Second and third sails the last few days after making the temporary stuff a bit more permanent.  Still the area under the proposed deep reef of the sail (21 sqm) and 2 mast sections.  2nd sail was maybe max 12 knots of breeze, no idea of boat speed, but less than 10.  Today was just over 15, maybe cracked 10 once.  Gps and camera are on the phone, which was at home.  These weren't performance runs, so no big deal.    There is a bit of video which will be on the blog soon.  

Today ended when the rudder kick up fuse broke the rudder mounting.  Not in the direction i expected, but through what was meant to be a thick piece of carbon reinforcement.  I will know more when I get it off and can have a look, but that will not be soon as the boat is on the anchor as the neighbours all want their jetties over Easter. 

The second sail a few days ago also ended in failure as I forgot to tie the trip line onto the halyard so could not get it off the lock.  There is a trip line free version in the works, but until everything is sorted, it is a manual operation. There are 2 ways to manually trip the lock.  One is to sail the boat as an Atlantic proa, the other is to lower the top mast, which was the easier option as we were anchored.  I forgot to tie off the uphaul line, it came down with a bang (and a slice of my hand) and jammed the lock in the bottom mast.  Tried to unjam it  but could not get enough force even with a ratchet strap and 4:1 purchase (maybe I should have a winch on the boat!) so took it off, tied it to a tree and used the car.  

What have I learnt?    It is very easily driven, which is not a surprise as there is not much to it.  It shunts easily.  Unhook the mainsheet, rotate the rudders, hook on and pull in the new sheet.  The slow bit is stuffing around with the too short mainsheet, but once it is hooked up it is pretty sweet.  With someone to help, it would be quick.  With the rudders as far up as they will go, there is not enough directional or leeway control and the boat just slides sideways unless you are careful with the mainsheet trim post shunt.  No rounding up, just sideways, beam on to the breeze.  Funny sensation.  Push either rudder down a bit, and off you go.    Same with towing.  You need a lot of runway with the rudders up.  Lower them, it goes exactly where you point it, dragging the tinny and 6 horse outboard  behind it.    Sailing, either rudder works, but the front one is lighter loaded and more direct. Both together are quite dramatic.  This may be an issue at speed with both fully down.  These are the rudders (and mountings) for the German 15m, so are oversize for BL.  It sails straight with both rudders fore and aft.  The bow wave from the (supposedly) 0012 sections is more than I thought it would be, although that could be a result of watching too many AC foiling videos.  Will play with different nose shapes.  Definitely one of the advantages (for a tinkerer) of the surface piercing rudders.  

The telescopic mast, lashings instead of track and the stub mast all work well, the sail tacks nicely and sits tight against the lee side of the sail.  Will add some telltales  to see what we can learn. The stub mast gets in the way of the lashings when the sail is lowered and getting the sail up is a pain as it blows around while the lashings are applied.  there are a number of fixes for this.    Best would be to revert to the designed mast instead of the stub mast.  Maybe after I have tried it canting.   Otherwise flake the sail and lace it pre hoist, but I tried this and stuffed it up several times.  Brain chemistry issue, according to my wife.  Will mark the sail and see if that helps.     

The wishbone boom is too high to reach the clew (needs to not hit the water in a big hull fly, but 3m might be overkill) so control needs to be done from deck level.  Waves around a bit when only the clew is attached, could do some damage in a seaway.   It's frustrating having to lower the sail to adjust it but I'm getting it sorted, shouldn't be a problem when I do.    The snotter tightens the foot, less so the leech (boom at right angles to the mast) so I need a separate vang.  Only had a 1/1 so could not apply much force, but it was a definite improvement.    

Long tiller extensions are fragile, and easy to drop in the water, though not a problem once you get sailing.  Next time I will tie them up to the canting stay rather than sit them on the beams/tramp. 

No waves on the Broadwater, but sailed through a few decent powerboat wakes.  Nothing creaked or groaned, but this is not much of a test.  Pitching is minimal.

Not enough speed to plane, but enough bow lift to give hope that it will.   The polypropylene tramp is spongy, takes some getting used to.  Maybe dyneema next time.  Pvc conduit is not much good round the edges, I will make some carbon rods to replace it.  

The boat looks slab sided.  Partly as it is, but also because it draws so little  The hulls are 1.2m/4' high, which is pretty low for a 12m multi,  but only  draw ~70mms/3" each so it looks like a box.  Does not bother me, (I would get out the skillsaw if it did) but Steinar is working on some graphics to make it look lower.

All in all, great fun, if you like busting and fixing things, which I do, although not as much as sailing.   More when I get the rudder mounts repaired and reinstalled, which is a bit of a job as the tramp has to be undone and the windward hull untied.