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I sail!
It was a *very* calm day with just a few knots of wind and that was perfect, since there was enough wind to move the boat, but not to move it quickly enough that when my phone rang and I gybed accidentally, anything bad happened.
The water was very green and glittery, the sky was blue and the sail very red-orange. The boat made a little delighted bubbling noise as she cut through the water that was much more woody and musical in quality than the noise that the plastic canoe or kayaks make if you are going well. The aesthetics were impeccable.
I did have to put the first trip off for a few days because when I put up the mainsail for the first time, the gunter yard/ gaff promptly cracked in two all the way along. After a certain amount of cursing, I looked it up and found that as with nearly all things Mirror, it was 'known issue' and 'fixable with epoxy'. So I epoxied it back together and put a few screws in on each side to make sure. It seems to have worked.
I was able to pretty much sail straight back in, despite the wind being offshore and having no jib, I was still able to point surprising close to the wind. Mind you, the beach looks a lot smaller when you are coming back in.
Thoughts:
- Rowing out with the boom and gaff just lying in the boat was absolutely awful. Particularly using the springy plastic rowlocks which tend to flex and ping the oars out of them. This was a bit stressful as the beach does have pointy rocks either side of it and the wind decided to move me towards them while I was attempting to row out.
However I tried to use the oars, the spars were in the way, and also I lost my burgee because the gaff end trailed in the water (fortunately, it was lost right on the shore, and was helpfully retrieved by PP). I need a better way to organise the spars, probably involving bungee cord to bundle them up and lift them out of the way. I also have put in the metal rowlocks. Hope those are less pingy.
- I am very glad I didn't use the jib this time. One sail was enough to manage on the first sail in 30+ years, despite the many people in the People Who Love Mirror Sailing Dinghies facebook group (who I asked to critique my rigging, which generally they did very helpfully) who told me that jibs were the way to go and going cat-rigged (mainsail only) was inferior. The boat was designed with an extra mast-step and eyes for going cat-rigged, I really think it's not *that* bad to use them.
- The autobailer does seal properly, but tends to get pushed out of place as the boat comes off the trolley. Need to give it a bit of a shove on launching to make sure there isn't a little hole in the bottom of the boat at that point.
- my big sponge bailing solution worked perfectly at low speed for removing small amounts of water that entered through the slightly open autobailer. Have not yet travelled fast enough to try using the autobailer (which sucks water out as you go, if you are going a decent speed)
- The forestay wasn't tight enough, so the boom drooped a bit as the mast was leaning a bit backwards (I only realised this looking at the photos afterwards but I did think the boom seemed a bit low and floppy and I'm sure it contributed to just how much the sail and gaff were in my way rowi).
- I could have pulled the gunter yard / gaff up a bit higher and again, that would have raised the boom so it wasn't in my way so much. That is something you can actually adjust on the water, whereas the forestay is Not. Forestay needs a beach.
- Painting over the sand on the bottom-boards was a good call. It was still grippy, but not like direct contact with sandpaper. Also, it looks so much better.
- I attached the oars to the spare mast eyes, which was quite neat and meant I couldn't lose them, but made them a little harder to grab when I was coming back in. But probably I'll get used to quickly releasing the bungee balls.
- I didn't bring the paddle: it would have been really handy for getting back in though. Next time, bring paddle.
to do:
- fix new metal rowlocks in place.
- find a way to secure gaff, sail and boom out of rowing space
- Better fixing for forestay.
- Add some way to attach a painter. I bought a suitable rope but I don't have a good place to attach it to the boat. There are two eyes at the front, but one is for the forestay and the other is needed for the trolley. Possibly replace the forestay eye so that it can take both the forestay AND the painter?
- make a dyneema soft shackle for the top of the mainsail to replace the lacing.
- ? new sail lacing in general? That actually seems to be the one piece of string that has worn well, so presumably was made of something different to all the other rope and string that has disintegrated, but if I replace it, it can't surprise me in future.
- Trolley does sink a bit in the shingle once the weight of boat is on it. Fatter wheels?
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