Baby Tender

 Our good friend John has been building us this fine new tender. The plan is that it will sit between the foremast and the forward bulkhead of the main cabin. It will also cover up the fore-hatch/skyelight , if all our measurements are right anyway. - the fore-hatch is just over 3foot square. this will make it much darker in the fore cabin which is a good thing if you are trying to get some sleep in daylight hours. we should also be able to open the hatch for ventilation and not take any water below in case of wave / heavy rain as the tender will act like one very big dorade vent - thats my theory anyway!

Overall dimensions are  -   length: 7 foot     beam:  4foot.

The design had been a joint effort by john and myself. The mid-ship section is roughly based on a small  traditional (larch on oak) tender i built some years ago. Pictured on the right here is John adding his magic touch of glass cloth - he is a true master of this stuff. not a crease or miss-alignment in sight.

John is, as usual, making a super job of this so it should prove to be a great 'hard tender' that is lightweight and easy to row while being very stable due to a largely flat bottom and tight turn at the bilge.

Next issue we shall go for a row and see if it fits......... maybe even a sink test?

Out Sailing and Self steering

Been getting out as much as we can while getting the boat ready to head south. I still seem to have a long list of jobs to finish.... One of the big ones has been making and fitting a self steering system. I tried direct lines to the tilled with a wind vane which works well if you are sailing to windward... but starts to fail when sailing off the wind. So decided to dry the boat out and fit a trim tab and then make the wind vane drive this. The first rig I made was very 'crude' and experimental just so i could see if it would work - and it does. you can see 'mark one' in the pictures above and below (vane not attached).

I have now taken it off to make a proper version so will add more details about the construction when i have finished it.