An owner of a sailing boat can have a considerable amount of
fun tinkering with her, and the usual reasons for doing so are to improve her or make her more suitable for the owner’s use. He may want to improve her
performance, her condition, or her interior, etc.. Sadly, some owners think
they can improve their boat, whereas by straying from the original design, they
unknowingly do the opposite.
‘Pike’ is such a boat. A previous owner added a boom and a
tiller extension, both of which I have removed. The boom made reefing the sail
difficult and the extension was totally unnecessary. Someone has also changed
her rudder into a semi-lifting one. In my opinion none of these changes improved
the original boat. With regard to the rudder, it has a number of strings for
raising and lowering the bottom half of the blade. There are pieces of metal attached
either side for aligning and locking parts together. These
additions interfere with the flow of water, causing drag. The only advantage of
this arrangement is being able to reduce the rudder’s draught for sailing in
shallow water; at the same time the daggerboard has to be raised.
I’ve added an anchor, but it does not adversely
affect the performance, or interfere with the functioning of the boat, and it is not
fixed to the hull.
Recently I exchanged like for like: The stern buoyancy bag
had a slow leak; therefore I replaced it with a new one.
As far as I can tell, ‘Pike’ is ready for her next sail; except the nearside wheel of her road trailer does not run freely. I shall have to
investigate the cause and put the matter right.
Link
Crewsaver Buoyancy Bag
She looks great, Bill. I cant wait to read about your next sail! I think next week is looking better?
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