2020 part 1

For the first time this year, the restriction for stopping over in the same place overnight has been lifted, which is a Governmental thing gone ballistic when it comes to the sailing community. Same household crew or yachts that don't require a large number of people to go sailing, should have been allowed to continue to do so, after all, skippers carry out more risk assessments than a bomb disposal expert on a day to day basis.  Whilst I'm kept on a pontoon, the risk of my crew getting within 2.0m of anyone when launching the dinghy to arriving back is minimal, especially if they use the larger one which is launched from the public slipway next to Shepards.

The time had come this weekend (11-12th) for us as a household to venture out for more than 24hrs, Skipper having looked at the tides had Sandown in mind but the crew fancied Studland, longer passage and so that was the plan.  The wind was looking light and the sun hot, but it could provide the opportunity to try out the new furling system on the code 0, even if my engine had to go on to get there to the final destination.

However, in the Solent, you can never tell what's going to occur, the Metoffice had a northerly and light wind which matched most other weather models.  The wind was definitely coming from the southwest and so full main and bring out the jib, eventually the wind built to 20kts although being overpowered I was still able to point higher than most, my crew ended up with at least four layers of clothing and we covered 22.5nm for what is usually a 10nm journey.  Instead of heading to Studland, after a discussion and four hours of beating back and forth to windward, we headed into Totland to spend the night there instead, the wind did eventually drop.  And so the first night under anchor was a peaceful one, although we did drag before the anchor bit, the distance markers clearly need cleaning as Skipper couldn't tell how much chain had gone out but eyed the anchor buoy, having kept an eye on the other boats and the tracker he was happy that the anchor was set and settled down to putting the main away.

Facnor FX+ Code 0 furler below jib furler

Bright sunshine greeted us in the morning and three cruise ships could be seen anchored off Poole and Bournemouth.  No wind registered and so after breakfast, the anchor was weighed and we headed under tick over and with the tide, back passed Hurst Castle towards Lymington. What Skipper wanted to do on Saturday he did today, up went the code 0 and the engine cut, at first the sail was difficult to deploy but this was that it had been furled in the sail loft and was a bit baggy at the bottom, which was catching on the jib furler.  As soon as that was helped round, deploying and retrieving was a quick and simple process, the crew would just ease what was now the lazy guy, whilst Skipper sat by the mast and furled it in, the tack was made and Skip would stand up and collect the working guy and bring it back to the stern deploying the sail at the same time.

Thor junior keeping me moving in light airs, a
J3 is also available to go in between

Several tacks were made across the Solent and the wind again moved from South East to a more Easterly direction, but the exercise to see what issues there might be had been completed once furled the sticking that was inbuilt after the first land-based furl had gone.  As we approached Gurnard the wind picked up once more and so the Code 0 furled in the jib was deployed and we carried on sailing till approaching the River and headed home.

The Skipper has had a J3 made that when deployed with the Code 0 in a twin sail configuration, in between it and the mast, as above, it should accelerate the wind providing more power.  The thoughts here were that in one direction or another crossing Lyme Bay the wind would die meaning 10-12 hours of engine, once I was being carried on by the tide apparent wind would be generated and with the sails set correctly could see a 5kt boat speed increase to 10kt halving the crossing time. That's the next trial.