A new tack
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...