I do love my shiny pole...

Bright and early start for what proved to be an excellent day. Wind was great, very deep reach that meant I played with polling the staysail out and eventually got her balanced with the main and job on the same side and the staysail poled on the other. Great thing that little whisker pole. Steven knocked it up to my design out of spare fir left over from last years mast repair.

Staysail whisker pole is 6ft long with a slot in one end to engage the sheet and the other end rounded off and secured by a loop of rope and a loop of bungee both spliced through a hole drilled in it. These loops loop over two seperate pins on the pinrail at the mast base. I use the lazy sheet as a 'guy', no uphaul/downhaul required (though the set is not always perfect as a result). The staysail sheet leads outside the shrouds and to a block on a short strop - this is the usual arrangement but it works especially well with the pole. When we get the big drifter and its (longer) pole I will need to put some blocks on a strop or maybe even get a barber-hauler type set up going to get the right lead. We will have to see. The staysail pole is light, and so dead easy and quick to use - but strictly for light winds as it's only about 45mm diameter. We can make a much deeper angle to the wind with it - the staysail is easily blanketed by the main into annoying indecisve flappiness. As an instructor of mine once said, "A flappy sail is not a happy sail" - and so we endeavour to keep the sails happy.

Talking of the main, we had the full sail up for the first time in yonks. Good sight - but even the new bigger pinrail doesn't clear the peak and throat halyards from the gaff jaws. I can see that shroud-mounted pin rail happening very soon - and/or trimming a few inches off the forward part of the gaff jaws. The jaws are a lovely bit of grown oak - but the boat was designed to use a steel 'saddle' and the jaws foul/pull on just about every halyard at one point of sailing or another...

Got into Harwich and sailed up the Stour to a lovely anchorage about a mile past the ferry terminal. There were 3 boats lined up (generously spaced by Solent standards) and a space - so we took the space! If only all rivers could be like that - so much space, a few, well-spaced moorings, good shelter from the wind. It just makes you realise HOW croweded with moorings/marinas/etc. the south coast rivers are. Steven asked me why don't people sail here instead. I said they do - but it's too far from London for the masses I suppose.


So, an easy sail - but sadly we still cannot get the windvane, a Svennovations Mister Vee Stainless WALT, to do his job. More investigation (and emails to the Sven, no doubt) required.