So I got down the lake early and got it rigged, there wasn't a lot of wind, but I thought it would be handy to tag onto the end of the race to get the feel for the controls in race conditions and such that if anything would be the boats worse performance.

So the gun goes and I'm stuck on the only shallows in the entire lake and they go 'oh forgot to tell you stay away from that post' as they drift off towards the 1st mark in the faint breeze which dwindled to nothing by the time they got there. We eventually got ourselves off the sandbank or whatever it was and drifted up to the tai lenders by the first mark, but it was such a raft, I thought better than try and barge through so I hung back and dwelt on other issues, one of which was trying to sheet the kite in, it was catching in the shrouds, because of the angle of the pulley I'd sighted on the racks.

Then the mainsheet came totally undone, and by the time we'd drifted down to the bottom mark and hardened up it was difficult to see any airflow, even the tell tales had stopped fluttering. Eventually a bit of a flurry filled in from behind which got us round the 1st lap, this eventually strengthened sufficient to get some directional stability, this bought with it other problems.

The stronger the puffs, the more weather helm became apparent, I didn't get that much last week in the quite strong breeze, but this light barely force two, had me constantly fighting which meant the brake was on the whole time and I'm now puzzled as to what's different. OK last week I wouldn't have been block to  block so the main power would never have been that fully sheeted and when it was I do remember a bit of weather helm, so I'm convinced I need a bigger jib, and the mast needs to be a tad more vertical.

I had a bit of a measure of that main, when I got home and even at two thirds base times height on a boom vee height measure only gives 8.8 sq mtr so I'm suspicious of the power of this rig, I don't think it's big enough. I barely got a hull flying last week and that was breezy, so I'm having a think at the minute. Brought back the Alto main (my small one) and it's way bigger than this Vortex 10.5 even on the same mast height, the Alto has a bigger foot, that in itself means it'll be more efficient, these high foot big aspect sails are only any good in a breeze, so it makes the acquisition of a more powerful jib more necessary if I'm going to have any traction in low wind.

I had one incident when the merlin that was being sailed by Neal and his crew came pouring past, they had a strange looking kite up on what was close to being a windward fetch and round bottom boats do well anyway in that stuff, but they shouldn't be coming past as fast as they did, well not and make me happy. So right now I'm thinking more power is required and of course less braking action from the rig being out of balance again.

Having met a real gem of a guy down the lake last week, Neal Gibson, he's a sailmaker, works locally has a small loft, and he came down today to measure up to get a proper spinnaker sock made and some decent tramps for the racks, measured up for a see through jib and talked about different ways to rig things, really interesting.

So I had a few things to sort anyway, the angle of the jamming cleat for the main sheet needed lowering, I wanted a second anchorage point for the lowers, so all the stress wasn't going through that one bolt, so it was off to whitstable with a list.

Got myself sorted with a rear mast support which will make travelling easier, all things being equal I want to do a few events with other boats to get an idea of where the handicap should be, and every time you go to one of these you learn so much about the boat bumbling stuff that I now need big time.

The spinnaker will still jam if I use it as it is, but that'll have to be a chance I'll take, it doesn't look that windy tomorrow and it's been fairly mild today, so off down the lake tomorrow, to see if i can get it rigged and ready in time to enter it's first race. Light conditions will be it's worse scenario, all that flat surface is likely to drag and on fresh water, unlikely there'll be enough volume to clear the rear, so it'll be a good test.

I'll try and get some pics this time if I'm not in a mad pfaff and I'll take my phone get some gps tracks maybe, if I remember it all.

Finally got on the water single handed today, literally breaking ice to do so, but a clear crisp February day with a brisk North Westerly and no trade shows to attend or other diversions, saw me trundle down there and wrestle with the entry procedure.

Too cold for photographs, too cold to bother with the spinnaker halyard that got itself half way up the mast, just warm enough to two sail about to get the feel for dealing with stuff alone. It's not the easiest layout to operate, can't say I like the floating bridle mainsheet pulley. 10 yards off the jib bridle untied itself, but being a floating platform a simple enough job to hove to and re-arrange both the main and jib sheeting.

There was a race going on that I was too late to join, but she seemed on the pace with most of the boats there and it was only later on once I'd found my 'lake'legs , re routed the mainsheet so it didn't keep jamming, (the angle's all wrong) thereby managing to risk a couple of legs 'flying' the windward hull the crafts performance potential really became apparent.

She doesn't like riding flat in fresh water, I'm almost of the view she's a bit under canvassed, hardly managing to venture onto the tramps in anything but the bigger gusts and it must have been 15-20kts in the breezier bits with 8 -12 average, difficult to say, it's a small lake, no gust could last a couple of minutes without a bank looming close.

I managed to bury a rack once, easily borne off from once I'd unjammed the cleat that caused it, I'm going to get a bigger see through jib made there was just a hint of weather helm I'd not experienced on the last outing so a bit of room to manoeuvre there, I need a better solution to the main sheeting, I'm minded to take the kicker take off closer to give a bit more room up front, I also find myself considering rear sheeting again.


All in all an enjoyable morning and I didn't even get my feet wet such are the joys of a slip from the grass straight into the drink. I guess I ought to mention 'the lake' and Redoubt SC who permitted my 'invasion', I'm going to join this year, nothing like sailing here to quicken up your handling technique.

Well it seems like an age since that day back in August when we finally got the boat on the water, since then lots of things have conspired against further progress, issues at work, disagreements between myself and the builder over pricing which only really got resolved when some bits got left off and I had no real alternative but to pay what was asked and pick the boat up as they were closing up shop.

So the craft I have is still unfinished, it's rigged, but needs trampolines, the wings need fitting as do the spinnaker blocks, one of the bones of contention being the high cost over what a new set of B14 wings could be purchased for, but i shan't dwell further on the matter suffice to say I'm not entirely happy and leave it at that.

She's now graphite black, which is the colour I wanted in the first place, the jib pole and rigging has changed and the spinnaker pump system appears to work quite well, although a modification is needed to prevent it jamming on the hoist as the spinnaker sock doesn't separate the kite from the pole block and they can get tangled.

The rope and control layout looks like a nightmare to my uneducated eye, but follows a certain logic, it has a proper

kicker something I'm un familiar with, every boat I've owned for the last few years have used gnavs, I see the logic of it and it's very powerful but takes up too much room for my liking.

The cunningham arrangement is also fairly complex and has been brought about by the design of the sail, something I guess I can changed in the fullness of time, it works but will need routing out to the racks as will the other controls.

She's centre sheeted with a big floating mainsheet block which is meant to ensure it'll centreline and sheet block to block, i don't mind that, but again i'm unused to centre sheeting most of my previous craft having been sheeted off the rear.

There's no centreboard trim control yet but i shall rig something now she's in my warehouse rather than down in Romsey, but the main thing is she's ready to travel, I have a trailer and launch trolley and nothing is beyond the wit of man.

So with any luck I shall get her on the water, I had to take all these pics just to remind myself how to put it all back together once she was transported up here.

The hull is all polished and sealed, the centreboard has a forward section flushing strip to stop the water rushing up during that early stage before the boat settles on its centre rocker.

Looking at the new layout I'm now wondering how I'll set about tacking, can't really take the main and the jib sheet round the back and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of room in the centre. I can't see how I can go through the centre with the tiller extension so I guess I'll have to dump the jib sheet then pick it up once through. Looks like a few things to work out still....

Well, today finally it all became worthwhile.

With the rig raked and re-adjusted we tried again, this time Ash accompanied me, Jamie is busy building B14's and suggested we both went out, so if adjustments had to be made on the water, one could hold it and the other do what was necessary, as there's always something at this early stage in a boats development.

So rigged and ready we took off and almost immediately it became apparent the rig adjustments were bang on, we were trialling a different jib that fitted better and the main had been raked a good ten degrees aft and the necessary adjustments made to the spreaders.

Initially we got some wash up the front of the centreboard but as she moved forward and lifted onto the 2nd rocker stage that disappeared and she began to march on, we started off heading upwind, that having been the problems last time out, she reacted well.

Then we bore off then a gust hit, I nearly got chucked out the back as she sprinted onto the next rocker stage. It was a marked transition, everything came light, (I'd been adjusting the rudder angle to make sure it was vertical just before we took off, she planed with just the two sails, so we couldn't wait to see what would happen with the kite up.

Naturally no sooner than the kite went up the wind dropped, but it did give us a little surge and was only spoiled by the troublesome cleat coming undone suddenly and we lost it, at first not knowing what had happened we stored it away and came back upwind, experimenting with sailing flat and lifting a hull, it planed easily when sailed flat and free, yet also pointed well and was loose with one hull out of the water, but to do this more reliably we'll need to raise the racks a bit.

We bunged the kite up again and this time got some wind, which catapulted her off downwind like a scalded cat. It skips over the surface once it releases, it's going to be fun pushing it hard in the future, but today was about checking everything so upwind again, see if we can get it into irons, it tacks sweet as a nut fumble as we might into the tack. When we did get her head to wind whilst we were fiddling with the plate that had been creeping up and trying to sort the jib cleat that had broken, it was a simple matter to back it out into the direction we needed to go.

Eventually time was marching on, (it always does when you're enjoying yourself) and Ash needed to do a final check single handed so i went ashore, only to fin my phone battery dead so couldn't record much, but i did watch him get one big puff and she flew. You can tell when somethings really moving, by the spray, normally the spray is sugary quite large, when it gets super fine, like it's been ionised, then you know somethings really moving and I mean moving, speedboat fast, I doubt a rib would have held it.

He came back with an ear to ear grin, 'It's mental off wind'.

So there's still a lot to do, but I'm a very happy chappy and getting even more excited at future prospects of sailing adventures, I've never been in anything so stable before, nor with the speed sensation, it'll be interesting finding out what she can do..

Finally got it on the water, late Friday afternoon

After a frustrating day of glitch after glitch and issue after issue, stupid frustrations including the moment we hitch the trailer up to the car it being locked and no-one knew where the key was, we finally got her to the waters edge on a dodgy trailer we had to fit a bar to, to even get it there, Jamie elected to take her out for the first sail, as it was a bit breezy, I didn't argue so we got her rigged, there was a minor issue that made the mast sit a bit to far forward due to a splice not being accessible enough to release to get some rake, this was to prove tricky later on.

The tiller extension as I predicted it would (I hate tiller extensions and it was a massive thing which had hell and damnation written right through it) fell straight off as he left the slip.

Once he got it sorted, he appeared to give it it's head, difficult to spot because by now it was well offshore, but off wind it appeared to be performing quite well, I'd noted it sat well on the water, the release off the stern wasn't 'noisy' (too turbulent) and it appeared to accelerate well. Jamie weighs 96 kilo and it didn't squat, with my 67 kgs it's only going to sit higher in the water, at this stage I was very pleased.

He seems to be making O.K. ground against that ferry and the tide, I missed the kite episode, it apparently went well until the cleat slipped and he sailed over it, hence having to go forward to sort it out and take a swim.

A small crowd had gathered as we arrived, some folk from the local Cat club interested in it's unusual design, it was the last night of Cowes week so there were lots of people down there. 'There,' was Calshot, the tide was low so we'd had to go down to the lifeboat station to launch. It was here that the original Spitfire in its Supermarine sea plane guise was launched so as historic venues go, it didn't get any better. Then another frustration arrived, a couple of the local Rangers, very pleasant started off inquisitive enough but it all got down to me moving my car, then being directed to this absurdly complicated cash machine to buy a park and launch ticket, I'd been videoing the boat overtaking a Ferry which seemed to prove it was moving O.K. in what breeze there was, but ten minutes of my time distracted saw me returning to a very different scene, he'd totally vanished.

As I moved further round the corner to see if he'd gone down the coast, a rather agitated lady came hurrying up the beach from the line of fisherfolk, saying she was going for the lifeboat crew, because a boat had just suddenly flipped over and couldn't get up. My heart sank, ' Er it's an experimental boat' said I 'he could be deliberately testing it where is it?' She pointed, sure enough there he was way out in the channel getting blatted by fast cruising stink boat wakes, upside down stood on the bottom. Why couldn't he right it I wondered, he didn't appear to be even trying, then a rib made it's way toward him. I pointed out that help was at hand and delayed further embarrassment at the hands of the RNLI.

But as the minutes ticked by, I became increasingly dispirited, it had been such a shit day, I checked my watch, the date said 11th (it was wrong as it turned out but nothing was going to halt my slide into depression at this stage) doh, why the 11th, (9yrs ago i'd gotten myself killed on August the 11th at the hands of a kite and the promenade wall for a few minutes), I wished at this stage that something similar would fall on me now to end the humiliation, it was all obviously a waste of time, my unsinkable 'un tip over able' boat was there in perfectly flat conditions at the hands of a very competent sailor, upside down going nowhere, the bottom quite literally fell out of my world.

Eventually they righted it, but he never seemed to try, didn't get out onto the end of the plate, just let the rib pull him over and climbed up the back, it did at least just sit there and not fall over the wrong way, not bad since it had been a windward righting. He then slogged back upwind to the slip.

This last vid as you can see him coming ashore unable to sheet in, having to play the jib right out and sheet on and off with the foil pushing against the flow, nothing working right yet still it moves through the water O.K. the only worry I have is that the racks are high enough. O.K. on this stuff, but in the waves of the channel I can see me removing them and Trapezing or at least lifting them another notch.

Once ashore, he seemed surprisingly chipper, 'did you get me going in?' No said I explaining about the infuriating car and parking machine incident. 'It's like an ice rink' he said 'the primer, I had to go up front to untangle the kite hoist and slipped arse over tit and grabbed at something or other and pissed the whole thing in, it did turtle a bit quick, you're right about those rack covers'.

Thank God for that I thought, 'and it's got massive lee helm I couldn't get on the racks even, couldn't get a footing, it's way out of balance.' 'Nothing unusual' he said obviously looking at my long face '' If it had been any different with this dog rig set up, I'd have been really surprised, I told you not to expect much today (He had but i did anyway not being the patient sort).

"The plate needs to go the next notch forward, the rig needs rake, we need some deck grip there's lots to do, but I've sailed much worse first time out", he then went on to regale me with tales that I can't repeat publicly of incidents with quite well known boats which took up to 27 repeats of what we'd just done before finally sorted, so it looks like I've got a tad longer to wait, he's off on vacation for Salcombe week and I'm up to my ears at work so it'll be a while. In the meantime they'll be finishing the hull and I'll be writing a snagging list and next time, i'm hoping to get a go myself and this time we'll need a rib.

Failure to Launch

To many snags got in the way of a launch today, but I got a chance to finally see how it's going to be. Had a bit of a sit on it, took a stroll around the deck, lifted it up, tried to imagine righting it in the unlikely event of a capsize, confirmed my feelings about the inadequacy of using B14 washerwoman bits, talked about the jib gnav and how it would function and why it was necessary.

Suggested snowboard toe binding strap and ratchets, that we use on our two part Kayaks as a solution to the quick yet firm fix and or release of the racks for storage and transport.

But it did confirm in my mind that going ahead with it was a bloody good idea, I'm sure it's going to work, saw the massive plate, not finished yet, but the size is bang on what I want. Offwind was never going to be an issue, I just want to be first upwind as well.

It's righting moment is massive at 3.20mtrs rack to rack, it aint far off the righting moment of a 49er they tell me and 18 foot skiffs are only another 1/2mtr and should I decide to trap off the racks it'll go even faster.

Anyway here are the pics, best the iPhone could do in the circumstances, but enough to get the picture...

Carbon wing-wang and racks

The first pics that I've found a little disappointing, not from a technical standpoint, more from a cosmetic visual, they look a tad ugly just sat on the deck of a flat grey primed hulk. They'll look better I'm sure when the rest of the fittings are in place and it's duly painted.

I hate the colour of the rack tramps, insipid cream, they'll have to go, they need to be black and mesh or there'll be to much windage if the day ever dawns when she goes over.

So in the essence of warts and all publishing, I give you this latest lot of pics, technically they'll all work well enough, but something will need to be done about the visual. We're due on the water come wednesday for the initial sea trials, if all works out well we'll have to see about tidying up the look.

The wing wang and spinnaker chute mouth, it does need to be big, but it looks so ugly not recessed, maybe when the bags in place and the mouth is all black with the jib mounted it won't look so bad, but it does address all the issues I've had with other wing wang devices, not least weight, it's all carbon with a nylon block which should prevent the pole lifting and make it easier to adjust under load.



Oversized, over engineered and all over my boat, B14 washerwomen racks the downside of expedience.

Well, it's incomplete, so will only get better... Once I've ditched those rack covers, they totally suck and don't even talk about the battleship grey primer, a necessary evil if we're to get it wet before we settle on where everything finally goes..