Mentioned recently was the news that Charlie had launched his John Welsford design,the Sundowner,the news now he has been out sailing,check out what he has posted on his blog:
Sea trials I
John Welsford and I took Resolution out for the weekend to put her through some paces to see how she did. The wind had blown upwads to 35 knots during the day, but had settled down to about 20 as we left Tauranga Bridge Marina about 5 in the evening. Resolution's tiny Bukh engine muttered along without a hitch, taking us through the Tauranga harbor channel and out into the South Pacific east of Mt. Maunganui. The low pressure area that had come across the Tasman into New Zealand had created a Southeast swell and the winds of the day had kicked up a chop that was running at cross purposes with the swell to make the seas confused, to say the least. The swell reached two meters at times and the choppy waves running across them were often four to five feet. Resolution bucked and rolled, but never felt to be in any danger. With the wind off our stern quarter, we elected to raise the jib and the staysail and boom along toward Mayor Island at 3-4 knots. We sailed all night, reaching the island just after midnight and sailing around it in the wind shadow for the next five hours. On the other side, we reached back out, looking for an angle that would take us back to Maunganui. As we wore ship to head back to the harbor, a forward stay turnbuckle popped (I'd not set the lock nuts -- lesson in that) and I had to jury rig it while the deck bucked on the confused seas. We decided to motor back, and the Bukh pushed us along at just over 6 knots for the next six hours. Oh, along the way, we hove to, and Resolution sat quietly with her staysail aback and the tiller hard alee. She may have forereached a little and drifted downwind a bit, but she was so quiet you'd wonder about those confused seas and whistling winds. Docked at about 4 pm and prepared a long list of to-dos that we learned from the trials. The major one? Move the aft chain plates 250mm further aft. Rig running backstays. And more. Talk to you later.
John came over from Hamilton. We rigged the main horse and sheet, fired up the little Bukh, and headed out of Tauranga Bridge Marina with my little 2.2-meter inflatable in tow. Winds were very light, but Resolution ghosted well, making 1.2 knots in what seemed like a dead calm with a few breaths of air. John climbed into the dinghy and took off to shoot photos while I tacked back and forth across the bay next to Mt. Maunganui. It felt like we were moving at a snail's pace, but when John tried to catch up in the dinghy with its 2HP Suzuki, the boat was going faster than it looked to be.
Wonderful day. Nice sail. Monday will see the electrics finished up. Tony the sailmaker will come down to have a look at the main. I've got a few details to fix up. Then, HAWAII HERE WE COME.
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