeuk.com/little_jim/little_jim.htm
Sutton Harbour Marina, the Barbican, Plymouth
http://www.suttonharbourmarina.com/marina_plan.html
It's been 2 years and how many travel. Memories do remain when you have taken photos. That's how important photographs are, especially for travelers.
ReplyDelete:-) John
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Der Bill, you have cruised with your Paradox extensively and you know for sure what you can expect from that boat under different conditions.
ReplyDeleteThere are opinions that Paradox might be a good boat for downwind sailing, but she might be slow whern tacking against the wind - due to her rig and the lack of keel or CB. I wonder whether you noticed more leeway than other boats with keel or CB normally have. Would she go to weather as spirited as your wonderful canoe?
Yours, Axel from Switzerland
(www.bootsbaugarage.ch)
Axel,
ReplyDeleteParadox was designed by Matt Layden for cruising to the Bahamas from Florida. This required a boat that could sail in shallow water and be an able vessel at sea. She admirably fulfilled these requirements.
She was not designed for sailing on restricted waters which requires a vessel that can spin around on a sixpence and sail very well to windward.
Therefore Paradox will not be a boat for racing to windward. She compares favourably with similar small boats that have centreboards, but not those with more efficient Bermudan sails and hiking crews who will beat her to windward.
Paradox will not go well to windward in choppy seas when the wind is Force 5 or more. She needs to be sailed freely, as one would sail a cruising catamaran. I had a small outboard engine for getting ‘Faith’ to windward under those conditions.
She was not designed for an outboard engine; therefore her mainsheet sometimes snarled the engine.
Bear in mind that she’s a very small cruising yacht with just about enough accommodation for a crew who is agile and not too fat! I fitted in nicely at 10.5 stone and a height of 5’ 8”.
Building her requires a lot of hard work which can take up to 18 months – the average build time. She is not cheap because of the high cost of epoxy.
Best wishes,
Bill.