Just got back from our first sail aboard Mariposa; a quick potter around Plymouth Sound.
We motored out of the marina two hours before high tide, through a misty drizzle, with a scant 10cm of water under the keel. We didn’t run aground, we got out, then back in two hours later, without running into the mud.
We motored out into a broader and deeper patch of water, where we had enough room to drift while I faffed about with the brightly coloured lengths of string.
There was a light westerly breeze, about eight knots, and the sail went up as I hauled on the halyard, only occasionally having to untangle the mainsheet.
And, well, we sailed! It was simple and trouble free; the boat heeled to the wind only about ten degrees, we were able to go about fifty degrees off the wind, and moved at about three knots. Being cautious, I only hoisted five of the available seven panels.
Three knots was plenty of speed for a first sail. I turned the motor off, lifted it out of the water.
Lovely. We sailed back and forth in a straight line five times, just getting the hang of things, and fiddling with the mysterious strings. Pinching up and bearing away, just to see what happened.
Nine am rolled around, so I dropped the sail and motored back to the marina, and let the dog out of the cabin. Lulu prefers to be in the cockpit, but I wanted an uncluttered cockpit while I clambered about. As I get more familiar I’ll be able to have her with me in the cockpit.
It was a great win and a milestone; my first solo sail in a junk rigged boat.
May there be many more.
A few questions for my JR brethren, and sisteren. I’m jusat going to write down my experience and observations, please chime in with tips and advice for this newbie:
I think my yard hauling parrel may be mis-routed, or perhaps just needs to be a more slippery rope. It gets in the way, under parrels, and restricts the raising of the sail. I had to go forward to untangle it. Then, once the sail was up, I pulled on the YHP and it wouldn’t move, it was just too ‘sticky’ in its loop around the mast.
As far as I can tell it is routed as per PJR.
The luff hauling parrel seemed to work okay, and when I tightened it we seemed to be able to go closer to the wind. With the LHP slack I found I couldn’t go closer than about 80 degrees to the wind, without losing way, but then the breeze was light.
With the LHP tight, we seemed to get about 50 degrees on each tack, slightly better on the port tack than the starboard.
I have no sheets running to the top two battens, and the sail did like to get a good twist going. I yanked and fiddled with the sheets, but the sheeting arrangement seems to allow the higher battens to fall to leeward, with a subsequent tightening of the lower sheet spans.