Sea Minor, a John Welsford Navigator.

This blog is about Sea Minor. I'm not sure about the name but that is what she was been called by the man who built her and changing a boat's name is a tricky business because you have to avoid upsetting Poseidon the god of the sea.

Sea Minor is a Navigator, a boat designed by John Welsford. Her vital statistics are: overall length 4.5m (14ft 9in), beam 1.8m (5ft 10in) and design weight is 140kg (309lbs). You can read more about this design at http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/navigator/index.htm.

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Sunday, 12 February 2012

First Sail

I took the Navigator to our "local" fresh water dam (Wivenhoe Dam is Brisbane's main water supply) for its first sail since the refurbishment. The winds were light and variable as a storm front moved in from the west. I managed to get the boat off the water and all packed up for the trip home before the 20 knot winds and heavy rain came in.

So what happened:

 Sea Minor launched off the trailer and got back on again without any major problems, However, some fine tuning to the roller and bunk heights is needed and I think I will look at putting wider rollers in place of the two rearmost rollers to better handle the wide section of keel around the centreboard opening.

The centreboard would only go down to about 20% of its fully gown position before the top corner hit the edge of the slot in the top cover of the centreboard case. Nothing that a saw and chisel can't fix but there will be a bit of delay while the varnished top is refuinished. The immediate solution was to remove the cover (it is held in place by screws) so the board could go down.

Several other minor things have to be fixed and I will get those done while the epoxy and varnish are drying on the centrecase top.

The boat sailed nicely but the light wind didn't allow for any serious testing. Here are a couple of photos of the boat in action.

This photo was taken immediately after setting off before the job was unfurled. The eagle eyed will notice that the mainsail is short of a batten in the middle of the sail This batten is in the top pocket and is too short to replace the top batten which I left at home! Even so the sail shape looks OK.


Next photo shows all sails set. Not sure about the mizzen - the sprit boom is a new thing to me and the sail seems to be just hanging there. Maybe I haven't got it sheeted correctly, maybe the light winds aren't helping.


Finally, heading back to the ramp to remove the centreboard case top so the centreboard could go all the way down. Making lots of leeway in this photo!


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1 comment:

  1. Joel Bergen12 February 2012 at 16:25

    Well done Dave! She looks great on the water.
    JohnW told me to keep the mizzen as flat as possible by putting a lot of tension on the sprit. So much that the mizzen will bow slightly. And it likes to be sheeted in further than the main. Thanks for the very interesting and encouraging info about the battens. I want to shorten my two full length battens. Good to know the sail sets well even without one in place. I enjoy your blog very much!
    -Joel

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