Yes, I am sorry I didn't get a chance to sail in company with Annie, but I had promised to race with friends in West Highland Week on a Sadler 25.  Still, Annie was very impressive.  And she looked magnificent as she swept out of Tobermory under three panels, headed towards Drumbuie, over the Sound of Mull.

Pol, to silence the mast lift, try hitching a line to it, and hauling it back towards the topping lifts. Or do as I do - abandon the PJR way of tying it around the mast under the sail, and instead hitch it to the boom a little way aft of the mast. This is kinder to the sail, anyway.

Otherwise, I think you know what you need to do, when time permits. Move the LHP up so that it becomes a THP and is more effective against the diagonal creases. Add reinforcing patches to the throat and peak of the sail, or it won't last long. Secure the tack against moving fore and aft. Try an anti-twist bottom sheet span.

I blench whenever I look at flat barrel-cut panels, but appearances apart, I think the performance will be good when the sail is setting better. You seemed to be pointing high in the light breeze. Boat speed was not very different from Weaverbird's, though Annie is 7ft longer, but I put that down to very different types of boat, and the light breeze. In more wind, you'd have got away from me without turning on the engine!

Frederik,

That is a thought. But I guess we need to get the CE of the sail as far aft as possible and, in the absence of a mizzen to carry it, a bit of flat cloth hung from a backstay is as far aft as i can get. I'm have no gallows yet, but a basic crutch which I will be experimenting with, and so something which relies on the bundle being reasonably static may not be possible in my case. I'm going to look at all of the suggested options, though, and see what works best.

One bother with having the mast (with bundle on the port side) set so far forward in the boat is that the anchor stowage and windlass on the port side is very cluttered. Big mistake of mine when planning it all out. However, if I rig a tack line I hope this may help to keep the bundle slightly further aft when stowed and allow a few more inches of of space up there. 

Following up on Annie's suggestion of setting 2 anchors routinely. I forgot to say above that ANNIE has always had a fisherman anchor. It must be about 15-20kg! So ungainly but great in kelp and stones I think. We stow it lashed to the toe rail to port. Getting it there is a grunt especially underway. My current pipe dream in setting two anchors is: 2 Rocna self-stowing anchors one on each bow roller. Another windlass to starboard, with chain locker ditto!

Pol.

Hi Arne, Annie, David and Mike,

Thank you all for your thought-provoking ideas. I had concluded in my wanderings that a chum or something like it might help, and we have a good heavy chum - though he's a bit of a struggle to deal with - but not thought of the bridle. Arne and Mike are along the same lines. Arne, let me be your guinea pig! I'll try this and let you know. The chum may get an outing. He normally resides at the bottom of the deepest locker in denial that we ever get a gale when we are anywhere but the most sheltered little place. After the high pressure weather we've been having for so long, it's bound to break as soon as we venture out.... 

I think our hulls are fine, Mike! One of the reasons I was originally inclined to a split junk rig was that it meant a mast pos. further aft. But then we got a bit precious about our interior and the amount of joinery I was going to have to do to make the hatches and interior work with that mast position.  I'm glad we have what we have, even if the previously palatial head can now only accommodate v small or v thin people! (It does work, David, it's just a bit of a squash and a squeeze, and there'll always be plenty of buckets around for the bigger folk!)

I've been meaning to make a drawing of something else entirely. I hope the next few weeks will be my opportunity to try this idea out. The spare halyard from the masthead hoisting a jib from a smaller boat (for experimental purposes) tacked hard down to the taffrail. I guess the centre of that sail needs to be as low as possible, but a wee jib might just tell us if we are up the right tree or not. There will be plenty of places to take the sheet. Essentially all I'm after is enough windage aft to counteract some of the windage forward, even if it does get some funny looks. It'll have to be totally silent to be a success, though.

Thanks to your help I think we can steady her up without going ashore and felling any mizzen trees just yet! I'll let you know as and when we've tried some of these methods.

All the best,

Pol.

p.s. I am very proud of my batten fendering. a 1m bit of placcie plumber's pipe which is a snug fit over the aluminium batten plus sail cloth of the pocket. A generous slot is cut out of the pipe, lengthways, and rounded and sanded smooth as poss.. A strip of 10mm thick closed cell sleeping mat foam is impact-glued to the pipe, slightly shorter than the pipe and covering about 2/3 of the pipe's circumference. The finishing touch is a piece of the right size of sail cloth impact-glued to the foam strip so that it protects the foam and covers the cut ends of it. The sail cloth is just about the same length as the pipe, so the cut ends of the foam are not visible. It's not very tidy at the ends because the cloth rucks up a bit as the circumference reduces from the foam to the pipe but it's not at all bad from a distance and the slotted pipe snaps onto the battens with alarming force and hasn't moved at all. I hope it is quite a durable solution. Maybe there's an article in it once it's been properly tried out. 

Pol wrote:

In the meantime, there's only one complaint, and for me it is quite a significant one. ANNIE has always sailed around a fair bit when at anchor. We almost never go alongside. This tendency is of course exacerbated by the whole rig being further forward. A bit unsettling. Arne and I did talk about a tiny mizzen as a steadying sail. Flat cut. Even just a small leg'o'mutton job sheeted to a bumkin. I'm sure this would make a great difference. Should not be too hard to fix up, but not this year unless this summer goes on until November! But I'm sure Annie mentioned some kind of snubber (is that the right term?) that they had on BADGER to limit her sheering around at anchor. Anyone have any suggestions on this? I need to do something if possible before our 3 week (yes, THREE WEEK - unprecedented) cruise coming up soon. Annie if you see this - I'd be very grateful for your suggestions

All the best, Pol.

As I'm anchoring Weaverbird on a 5m x 10mm chain + warp, she tends to sail around a bit too. This year, I've been using a chum/angel/sentinel/kellet (it needs to be the same weight as the anchor, to have any noticeable effect) almost every time I anchor, and this slows down the sailing to and fro considerably. Idea: tie a bucket or drogue to this weight as well?