Posts Tagged: sails
Bev goes sailing while Steve ticks off more jobs
Through the deck fittings for navigation gear
Bowsprit ready for use
After a few days in Derbyshire, we’re back in Suffolk for the OGA Summer Cruise. After a passage race on Friday, 20 July and the East Coast Race on the River Blackwater the following day, the week’s cruise ends with a parade of sail up the River Orwell today. ‘Cachalot’ isn’t ready to take part, so Bev crews with James on ‘Kestrel’.
While Bev’s out sailing, Steve gets on with fitting out with evening trips to various locations to join the Gaffers by car. The work is made harder by the blistering heat and lack of shade, but he manages to to get a lot done including installing the VHF radio and navigation lights, setting up the Wykeham Martin jib furling gear, bobstay, bowsprit shrouds and anchor (without the newly-acquired winch, for now).
He spends an enjoyable couple of days with Steve, from Ratsey’s, who’s visiting the Tidemill YH on holiday from the Isle of Wight and also repairs another area of winter damage where the new capping rail has split. All these ‘little jobs’ take time, and it’s sometimes hard to see progress, despite ticking them off the list!
Fixing the damage to the capping rail
First look at the sails
A happy man with his sails!
Bending on the mainsail
Having collected the sails in their smart red Ratsey & Lapthorn bags, we wait for a windless day to have a good look at them . . . hoping we’ll be able to bend on the mainsail whilst she’s still in her berth. Despite a short ‘blow’ at just the wrong moment, the sail is laced to the gaff and mast then flaked successfully without any mishaps.
Bev has repaired the very old mainsail bag found on the boat when we bought her. It will have to do for now – but a new one is on the list of ‘nice to haves’ for the future . . . more pressing is to measure up for ‘lazy jacks’. With the size of the loose-footed mainsail, they’re pretty essential!
We leave the other sails for now, as there’s a bit more work to be done on the bowsprit before setting the jib and we’re heading back to Derbyshire for a long weekend.
A day out shopping and cleaning the bilge!
A trip to the chandlery
After just over a week at home, catching up with life in Derbyshire, jobs around the house and getting the OGA Gaffers Log to press, we return to Suffolk with the promise that the sails will have been brought to Suffolk Yacht Harbour for our collection on Monday.
As she seems to be taking up, Bev is tasked with cleaning the bilge and we drain it completely, fingers crossed she’s settling down now!
We’ve been doing lots of research into all the other ‘bits and pieces’ we’ll need, so combine the trip to collect the sails with quite an expensive visit to the chandlery, funded in part by Bev’s first State Pension payment! A special purchase, along with the essentials like the radio and water pump is a fine new clock with matching barometer. We also call at Larkmans to order cordage for halyards and sheets . . . lots of it!
Update on sails
Sails in production at Ratsey & Lapthorn, Cowes
Sails will be ready for the summer!
We spot a post on Facebook:
“Mainsail for a beautiful, fully restored east coast (UK) gaff cutter. Traditional sail with narrow panels. Headsails already completed again with narrow panels, traditional mitre cut and of course handwork that only Ratsey & Lapthorn can produce.”
“There is only one standard of work in this loft and that is the very best.” T W Ratsey, 1833 Ratsey & Lapthorn
We check whether these sails are actually ours, and yes, they’ll soon be ready to collect . . .
Measuring up for the sails
Taking Cachalot out of her berth
Steve and Andy measure up
Back into the travel hoist
The boom and gaff
Bringing the boom on board
Along with tidying up the site, Steve’s hoping that the sailmaker will be able to measure up before the end of the season, so is keen to get the boom and gaff in place. There’s also nowhere left ashore to store any spars!
James helps bring the boom on board and Steve sets up the gaff and calls to make a date with Ratsey & Lapthorn. All fixed, Steve and Andy will drive up from Cowes on Monday, 16 October. So, it’s time to get on with stowing everything that can be left on board for the winter and making a start on the bunks . . . fortunately, the weather seems to be quite settled, and not too cold as we may need to work into the autumn to get everything ready for the winter. Bev leaves Steve in Suffolk and returns to Derbyshire where the plasterers will be making a start.
Still lots to do before she’s ready to launch!
Coachroof skylights and hatch back in place freshly varnished
There were two weddings, another ski trip to Val Thorens and the kitchen project to occupy us from January to mid-April 2017, but Steve made time to write a long list of all the jobs that need to be done in preparation for getting in the water this year!
There’s new sails to be made, and Ratsey & Lapthorn have been engaged to make these, so we’ll be off to Cowes later this month.
Moray McPhail, at BronzeWork in Martlesham, will be making the new keel bolts and sorting out all the other metalwork for us. Following discussions over the chainplates, it was agreed to have a channel to carry the shrouds over the bulwarks so, on our return to Suffolk at the end of April this was the first job to be done, port and starboard.
After joining the OGA at the Tollesbury Rally on 29 April, we returned to Woodbridge but the incessant wind forced us back to Derbyshire by the end of the week!