A Birdwatcher wallow in winter
>>-----
>> I've just received my set of Whalewatcher plans from Common Sense
>> Boats, now located in Nanaimo, B.C.. but Jerry says he doesn't
>> have the building instructions. Could you sell me the instructions??
>> I have a Birdwatcher launched last summer. It's the BW 2 -- which I
>> find is a great daysailing boat with the Solent rig and much
>> stiffer than I expected. However, I'm going to do a BW 1 leg-of-
>> mutton rig for cruising next summer because I find the Solent rig
>> takes up the whole boat when furled and stowed. My main is only
>> convenient when bricked. I want to wrap (a leg o' mutton) sail around the mast
>> and go ashore within a minute.
>> Why Whalewatcher, you ask? Because Birdwatcher turns out to be just
>> a little small for the way I usually cruise, so I'm already looking
>> to the future.
>> Eric OHiggins
>
> On 6-Jan-09, at 2:33 PM, mason smith wrote:-----
>
>> I think I have scanned those instructions. Will look up the scan
>> and see if I can email it to you.
>> I can well understand wanting to furl up the Solent main on the
>> main, though I always thought that if I had a good crew-person with
>> me (never did, with mine) I could have furled that thing on the
>> cabin-top pretty quickly. Have you tried furling it vertically with
>> the yard up choc-a-bloc and the downhaul tight, just as if it were
>> not a lug? I remember that the Drascombe people did that with their
>> gunter mains, when the wind was light enough.
>> Sailing my second, Solent-rigged, BW mostly alone, I did figure out a way
>> to fold and roll the sail to stow on the top, lashed to its yard;
>> but I always had it all over the place for a while.--Mason
>---
>
> Mason: I haven't tried a vertical furl, although I will when the
> weather is better. My sails are a stiff low porosity cloth very
> beautifully made by Leitch and McBride with -- I swear -- as much
> care as the suit they made for Ross MacDonald when he won the
> Star worlds. The firm tried for a time to develop a market for
> cruising boat sails and did a set for our schooner back then. I
> guess that's not the case any longer, because the current set are
> clearly racing sails.
> The sails have battens which are going to make a vertical furl
> pretty loose, but I can see the use for a quick harbor furl in quiet
> conditions!
> Our BW -- called Irish Pennant -- has an extension on the rudder
> shaft coming up through the deck and becoming a flag standard. At
> deck level it has a 2inch square section onto which I can drop an
> emergency tiller in case things go wrong with the tricky Bolger
> steering. For daysailing, I use the tiller for fingertip steering
> and quick responsiveness; so rigged she is astonishingly handy as
> well as delightfully quick when short-tacking out of our harbor with
> a cliff on one side and a reef on the other.
> The motor stays home unless we're voyaging; it's just in way and
> not needed at all.
> I find the boat needs a little board down for control under oars.
> Our 'mooring' is a totally sheltered drying flat almost hard enough
> to walk on easily before the tide comes. She draws so little
> there's only about 20 minutes between walking and rowing. Sixteen
> foot range of tide in Lasqueti Island in the Strait of Georgia; 27
> feet in Skidegate Inlet near our winter home in the Charlottes.
> I'd rather moor on mud than anchor out. One of my winter projects
> is a set of splatchers a la Ransome's Secret Water. (Remember the
> Mastadon?)
> The marine park on Jedediah Island has one tight little deep water
> anchorage usually choc-a-bloc with shopping mall sailors using
> generators and teevees. Us mudlarks have a 50acre drying haven all
> to ourselves complete with grassy verge and sunshine too!
> I love mud!
> Eric
Hope you got the building key scans. Let me know if not. Meanwhile I
> succeeded in putting a few Whalewatcher shots in an album on theMason: I just turned those sheets into hard copy this morning and it
> Bolger group. So it's BC! What gorgeous country for sailing. My
> family wants to go to Maho Bay, St. John, for sring break but I am
> dreaming of alternatives. What's it like in late April? Mason
> -----
works, it works!
I left the coffee stains coffee colored because I thought turning
them into grey-scale would make things hard to read and that worked
out too. The paper sheets are not only readable, they appear to be on
vellum like treasured antiquarian relicts. Which is kind of how I
feel about getting them from you -- I can't thank you enough.
The trouble with BC as a home cruising ground is that nowhere else
on earth quite measures up. We took a tour boat up the length of
Milford Sound NZ and thought it was a little pale in comparison with
Princess Louisa Inlet -- and too much like home. (Digression: The
Marlborough Sounds on the other hand look like fiords but are drowned
river valleys and the sailing differences confront and fascinate at
every turn. I'd love to Birdwatch through there -- lots of drying
flats in spite of a 10foot tidal range. But what a hell of a suitcase
I'd have to have.)
Sorry, I do get carried away.
Late April in the Gulf Islands is pretty chancy although May is the
best month of the year as often as not. Summer here is pretty gentle
much of the time with protracted calms when the Strait is glassy for
days on end. Sept. 2 (ie Labor Day plus one) is our favorite -- the
weather is still summery but the anchorages are emptied out.
Enough already -- this has all made the winter vanish for a minute
or two. I'll go check for Whalewatcher shots at the Bolger group.
The group stuff is in a pretty negative rut right now. What do you
think of me stripping out all the email addresses and c. and posting
this exchange as a message. Its been a happy BW wallow with some
good ideas mixed in. Might get the Bolgeristas off on a better
direction for the new year. (And a Happy to you and yours while I'm
at it!.)
Eric
---
Eric, I have enjoyed this exchange too and don't mind if you put it
up. Correct my spelling if time permits. It's not my spelling, really,
it's some of my fingers'. I have been moved, just now, when I stumbled
on the picture, to put a shot of my Solent Birdwatcher on my desktop.
Certainly prettier than WW. I shall attach.
I intended my scanner to scan the key in black and white, not to
present you the stains; but my intentions were not regarded.
I wonder if you're referring to the unhappy discussion of Phil
and Susanne I just read, while scanning down the group messages. I was
sorry to hear Susanne attacked, and glad she was promptly defended.
She's a pistol, all right, and she does busy up Phil's economies
(don't you suspect her of most of the BWII changes?), but I love her.
Also sympathize with those who have been frustrated, and then got on
the wrong side of her. Who isn't crazy who is wonderful? I've been
trying to get WB to do something about their efforts on fishing, and
on third-world river transport. Never mind getting the marines ashore
in fighting trim. But WB is not interested in people.
I shouldn't say that, but there's a story behind it . . .
Best regards to you, and best wishes for the New Year. ---Mason
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