Seekae - Crooks // Heart of Gold sailing

seekae - crooks, from the sound of trees falling on people.
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Edit of sailing a Flicka 20, Heart of Gold solo from the bay of islands, NZ, to Wollongong, Aus in Feb 2012.

[@riddy64]

I remember I spent an 1hr trying to motor-sail to windward in about 35kn and short, steep chop. I made probably 500m ground and ended up turning back. She wouldn't point high and the 1GM10 struggled pushing her. Reaching or running in bigger seas was fine, a dry ride and she'd just let them roll under her. I gained a lot of confidence in her and don't think I took her anywhere near her limits. Couldn't have asked for a better pocket cruiser.

[@riddy64]

They're really safe, solid little boats. I hadn't done a lot of sailing in keel boats, and this was the first boat I've been offshore in, but I always felt safe. She's a bit sluggish in wind under 10kn. She goes to windward alright but as soon as a bit of chop picks up it just knocks the bow off the wind and struggles pulling it back.

[@catfishlee1952]

When you made your long passage and had your self steering fail, did you try setting up Sheet to Tiller steering?

[@riddy64]

+Jake Jones Hey Jake, I attempted it a bit but as I was running downwind for days I couldn't get her to balance. Sailing into the wind she would balance quite nicely but I never did get sheet to tiller down pat (I'd never seen it done before and wasn't exactly sure how to set it up!) Cheers

[@wasiegwebu3371]

do you live-aboard your boat??