Recent content by Javelin

In round the cans racing in cruisers you generally lose more time due to bad tacks, jybes and roundings than in straightline boat speed. Assuming of course you have half reasonable sails and sail settings. Dinghy sailers who sail cruisers often struggle due to tacking/jybing too often and...

They look pretty vertical to me compared to many. Lead lower ballast is great and unusual these days providing a great ballast ratio. Quite full forward sections as well, providing good buoyancy upwind compared to the fine entry/wide sterns that tend to dive when on the wind. I think I'd be...

Hmm we seem to be agreeing. When heeled the leeward keel is loaded and becomes the pivot. The windward keel is loaded less as the boat heels but the turning drag increases. Ultimately, my point is that the skeg would have to be significantly bigger and deeper on a bilge keeler than a fin keeler...

Have you a photo of your bilge keels? Pref from the front. I'd be interested to look at the profile and angle of attack. Some bilge keelers are splayed out whilst others are much more vertical. With a fin keel and spade rudder, assuming hull form is generally rounded, a skeg will help with...

Way back we only used to put on our echo sounders when we needed them, but these days they are on, transmitting/receiving all the time we have our nav instruments on. I wonder if the sonar pinging from our transducers actually attract them in the first place, especially as sonar is their speciality.

I started to write a report on making it along with a load of other stuff on my site at sailuk.org

Just checked when I bought my sails and it was Feb 2016! So I missed a season which I guess given last year is to be expected! Also the cut was 135%. The spec was - 135% Furling Genoa NorDac Radian NDR 6.0 which at the time cost 2,299 plus the vat Interestingly the main was £400 less even...

I have a North star cut using North's own dacron weave which allows such a cut. Normal dacron bias usually only allows a cross cut but North developed their own that gets round this issue. In theory at least the star or radial cut will hold a more stable shape and should also last a bit longer...

Kind of depends on what jammer and size of boat. If you are talking about a clutch type jammer then its quite an expensive solution over a simple cleat as the benefit of the clutch jammer is its easy on/off operation. On many 45' or over yachts they often just use a fixed length halyard with a...

I fitted one on a Onvi based on the same low drag principle. The boat is over in the states now and is still afloat which is a bonus :)

The blue on the thruster area is actually high build epoxy primer. It had three coats before a another skim with Alexseal epoxy fairing compound, which is currently one of my favorite new things to use. It goes on like a high quality plastic padding but is epoxy based so it sticks well and is...

I dug a big hole in the front of an Oyster and then plugged it back up again.

Southwold is a Harbour of refuge, so for a cheap stay, pretend you were heading for Lowestoft (god knows why :)) and you found your engine wouldn't start, or you ran out of tea bags or anything serious like that, then you can seek refuge at Southwold for repairs (or tea bags (tell Pete it was...

The ONLY council employees who know anything at all about the harbour and its working are Pete and Jerry. The line boss (who was recently sacked and replaced by his boss) really has no clue about how to run the harbour. I have a lot of time for Pete, he knows his stuff but he's caught between...

We can usually help out if you have no luck with the HM. In fact I think we helped out the OP with a mooring over the weekend. So give us a shout at the boatyard, during the week if possible as at the weekend we are usually playing on our own boats so might be more difficult to get hold of...