Wow. Just Wow.
OK, I've been lurking here for quite a while. Slowly, intermittently, converting my Bradwell 18 to junk rig. Reading everything, saying nothing. After all, what can I contribute when I haven't got far myself? And I have that character defect where I prefer to puzzle out problems myself, rather than ask for advice or ideas.
But finally, after an eternity of work, River Rat nosed her way out of the canal basin at Gravesend on Saturday, resplendent under her bright red & white striped split junk rig. After a brief pause at our pontoon to offer a little whisky to Father Thames, we set off for maneouvres in Gravesend Reach before heading down for an overnight at Holehaven, 8 miles away.
And I have to say: Wow.
As a builder, one of the things that always caught my eye, was accounts by others of their first sail with the new rig. Many of them said things like "performed fantastically; above my expectations; perfect balance". And part of me believed and rejoiced for those builders. But part of me couldn't believe, because to believe would raise my own expectations above the realistic. Setting me up for failure. All you builders out there, you might want to disbelieve me now; discount what I'm saying as euphoric ravings from someone who's come to the end of a long project. But I am very very pleased with the new rig. Some tweaking and tuning to be done for sure. But really. Wow.
I'll calm down now. Details of rig and contruction in another post - this is just an introduction to the boat, and account of that maiden voyage. It started badly? Or maybe well? The lock gates were open for free flow out of the basin. I put my outboard into gear... and it died. Restarted. Into gear... and died. Repeated several times. But the wind was on the quarter, so... forget the motor, and up with the top three panels and we sailed out onto the Thames! A bold move in close quarters with an untried sail and an untried (with junk rig) sailor. But we sailed happily onto the club pontoon. Would it be seamanlike to head off overnight without a working engine? We sailed off. Raising sail progressively, reef by reef. The winds were light, so I was able to get all seven panels up. It set very well. I found I was able to get very close to the wind - uncertain of the exact angle, but certainly felt better than 45º. Put her about, and bore away back past the club. Dropped a few panels so I could sail slowly through the moorings and greet a couple of friends working on a boat. Then up with all panels for a gorgeous beam/broad reach down river. The sail sets very with all panels. With the sail fully squared off, the leech telltales streamed out beautifully.
As we continued, the wind increased. So a good excuse to drop a couple of panels. I'd already noticed a rigging error (no sheetlet on one batten). At some point in Sea Reach, the YHP gave way due to a poorly tied knot. This obviously affected the sail's setting when reefed, but not really a problem downwind. I felt it off Holehaven though, when I wanted to tack across river, keeping station against the ebb while waiting for a ship to pass in the main channel. Progress to windward, deep reefed without YHP was poor. But once the ship had passed, I raised more sail to broad reach up the creek. With wind on the quarter, and tide against me in the creek, I sailed up to a mooring buoy with tiller in one hand and halyard in the other, dropping panels to adjust the speed to come to a perfect stop to pick up the mooring. Wow, that really showed the control you get with Junk.
A couple of hours fettling. Adjusted the sheetlets. Retied the YHP. Checked all knots, and added extra whipping in lots of places. Even got the outboard working! Then hunker below. The Bradwell 18 is a lovely boat, but really not comfortable for sleeping, so I was up in good time in the morning.
The journey back was very different. Against the freshening wind this time, it gave me plenty of opportunity to get a feeling for windward work when reefed. I recalled all the advice to be careful not to oversheet - the leech telltales were very helpful. I think a few luff telltales would be helpful as well; I got the impression there's only a narrow angle where neither the leech nor the luff are stalling. It took me some time to even think about steering balance, which shows that it's pretty good! Possibly a small amount of lee helm when deep reefed, but I can't get my head around the geometry of why that should be, so more careful observations next time. It took a while to get the hang of going about when deep reefed. I think I was sailing further from the wind, and I'm used to my long-keeled Golden Hind so wasn't sufficiently authoritative with the tiller. But by the time I got back to the club, I was sailing well. There were quite a few members out as I sailed in close-hauled, then bore away reducing sail to come alongside the pontoon with a perfect stop as I dropped the main. I think the rig made a very favourable impression!
More tweaking to be done. And more practice for the skipper. But my overall assessment:
Wow!