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banking remains in the UK we are run by an increasingly international Committee via the Internet. A number of posts become vacant every year, at the AGM, so if you choose to join you could also put your name forward to help run the 'club'. It doesn't run itself. Our membership is now more than 50% outside the UK. Click the chart for detail.
September 2020 Blossom By Pete Hill
Blossom had been converted to a junk rig by the previous owners. A nice hollow wooden mast and a well made flat sail, but the sail was really too tall for the mast height and the battens looked far too light. I spent two weeks sorting the boat out, strengthening the battens and buying extra wood for repairs, amid much rain and thunderstorms as the first tropical storm passed in the Gulf of Mexico.
After an eventful and long Atlantic crossing, during which Blossom looked after me well, I arrived in Falmouth at the end of July. I hauled her out at Southdown Marina to start the repairs and rig conversion so to turn her into a fine cruising boat.
Mast
The mast was put in to suit accommodation - which meant that the rig needed a lot of balance forward. So the obvious choices were either aero junk or split junk. As I had a good experience of aero junk I decided to go with that.
The beautifully made bird’s mouth douglas fir mast was too short for the boat and it hadn’t been fiberglassed. I extended it by 3ft, fiberglassed with unidirectional and cloth, then epoxied and finished. The halyard block is held at the masthead with a thick dyneema strop.
Sails
The sails were made on Linda’s houseboat in London over the Christmas period. They were easy to make as all panels (except the top one) are square of the same size. What took more time was the sail catcher which I really wanted to make because they keep the sails tidy and protect the sail cloth from UV. The sail cloth was 6 ¼ ounces Clipper Canvass in tan.
Battens making / Wishbone: I bought 5m pultruded square tubes that had to be extended. I put a wooden plug (10cm) inside the tube to strengthen the joint and glass/epoxy over the joint. The cross beams for the wishbone were made of round fiberglass tubing. To join the wishbones at the aft end I made a plywood wedge with a recessed grove set into the tube. I stretched dyneema across the wishbone for the horse for the jiblets and added a small block acting as a traveler. The front of the wishbone had another round tube joining the two ends.
Engine choice
The boat had no engine and after much deliberation about electric, diesel or combination of two I decided to go for Beta 25 saildrive diesel engine and a folding 2 blade propeller.
Sailing
She sails very well and is well balanced. She seems to be quick and tacks like a dinghy. She keeps her speed up through the tack and does not fall away before picking up on the new tack. The main does set with some creases at the top and It appears that while the battens and yard are strong enough they are not quite as stiff horizontally as they should be.
New Project
Quite unexpectedly on returning to Plymouth we heard about a part complete Forestier 12.5 junk for sale near Paris. This seemed too good an opportunity to miss, while we were looking forward to cruising again the Forestier would be a much more suitable cruising home for us both. We flew over to take a look, bought her and then arranged her transport back to Cornwall. Sounds simple, but it entailed a few nail biting weeks while Linda coordinated English transport, a French crane and last minute document delivery to France. After that was organised we had a few weeks to wait and so sailed in Blossom to Falmouth and then on to the Scilly Isles, a delightful holiday. Once back in Millbrook we hauled Blossom out at Southdown Marina and when Kokachin, our new boat arrived, she was parked alongside. Blossom is now for sale..
