Lake Bala Long Distance Challenge In Heavy Weather

[@dougjacksonart]

Another piece of advice I was given by an old seadog is its much easy to shake a reef out than roll one in when you need to. If in doubt then why not start with a reef or two in the main? Especially at that gusty lake. Keep up the good work Dave. 👍👍

[@SailingWithDave]

Hi Doug Of course that's sound advice and I defintely understand why. I think on the lake I know if the worst happens then its a quick swim to the Lee shore so I tend to push her a bit, maybe to get a better feel for her. I know I can get her gunnels in the water now and not worry too much. Out on the sea I would be a lot more careful though. In fact on my next sea trip I do indeed put a reef in the main and start out like that but she didn't move at all so wuickly had to shake that out!!! She wouldn't even tack!!!

[@papataffy]

Great to see all that passion. 🖖👍

[@SailingWithDave]

Cheers fir the comment. Passion is what I do best! It has made up a lot for lack of talent for sure!!!

[@knucker4931]

Definitely a blustery day, glad you kept at it and added more knowledge and experience to that already learnt. Nice to see your observation regarding the main. I always think you need to add more tension to the downhaul to make the luff good and taught. The horse for the main sheet looks like it needs some adjustment to be to get more tension fore and aft to. I missed it, but it was a good job you didn't hit that mark or have had to a 360° penalty turn. Again, well done for pushing out your comfort zone. Best wishes Al

[@SailingWithDave]

Haha! Indeed that blummin marker is the bain of my life right now!!! Totally agree with the mainsail adjustment. Over the inter after this season we make a lot of changes to the mainsail, traveller and more, so hopefully you'll see some improvment on it...finally!!!

[@SailingWithDave]

Hi KNucker. I kne wthere was omething I missed on the last comment! I realised that tensioning the Luff on a Gunter rigged boat with Gaff is difficult. You get to a point where the hayard is not really pulling the gaff any further and so Luff tension is at its max. The Luff tension I htink I have to set with a Tack outhaul or cunningham style thing. I originally made the mistake of attaching this to the Boom, much like the Mirror but for next season I have removed that and attach the Tack to the mast again. However this time it will be held to them ast and down, rather than just down and letting the Luff come away from the mast. All will be revealed!

[@galleryhad7747]

Brimless caps. Good stuff 👍

[@HELIFAN1]

Especially that last jaunt was great fun 😀. Well done!

[@SailingWithDave]

Cheers Helifan. Definitley was!

[@fat_tommo_goes_boating]

Great sail Dave, you kept the stick pointing upwards, so it has to be a good day

[@SailingWithDave]

Haha. Thats the main thing for sure!!

[@ShoeProtestorGrrrr]

Great afternoon on the water. I'm dead jealous.

[@SailingWithDave]

Yes it was a pretty good one this time. Needed it to blow a few cobwebs out!!

[@anotherangleUK]

Looked like you were really enjoying yourself on that sail. Great experience and confidence builder. Thanks for sharing this one.

[@SailingWithDave]

Definitely a good sail today! I never cease to be impressed with this boat in high winds.

[@timkdiamond]

Sweet tack. 👍😏

[@SailingWithDave]

Cheers, yes I was rather proud of that one!!!

[@joewilliams5396]

Very enjoyable.

[@SailingWithDave]

Many thanks!

[@Spud63]

looked like a lively sail on Llyn Tegid , looks like the windage on the boat plays a big part in strong winds. sorry i had to close my eyes again on mark 1 2/2 on that lol i give free mark rounding lesssons in exchange for a good cup of coffee

[@SailingWithDave]

Haha Done!! Yes I will definitely try not to touch anything in the next season!!! I do find the hull on the LUgger has a fair bit of windage. You feel it a lot when motoring in string winds where the bow is being pushed more from behind. I guess the benefit is a seaworthy boat?

[@benjaminblakely3421]

Hello dave, Looks like you were having a real blast on that sail. And learning alot about the boat. I've been thinking hard about optimizing our drascombe lugger : how to make it a more efficient and more comfortable sailor. I was wondering what thoughts you might have? The position of the rudder and tiller are a particular bugbear of mine... have you considered at all flipping the rudderwell seat 180 degress so that the column is shipped at the after end? I believe the primary weakness is maybe the too short lever between rudder and centerplate and I hate having the tiller occupy the one open space in the boat

[@SailingWithDave]

Hi Ben. Happy to discuss any ideas with you. Here's my take: I see what you mean but having just replaced the rudder bearing I would say that there would need be a lot of re-work and fibreglassing done to achieve that. The rudder bearing has a little spot where it taps in so you'd have to move that. You could in theory remove it and then bolt it through with the bearing on the bottom of the keel band? I think you'd have to rewqeld the rudder though, you can't really move the box as its already right up to the outboard well. One hell of a project!!! I don't find the tiller intrusive for me. In fact I often find when beating I need a better extension to be able to sit up the boat more. I replaced the bolt that bolts the tiller onto the rudder stock with a pin so taht I can more easily remove it for camping or anchoring or you can just tie it up to the Mizzen mast. Otherwise it will definitely swoop down onto your head at some point!!

[@robingraham6820]

Great video Dave. I am learning a lot about my new (very old) Lugger by watching your channel so thank you very much. I still have a few jobs before I can launch, but soon😊 my trailer is terrible, so thinking about building a new one once the boat is in the water. Any idea where I might find some plans? A new drascombe one would cost more than the whole boat cost so that ain’t happening😮. Anyway, I am loving your frank “warts an’ all” presentation.

[@SailingWithDave]

Hi Robin. Cheers for the comment. Ah yes, I have found that the trailer is often way more valuable trhan the boat. In fact the boat yard owner said that its common for people to buy a boat just for the trailer and then just trash the boat. The Lugger is about 300KG but could be up to 400KG with kit onboard so you do need to make sure you have a decent trailer. Also what I would say is that the trailer + boat need to be under 750KG for the breaked limit. So you need to be mindful of how heavy the trailer ends up. When I make stuff I totally over engineer it so if I were to make a trailer, it would probably weight about 1000KG!!!! You can get 2nd hand trailers but I have no idea how much they are and they're probably still a decent amount of money.

[@robingraham6820]

@@SailingWithDave thanks for the info. I was thinking of using stuff from the old trailer and welding up a simple frame and adding rollers etc as I go. We live on a small remote island in the Orkney group and only have about 3 or 4 miles to the harbour. I will probably leave her along side the harbour wall most of the time and haul her out when it gets a bit wild (which it does quite often) I doubt we will take the trailer off the island, but the boat will be going to many other islands😁👍 so the trailer does not need to be state of the art (expensive). It is great to see you learning as you go and seeing the excitement when you discover something new, like when you were messing with holding the mainsail clew in different places. I have never sailed with a boomless main so I have that joy to learn. I might find myself making a boom like you did, we will see.

[@SailingWithDave]

@@robingraham6820 Ah, yes I hink your trailer would be fine then. I have the Liverpool and motorway police to think about when i'm travelling places so have to make sure things are proper, annoying as that is!! Yes I have found the Lugger a barrel of joy to learn all kinds of things on. A few people have had a bit of a go at me for tinkering or making a slow boat go faster but the LUgger is such a lovely base design to tinker and play with that I just can't help it. I doi love the boomless mainsail for gettigint it stowed away and also having the whole deck free to play on, but for sailing the boom makes a massive difference.

[@robingraham6820]

@@SailingWithDave I hear what you say about folks having a go at you for tinkering. I’m afraid I have to confess to being a tinkerer. I have to find out how things work and if possible improve them. That gets me into all sorts of trouble. We built our house offgrid, that attracted a lot of criticism. But, since it all works very well a lot of folks have warmed to the idea and we are now the “go to” place when the island’s power goes down. They are also envious that we never have electric bills. Just a few minutes ago I drilled a hole through the keel line just at the bottom of the front compartment, about 50 litres of water came out into buckets and is still dripping. Someone removed the bronze strip that protects that part of the hull and must have just filled the screw holes with gunk. I will let it continue to drip till tomorrow and see what I can do to seal it up. I think it has been habitually driven onto the beach so the glass is worn through. The launch date is getting further away instead of closer. But it will happen. About a hundred years ago I took a boat from Conway, went anti clockwise round Anglesey and through the Swellies, “what fun” then back to Conway, it took us several days, very memorable. Keep the adventures coming.👍

[@SailingWithDave]

@@robingraham6820 I would love an off grid home. To not be subject to the greed of these energy companies would be bliss!!! I built my own office actually, and whilst not off grid, the insulation means I need only 1 hour of heating in the morning on a winters day and it lasts all day long. 3 people in the building and we have to open a window!! So with the keel band. I was given the advice to get the bolts out. Go and get some decent 316 bolts. You can get them form Drascombe UK or find another place. Then do what you need to with with band. When refitting, I used Sikaflex 291i to just bond the keelband back on. I put a ring around each hole. However when I put the bolts back in, I capped mine with fibreglass which seals them up really well. It also stops the bolts damaging luggage too. I have a video of this coming up soon.

[@williambarker2628]

Make of boat!

[@Contessas_and_Cormorants]

You need as much centre plate as possible when beating. No boat will trip up on its board going upwind.

[@SailingWithDave]

Try tacking in the Mirror! I got the tip from a Dinghy racer who deminstrated to me how the boat can dig in a little too much, especially when tacking and gybing. If the board is up a little then the boat will slip a little sideways, rather than heel over and there are definitely places that this can help. It definitely works in a Dinghy, the effect not so much in the Lugger. I did once heave-to and lifted the board and it stopped the boat from heeling over so aggressively in the gusts, but of course she slid a little faster too. I think whilst beating, you're probably right. I tend to lift the board up about 1/4 as the boat just seems to sit well there, and of course I don;t want to have to set it every time I tack. Interestingly it has been a decent point of discussion with other Lugger sailors, many of which do the same and pull it up a tad.

[@basshunter9030]

Pushing hard to dump.