Daisy and I went to Lysterfield Lake in Vic. For our first attempt at sailing, everything was fine for a few minutes, the wind wasn't strong but the boat didn't feel stable. I was trying to work out what did what and why. When rather gracefully she tilted to port and kept on tilting. Yes over we went, I was wearing a life jacket and was still fairly close to shore, so managed to swim and tow her ashore. Mind you the water was bloody cold.
Hopefully I'll do better next time.

Mike.

Mike367 said..
Daisy and I went to Lysterfield Lake in Vic. For our first attempt at sailing, everything was fine for a few minutes, the wind wasn't strong but the boat didn't feel stable. I was trying to work out what did what and why. When rather gracefully she tilted to port and kept on tilting. Yes over we went, I was wearing a life jacket and was still fairly close to shore, so managed to swim and tow her ashore. Mind you the water was bloody cold.
Hopefully I'll do better next time.

Mike.

Neat, little boats are a balancing act of the tiller, main sheet & ballast ie where and how your positioned. It doesn't take much to upset the apple cart. The lug sail on a vessel like that is extremely challenging to gybe. What design is she ?

cisco said..
Nice little thing to learn on and I am sure you learnt something.
Next thing to learn is how to right the boat and get it sailing again.
Keep going and you will move onto bigger and better things.

For your next boat a Corsair or better a Tasar would be a good choice.

Ha ha ha yes you could say that.

DrogueOne said..
Baby steps Mike, centreboard down?
LMK when you are heading there next, if I am free I will bring a dinghy as well and join you for a sail.

Yep, it was down. Thanks for the offer I appreciate it very much, maybe next weekend? I'll send you a message.

Mike367 said..

woko said..

Mike367 said..
Daisy and I went to Lysterfield Lake in Vic. For our first attempt at sailing, everything was fine for a few minutes, the wind wasn't strong but the boat didn't feel stable. I was trying to work out what did what and why. When rather gracefully she tilted to port and kept on tilting. Yes over we went, I was wearing a life jacket and was still fairly close to shore, so managed to swim and tow her ashore. Mind you the water was bloody cold.
Hopefully I'll do better next time.

Mike.

Neat, little boats are a balancing act of the tiller, main sheet & ballast ie where and how your positioned. It doesn't take much to upset the apple cart. The lug sail on a vessel like that is extremely challenging to gybe. What design is she ?

Shes a Northumbrian Coble 10" 6' a Covid lock down project. I bought the plans from Selway Fisher.

We've got a Selway Fisher 7'6" Redshank with a lug rig. It's a surprisingly good little boat, in that the shape is unusual (hard chines in the centre, soft ones at bow and stern) but it sails very well. However, the lack of inbuilt buoyancy is a major issue. We have become blase about the danger of dinghies without good buoyancy because they are so rare these days - but history proves that they can be killers, and can also turn people off sailing.

IMHO you should look really, really closely at getting enough inflatable buoyancy bags installed (pronto) to allow you to right the boat, get inside and bail her out. Dinghies without it are dangerous.

After spending a bit of time teaching sailing for a living and doing a fair bit of coaching I've come to the belief that there's something innate in humans that means we don't like easing mainsheets. If the boat is slowly tilting, just ease the sheet QUICKLY.

I've got neolon buoyancy foam fitted under the thwarts on my peapod & my ply tender I've also used it as a sponson/ fender on the tender

lydia said..
A little expensive but very easy solution is to buy standard optimist class dinghy buoyancy bags and some 1 inch webbing.
that is what I use in the Acorn dinghy.
they fit under the tharwts almost perfectly

I'll consider that after I've tested the in built buoyancy, thanks.

Relaxing day returning up the lake from a night rafted up alongside my mates catamaran in Bonnells Bay. Yes I know a bit slack not removing the bird netting from the solar array but it doesn't seem to affect performance much. Port sheet lurking underneath the partially open front hatch didn't come to light until the next tack either :-(.
Going to really miss my lake bound mistress while I'm in Airlie Beach for the next couple of weeks. Maybe we can sail up next year after I free her from the lake later this year.

Ramona said..
I was at Airlie Beach last Friday on a cruise ship. It's not the dump it used to be. The new marina is impressive, full of boats we can't afford. There is even a public toilet block just outside the sailing club now. I was shocked to see yachts actually sailing. It was perfect sailing conditions.

Yes it's really impressive compared to the backpacker dump I visited in the 70s. This will be the third winter running that we have got up there.
It was renting an RS Quest at the yacht club there 2 years ago (absolute bargain) that renewed my interest in sailing and caused me to buy a new Quest at ridiculous expense which still sits in my front yard having been used 7 times.
Spending more than 5 minutes there however makes you miss your boat terribly it is such a water based environment.

Lazzz said..

Ramona said..
I was at Airlie Beach last Friday on a cruise ship. It's not the dump it used to be. The new marina is impressive, full of boats we can't afford. There is even a public toilet block just outside the sailing club now. I was shocked to see yachts actually sailing. It was perfect sailing conditions.

I have a mate up there at the moment from Brizzy who has been going up for years & I got this message this morning from him:

"I never take F******d into that marina these days, they are the most rude, unhelpful, R swipes you can imagine. And EXPENSIVE ! ! I just take the dinghy in with jerry cans to get fuel and water, I do my shopping at Cannonvale"

The yacht club as opposed to the marinas only has a boat ramp and hard area for boat storage plus moorings plus of course a restaurant. Nice people. Unfortunately yes everything is expensive except real estate. I guess that is a reflection of its isolation. Summer temperatures might be a bit hard to take especially cyclone season.

Couple of nights ago I went to happy hour and walked back just after sunset
Coral Sea Marina







Yesterday Sailed in light breeze to Cape Gloucester and pick up a Resort mooring for the night.

Sydney Harbour to Coasters Retreat (o/nite), then pottering around Cowan Ck for 5or6 days.

The brown you can see is the floodwater outflow from Broken Bay, heading North in the current - Barrenjoey Lighthouse is out of picture to Port.


There was a distinct line between blue and brown, as I cossed it the transition was only around a boat length. B'joey L/house is out of pic to the right.

Hired a beneteau Oceanis 31 rocket ship out of Airlie for 10 days. The hypa responsive ( at least to me) helm was a hoot along with the get up and go, unfortunately we were obliged to skull drag a heavy rib along. Highly recommend for time poor cruisers

This was a couple of weeks ago. I made the video in response to a query about the Aries control line layout. It shows what the teak decking in the cockpit was like before the clean and sealing. Just offshore from Greenwell Point.

Some of you might be in the fleet.
Airlie Beach race 1 start