First sail with Main

We got the right wind conditions (that aligned with other life stuff) on Saturday.

We launched at Altona this time - this was a lot better than the Warmies (Williamstown). We raised the newly adjusted jib at the dock and it looked good. We then put it away and rigged main only.

We solved the retrieval issues. I purchased 2 of 6" rollers and frames to replace the offending 2 just forward of the wheels. We launched then I replaced them. During replacing it became obvious why we couldn't easily retrieve. The port side roller stem bracket is welded on crookedly. The 6" roller  fixes the width problem..

Two issues:

1. The Outhaul tends to rotate the boom about 20 degrees due to the padeye being off the side of the boom slot. This stuffs up the mast steering shackle. I think this is easily solved with a bit more thought from me on how I tie the outhaul to the padeye at the end of the boom.

2. Getting the bolt rope into the mast slot as I hauled it up was a pain. It kept wanting to jam at the top of the slot opening. (Googling I find this is common - since this was my first time I'll reserve judgement for now).

Anyway, once up she sailed well on the main but four attempts to tack failed - in irons. No jib, no dagger boards - I hope that's all it was. Crew was very concerned most of the time - hence no jib and daggers.
From what I read since then it was pretty optimistic that I could tack with no daggers down. The Jarcat has quite flat hulls unlike a beach cat so I would think it really needs the daggerboards to steer well.

During the previous week I added grab handles to the front of the cabin roof. Now I don't have to throw myself across the roof (in waves) when going forward. The picture show the starboard handle just above the green navigation light. I realise that they may pose a problem for the genoa in future but they are pretty streamlined and the sail shouldn't get caught on them.

First Sail - kind of

We took advantage of the light winds on Sunday to take Kismet out for the first sail. A number of time consuming reasons had us in the water with mast up at 1:30pm.

Nearly ready...

There was a lot of traffic on the water and we had not boated for almost a year so it took us to almost 3pm (having lunch while drifting) to finally raise the jib for the first time.

Given about 5 knots of wind I was happy we made steering speed but we ran out of time to try the main (long story).

The jib appears too long. See attached picture. It's OK on downwind or board reach but closer to the wind it's sitting on the roof. It was up close  against the top halyard block.

Retrieving was a pain AGAIN with Kismet slipping off a roller and gouging the keel a bit. Not sure how we can improve that - it's the worst part of going out for the day. (We are doing day sails while we shake down the boat.)

Over all I regard it as a great success - the mast appeared solid with so sign of distress in chainplates or tacktrack.

We won't launch at the warmies again for sailing - too busy and takes  too long to get to sailing areas.

We should also rig all sails on land - live and learn.

Better half was quite concerned even with the light conditions so I took that into account - hence jib only.

The jib turns out to be about 500mm too long in both luff and leach so it's at a sail maker now awaiting us to give him some critical measurements so it can be modified.

In the picture you can see the jib dragging on the cabin roof.