Mirror.Dinghy"Tilman"

   The wise among us have an admirable attitude towards weather forecasts.They appear to discount them entirely, but are rarely caught out in severe weather. How do they do it?    Today's forecast was 10-15 knot NW going SW in the afternoon. So I was surprised to find only 5 knots when I launched out across the passage. I was nonplussed to be almost becalmed 15 minutes later. It got so light that we couldn't hold course in the early flood tide and we did a big swerving reach across current onto a small deserted beach to wait for wind.    As often happens on beaches with no footprints, the time ashore was really peaceful. On a mangrove lined island, there was no-one about to annoy us or interrupt my marine meditations. The Mirror' s transom made lapping sounds on the flood tide, the eyes feasted on virgin white sand, sunbleached and decaying mangrove roots and various bits of vegetative flotsam on the high tide lines. The winter sun shone brightly for th...

   Before a Chinese sail can be fitted the old Bermudan rig must be removed. Not just may, rigging and sails, but deck fittings too; jib sheet tracks, mainsheet traveller, winches and chocolates. On the Hunter 19, the chainplates protrude from the middle of the already narrow side decks. Anyone going forward in a hurry runs the risk of stubbing a toe and/or going overboard, so I was happy to see the back of them.    Probably, equally important beneficial is the potential to fill more than fifty holes in the deck. Each jib sheet track alone has a dozen bolt holes. Each one has the potential to leak. In the least this could lead to dampness below decks, even corrosion of electrical hardware. But worse still it could weaken the deck. This typically remains hidden until exposed by heavy weather; with potentially disastrous consequences. One potential defect caused by leaky deck fittings is corrosion. I discovered this by accident with a Folkboat I owned a few years ago....

   I do like to tease northern hemisphere small boat sailors that it never gets cold Downunder, but it does. For what seems like weeks we've been inundated with rain and bashed by strong winds. Most days this week the temperature has not risen above the high teens (Celsius), while the winds have more than doubled that (in kph).    But while Tilman has been idle, I haven't. I've been busting myself with my largest sailboat, a Hunter 19 aka Europa 19 or for many UK sailors "the Squib with a lid". For some time designer Oliver Lee had an open boat design called the Squib which was avidly raced and cruised in the UK and beyond. In response to a public need, he designed a deck for the same fin keel hull and called it the Hunter. It became known as the Europa 19 in the 1980s, I think.    My boat is Australian built with the difference being that she is a drop keel design. This technically allows to be popped in and out of the water as one might desire. But as I...