First boating weekend of the season...

[CapnJ2ds]

Robbie...... But I discovered this method for catching fish! It involves this theory that to catch a fish , one must actually try putting a line in the water..

Mate of mine cruised for a couple of years with his family aboard. Six-year-old son (when they set out) was mad keen on fishing, Dad didn't like fishing mess on the deck. No conflict for the first 18 months as the boy never caught anything. Then in one anchorage some unprincipled ratbag told the boy he should have a baited hook on his line, not just a sinker. Some people are just plain irresponsible !

[Phil Y]

John that looks like a lovely boat indeed-great way to get out of the winter doldrums-I hope whatever has been getting you down sorts itself out. I like the headsail set up. Balia is a bit under canvassed-perhaps largely because her working headsail is a bit on the small side-but a big one gets to be a bit of a handful when the wind pipes up. Twin in line furlers could work really well on her. When funds allow....

[John B]

Mate of mine cruised for a couple of years with his family aboard. Six-year-old son (when they set out) was mad keen on fishing, Dad didn't like fishing mess on the deck. No conflict for the first 18 months as the boy never caught anything. Then in one anchorage some unprincipled ratbag told the boy he should have a baited hook on his line, not just a sinker. Some people are just plain irresponsible

Heh heh. There was that time about 06 or 7 we were anchored in a nice bay and we saw a John Dory chase something into the shallows and keel itself. The boy was 9 or 10, and I sent him off in a dinghy to catch it with an oar. The kid came back all puffed up like a retriever with a bird.

here's our nice power reach on friday. 20 knots of wind say, 8.5 knots of boatspeed.


Its always good to sail on other boats , I loved Grand Prix , but I really like the way we go too.

Stevey H and Jo running down on sat to meet up..





one chicken gybe later( good choice)



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and our destination for a big party on sat night..



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[John B]

That's great JB! I'll send them some photos and a bit of a spiel. I'd also love to know what they're up to!

Rick

Excellent Rick, I told them you'd give them a link to your thread.

[John B]

John that looks like a lovely boat indeed-great way to get out of the winter doldrums-I hope whatever has been getting you down sorts itself out. I like the headsail set up. Balia is a bit under canvassed-perhaps largely because her working headsail is a bit on the small side-but a big one gets to be a bit of a handful when the wind pipes up. Twin in line furlers could work really well on her. When funds allow....

Just S.A.D. Phil. I have come to hate the not summer we have here instead of a proper winter.

What some of the cruisers are doing now is set up a big code zero outside the forestay, and use that for running or light weather. They just get a flat cut windward sail and use it offwind too, the area does the job without it being optimised shape wise. And instead of going a full inner forestay for a storm jib inside the genoa/ furler , they go integral dyneema/ spectra luff and halyard. Its quite retro in a way because these are 'flying' sails, improved by the fact that the rope is so stable.

[John B]

Looking back at this pic



One of the people we met at Lin and Larry's place last weekend was Brion Toss. What a nice guy.
Anyway, we had a conversation about rigs and rigging in general which I found valuable. I don't really know anything much about rod rigging but was very interested to hear the comment of 'cycles' rather than the usual determiner of age in respect to rigging. You hear that in relation to many of the newer exotic racing hulls as well, they have life based on how hard they've been worked and at the end of that life you ditch em ,before they ditch you. It makes sense especially with regard to rod rigging, I know some very good sailors who have it ,and what they did rather than replace it was to remove it and have it crack tested or x rayed.
The other thing that amazed me about that rig was just how inline it was. No drift in the lowers at all and there was only one per side. No baby stay either, although we set up a staysail for the trip, and that gave some additional fore and aft stability to the rig. Runners of course , but they were'nt critical by any means, the mast didn't move much at all.

[John B]

We got a bit pasted by the wind yesterday coming back from a Classic yacht assn season opener ( The Patio Bay weekend) 20 miles away down at the bottom end of Waiheke island. Easy sail down although it was dead downwind, my least favorite point. Great party . Yesterday coming back was all very nice although dead upwind of course. Still, great sail in breeze mostly about 18 knots, some 20, some 10. Thats what we were all psyched up for and what the forecast said. But it built and we found ourselves in wind against tide and 35 knots at times, solid 30. down through the gears , we'd reefed the mizzen and shaken it out 3 times , but ended up dropping it and rolling most of the headsail away. All good fun , a few things went flying . I have some interesting photos of the trip down so I'll upload them today.

[John B]

Here's how the weekend started on saturday. We just cruised down beside the fleet and provided the breakfast the next day for our boy and his mates on Tucana.

Waitangi in the drizzle before the start



Thelma



Rainbow with a man aloft tying in the heel of the topsail yard. There's a better way of setting that up.






..our lads...



The passage race is Mark Foy or staggered start, so in these sorts of lightish conditions dead downwind its really won on your start time handicap and whether you have a kite or not. Most of the smaller boats had well gone by the time we got there.

[John B]

The Neil stooging around waiting for his start . Neil is a wbf'r and likes his single handing. Profile is a Townson design.





..Note the fit of the dinghy to the mothership, how a tender should be.

[John B]

By an hour after the start , or so , the drizzle had cleared and we sailed back into the fleet, being overtaken by boats like Prize here, with her big yellow bum.
The BYB is an early 70's era #1 kite which used to be run on a spinnaker pole about 150% or so of the J, or more. When the new handicap rules came in and which demanded whatever it is now .. what? 115% ? I forget... anyway after that she dropped out of racing.


Profile beside her under the red kite.









..Prize is a 1923 Charles Bailey design , same designer as our old Waione. Being a late version of the type ,she's a development with relatively short counter and bow overhang ,and correspondingly longer waterline. So she's a great performer. Big rig too.

[RFNK]

What's Neil doing out there in that Townson? Where's Gleam? Don't tell me Neil is another of those ..... er ...... we ......IDIOTS with two yachts? But that Townson is really nice ...........

Rick

[RFNK]

Prize is beautiful! That BYB is outrageous ....... love it!

Rick

[John B]

Gleam is the race boat he's partners in Rick, and Profile is his cruiser. He's done a really good job with that dinghy too. I have one other pic of it but it deserves a few .

[RFNK]

What design is Neil's dinghy JB? It looks familiar .......
Rick

[RFNK]

Gleam is the race boat he's partners in Rick, and Profile is his cruiser. He's done a really good job with that dinghy too. I have one other pic of it but it deserves a few .

Ah, humble apology! Not an idiot at all ...... dammit!
Rick

[John B]

IT> IS> thinking thinking.. it is a modified Herreshoff name that will be spelled wrong no matter what I try to do .... Neria Nerieera Nierieae. dinghy. That one. He's made it with all the things you should have in a tender. nearly.
Enough rocker to row, flat enough aft to plane early when on the tow, flat enough sheer to stow low upside down, removable transom section to really stow low, central longtitudinal thwart so you can adjust trim when you add a passenger or passengers, light weight because it doesn't have extra stuff added ( like centreboard and sailing stuff) a leetle wheel aft and grab rail bilge runners for tying down through and for something to grab and lift from. Stuff like that.

What design is Neil's dinghy JB? It looks familiar .......
Rick

[John B]

Thelma began to run Rainbow down....



One of the modern classics , Ilex, came down fast too. The sun was out and the sea in the Tamaki straight was looking lovely.

[Chip-skiff]

Thanks, as always, for the wonderful photos.

I do miss sailing there.

[John B]

It turned out to be a really nice day too Chips..

A Thelma sequence as she came down past us..









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[John B]

More Thelma... she has 1898 on her rudder post. New decks and rig a few years ago , but like many of the others you could hand on heart say she's 90 % original hull if not more.

[Hwyl]

Great pictures.

[RFNK]

IT> IS> thinking thinking.. it is a modified Herreshoff name that will be spelled wrong no matter what I try to do .... Neria Nerieera Nierieae. dinghy. That one. He's made it with all the things you should have in a tender. nearly.
Enough rocker to row, flat enough aft to plane early when on the tow, flat enough sheer to stow low upside down, removable transom section to really stow low, central longtitudinal thwart so you can adjust trim when you add a passenger or passengers, light weight because it doesn't have extra stuff added ( like centreboard and sailing stuff) a leetle wheel aft and grab rail bilge runners for tying down through and for something to grab and lift from. Stuff like that.

I thought so. Masina's dinghy is a Herreshoff something too. I lent it to friends who sailed up to Queensland recently and used it to tour all round various harbors, rivers, creeks and swamps and they came back raving about what a great dinghy it is. I haven't actually used it - just carried it on deck and rowed it ashore only once. Apparently it's very stable but rows beautifully. Mine is GRP and I find it a bit heavy to lift onto the deck so I wouldn't mind building a lighter, wooden one. I'd like to find out exactly which plan it is for that reason.
Rick

[Duncan Gibbs]

I note Themla's skipper likes to run the pole short of the tack on the kite. As Mickey has noted this is a bit of a trend on Dragons these days, so you can see the question this post is steamrolling toward...

One other question, is this the Bloomfield Themla?

[Steveh]

Nice shots of Ngatira thanks John. Bugger me, I can actually see a smile on Jo's face! One of those rare boating moments.

Did have intentions of Patio Bay, with guest but house still plays trump card. One more year should see the back broken and Ngatira out more often. Thankfully as that sundays forecast would have been a long trip home.

Great shots as always.

[John B]

It's a shortened Nereia dinghy Rick, made to fit his boat.

I thought so. Masina's dinghy is a Herreshoff something too. I lent it to friends who sailed up to Queensland recently and used it to tour all round various harbors, rivers, creeks and swamps and they came back raving about what a great dinghy it is. I haven't actually used it - just carried it on deck and rowed it ashore only once. Apparently it's very stable but rows beautifully. Mine is GRP and I find it a bit heavy to lift onto the deck so I wouldn't mind building a lighter, wooden one. I'd like to find out exactly which plan it is for that reason.
Rick

[John B]

It just looks like his reacher doing double duty to me Duncs. Yeah its big Thelma, the one that was in America for half its life.Save a classic an all that.

I note Themla's skipper likes to run the pole short of the tack on the kite. As Mickey has noted this is a bit of a trend on Dragons these days, so you can see the question this post is steamrolling toward...

One other question, is this the Bloomfield Themla?

[chas]

I'm heading down to clear snow off the decks and see if anything important is froze up.

Keep it up with those pics, eh, you rotters. .......tks / Jim

[John B]

Snaps Gareth. It is good having an instamatic with zoom this time though.

Great pictures.

[John B]

She loves it. Why , the last time I saw her she asked me how she could get you to take some time off the house and take her out sailing more often....

Nice shots of Ngatira thanks John. Bugger me, I can actually see a smile on Jo's face! One of those rare boating moments.

[RFNK]

I don't suppose anyone might know where I might obtain plans for that Nereia dinghy ....... ?
Rick

[John B]

A few of Rainbow now.... Another Logan ,50 ft, 1899 might be on her rudder post. I had a major restoration thread on her in B and R a few years ago. Same story ,at least 90 % original timber in her hull, 3 skins kauri mechanically fastened, new decks and rig etc. thread here , all the early pics gone when imagestation collapsed but page 2 and 3 have some later restoration pics if anyone is interested.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...hlight=Rainbow

Just a poled out jib on her ( although its her big one)









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[John B]

I meant to look in the LFH book, I presumed it would be in there.

I don't suppose anyone might know where I might obtain plans for that Nereia dinghy ....... ?
Rick

[chas]

"I presumed it would be in there." ... Yep, pg 171. / Jim

[RFNK]

Umm, is there just one LFH book?

Rick

[John B]

The one with all the cruiser plans.. Sensible Cruising Designs? I think so, maybe 'commonsense' too. Jim'll know and I can look tonight.

I wish I'd taken a pic on the beach, Neil made it so part of the transom just pops out




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