Sailing report - Bolger Light Scooner - Houston, tx
Just a quick sailing report.
I'm in Houston, TX, and met up with the Sea Scout group for a little sail
at Northshore Park in The Woodlands, TX (about 6 miles from my house).
It was Saturday, we met about 1:30. I hadn't had my schooner out since I
repaired the hole in the bottom where I put my foot through the rotten
lauan plywood. Overlaid parts of the bottom 3/8 exterior ply with
titebond II and exterior deck screws, painted with white oilbased primer.
Rigged the boat without any mishaps (like re-stepping the masts to get the
halyards through the right way).
Launched without incident. I didn't rig the jib at all, just the reefed
main and foresail. Since the purpose of the day was to complete a
launch/sail/recover operation without a mishap so as to gain more crew
(and skipper) experience, I didn't take any chances on being overpowered.
The day was beautiful, about 76 degrees, a pleasant little breeze, but
that lake is small and has a lot of trees around it, so ususally the flags
fly a lot better than the boats sail.
For crew, I had my 12 year old daughter, 14 year old son, plus a 15 year
old boy from the Sea Scouts. Not much to do except paddle a bit to get
the boat tacked around.
Sailed a little bit on just the reefed main, then tried to raise the
foresail, but alas my knots were not up to the task, and I ended up with
the foresail peak halyard stuck at the top of the mast and no way to get
it down again.
Sailed around a bit more. Had trouble tacking with very light breeze and
only one sail up, it't just takes forever to come around with no sail out
front to pull the bow through. Should've gone with the laziness rig and
un-reefed main. Live and learn.
Returned to the dock where my son jumped out with the bowline and got us
under control.
The boat does attract attention, it strikes people as a very pretty boat,
they ask if I built it, how old is it, etc. It definitely stands out
among the fiberglass tubs. Hopefully my sub-par skippering skills didn't
embarass her too badly...
Other sailors were impressed with the size of the daggerboard and rudder.
The rudder seems awfully heavy to me, but at this time it's not a problem,
so I'll keep it as is.
This winter I'll finish covering the bottom with new ply and a layer of
fiberglass, and get rid of the most glaring of fairing problems. I did
take on about a gallon or two of water over the 2 hours, I suspect the
daggerboard trunk is leaking a smidge. I'd never noticed it before since
the self-bailer and the rotten bottom were letting in so much more.
People like the look of the wooden mast-hoops for the sail, but they are
just such a bother when trying to step the masts. I want to switch to
some ferrule beads on line with some type of quick-release hook for the
sail, same on the gaff and boom. After seeing what happened with the
foresail halyard, I'm really considering having continuous halyards (like
a flagpole) and a cam cleat - Quick to cleat, adjust, and drop, can't
loose the halyard, don't have to rely on gravity to pull things down.
I'm really beginning to believe that money saved on running rigging
(cleats, blocks, etc) is a false economy, because nice reliable rigging
makes using the boat so much more pleasant, it's likely to spend much more
time in the water. I'm hoping to get rigging time down to less than 1/2
hour. That makes a 3-4 hour block of time a nice sailing opportunity.
Anyway, someone asked for some sailing stories to pass the time in the
winter, so here's mine.
Tim
I'm in Houston, TX, and met up with the Sea Scout group for a little sail
at Northshore Park in The Woodlands, TX (about 6 miles from my house).
It was Saturday, we met about 1:30. I hadn't had my schooner out since I
repaired the hole in the bottom where I put my foot through the rotten
lauan plywood. Overlaid parts of the bottom 3/8 exterior ply with
titebond II and exterior deck screws, painted with white oilbased primer.
Rigged the boat without any mishaps (like re-stepping the masts to get the
halyards through the right way).
Launched without incident. I didn't rig the jib at all, just the reefed
main and foresail. Since the purpose of the day was to complete a
launch/sail/recover operation without a mishap so as to gain more crew
(and skipper) experience, I didn't take any chances on being overpowered.
The day was beautiful, about 76 degrees, a pleasant little breeze, but
that lake is small and has a lot of trees around it, so ususally the flags
fly a lot better than the boats sail.
For crew, I had my 12 year old daughter, 14 year old son, plus a 15 year
old boy from the Sea Scouts. Not much to do except paddle a bit to get
the boat tacked around.
Sailed a little bit on just the reefed main, then tried to raise the
foresail, but alas my knots were not up to the task, and I ended up with
the foresail peak halyard stuck at the top of the mast and no way to get
it down again.
Sailed around a bit more. Had trouble tacking with very light breeze and
only one sail up, it't just takes forever to come around with no sail out
front to pull the bow through. Should've gone with the laziness rig and
un-reefed main. Live and learn.
Returned to the dock where my son jumped out with the bowline and got us
under control.
The boat does attract attention, it strikes people as a very pretty boat,
they ask if I built it, how old is it, etc. It definitely stands out
among the fiberglass tubs. Hopefully my sub-par skippering skills didn't
embarass her too badly...
Other sailors were impressed with the size of the daggerboard and rudder.
The rudder seems awfully heavy to me, but at this time it's not a problem,
so I'll keep it as is.
This winter I'll finish covering the bottom with new ply and a layer of
fiberglass, and get rid of the most glaring of fairing problems. I did
take on about a gallon or two of water over the 2 hours, I suspect the
daggerboard trunk is leaking a smidge. I'd never noticed it before since
the self-bailer and the rotten bottom were letting in so much more.
People like the look of the wooden mast-hoops for the sail, but they are
just such a bother when trying to step the masts. I want to switch to
some ferrule beads on line with some type of quick-release hook for the
sail, same on the gaff and boom. After seeing what happened with the
foresail halyard, I'm really considering having continuous halyards (like
a flagpole) and a cam cleat - Quick to cleat, adjust, and drop, can't
loose the halyard, don't have to rely on gravity to pull things down.
I'm really beginning to believe that money saved on running rigging
(cleats, blocks, etc) is a false economy, because nice reliable rigging
makes using the boat so much more pleasant, it's likely to spend much more
time in the water. I'm hoping to get rigging time down to less than 1/2
hour. That makes a 3-4 hour block of time a nice sailing opportunity.
Anyway, someone asked for some sailing stories to pass the time in the
winter, so here's mine.
Tim