1st solo sail 9/22/2012

First solo sail today. Went out of Oceanside Harbor. Sailed 8.2 NMiles. Average speed of 3.8 n according to the GPS. Wind of 3-9 mph. The wind died off to about 3-4 knots around 3pm and really brought the average down. Highest speed was 6 knots, going out of the Harbor. Filled the ballast tanks befor casting off under jib and mizzen with motor. Main sail hoisted in the harbor main basin. Was fun as I heaved to, but ended up circling as I brought up the sail. Have to figure out why and how to do when there is more wind than today. Here is the obligitory photo of the great blue beyond as I head out.

Nice gentle sail for first solo. Did notice an issue with the main sail. I have the gaff laced to tightly and need to loosen it off to remove the wrinkles in the sail.

Nice photo of the shiney new hull as we glide through the water.

As Ratty said to Mole

As Ratty said to Mole in Kenneth Graham's Wind in The Willows "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing about in boats; messing about in boats or with boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not." Looking forward to "messing about" in Nomad this weekend!

Splashing Nomad

First sail of the Nomad. Saturday 9/15/2012. Wahoo. Finally have my boat in the water. Great day for 1st sail. About 90 degrees and winds of 5 - 10 mph. GPS said highest speed was 7.5 knots. But averaged 5- 6 knots most of the sail. Out on the water for a little more than 3.5 hours. San Diego bay on a spectacular day. Took about 45 mins to rig and few teething issues to resolve.

One issue as we were coming back in. The palstic shackle on the self furling jib failed. I was unable to furl the sail until back at the dock and replaced the plastic with a stainless shackle.

Email from Matt Newland

I received the email below from Matt who is the owner of Swallow boats. Good to see him taking responsibility for the quality control issues I encounted. Nice of him to actually send me a personal email. I rigged everything yesterday and it all looked good. I am splashing Nomad today! First time in the water. A shake down sail to make sure everything works - including the skipper 8>) *************************************** . I am sorry for the issues you have had. I am currently out of the office at a boat show until end of next week but I have managed to read and view you email and attachment. The simplest answer is to drill a 1/4 inch hole through the top of the topmast about half an inch down. Tie a bowline through that and the head of the sail, so that the bowline is round them both. Use about 5m or so of string for this. Use the tail end to lace the rest of the luff. Tie off at the bottom around the base of the jaws.don't pull the lacing too tight, there should be about half inch or so of gap between the topmast and the sail. If you want to use the fairlead instead, then make sure it is screwed to the forward face of the topmast, and the bowline threads around the topmast,so that the screws holding it are not doing so much work. The fitting should be screwed in. You will have no problem screwing into the carbon as long as your pilot hole is not too small. If it is, and you have a powerful drill/driver it is easy to shear off the screw head as the carbon is less forgiving than wood. the top screw should go through the carbon and wood, the bottom just through carbon, but that is not a problem, as long as the fairlead is on the front face of the topmast, so that the screws are not being pulled outwards. Regarding the block at the mast head. As I am out of the office I cannot check the exact spec for the harken deck gear boats. But given the problems above I would be happy to pay you or Bill to send one to you. However would you mind waiting until after the show? I would like to do my research on the block strength as it is holding up the mast, so very important. If you could use the one supplied for now I would be grateful, and I will get back to you both after the show. Hope that is all fine. Sorry again for these issues. No decent excuse and none of it is Bills fault. Best wishes Matt

Mizzen and Gaff received. Unwrapped today and mizzen up. Had a few issues with the "prussic knott". Finally figured it out. The loop was to long. I had to wrap the rope back on itself a few times to shorten it up. Came out OK, We will see how it works on the water. Also found more loose nuts and bolts today - rudder, self tacking jib boom etc. Hope I found them all! A couple of photo's of how the prussic knott turned out. (From both sides).

Gaff came in two parts that I will need to glue together to stop it twisting. Another issue found on the Gaff. There is no hole or fairlead to tie the line to? Poor quality control on this. I will probably end up drilling a couple of holes and adding a fairlead to the top to tie off to. Pondering if I should use screws or bolts for this. The wooden plug is suposed to go 2" into the top of the gaff. Not sure I trust this after the other issues I have encountered already. Still, I have heard of others drilling through the gaff sprit for reef lines etc. The two small holes for the fairlead should not be an issue. Especially if the wooden plug really does go 2" into the top of the boom! Yep, getting the boat has been an adventure!

Masts on the way

I spoke with Bill and he dropped the mast and gaff off at UPS. I should have them by next Tuesday. I also took the canvas cover to the canvas shop to be fixed. Looks like it will cost about $100 to patch and add two reinforcements to the sides. Bill said he would take care of this also. I will need to wait another week to splash the Nomad.