| The first sail on launch day. A delightful little boat in the pure English tradition of 8 or so narrow planks a side, clinker built. Designed by Iain Oughtred as a general purpose recreational boat - capable under sail or oars. She is beamy, so not fast, but will take plenty of people & gear without giving anybody a fright. What are the oars doing sticking out over the bows? Simple. They're too long to stow easily under the thwarts and that's where they're out of the way. Weird? Well, it's all down to custom & practice. In the States they prefer to have the right length of oar for easy, effective rowing. Here we mostly have them short enough to lay on the bottom boards, which means you have to 'windmill' them, as if you couldn't change out of second gear in the car. And the handles come too high for you to get a good pull. So we often scorn rowing or curse it and get an outboard. It's the first outing for the sail, so the head tension needs to be adjusted. Keen readers will spot that I've laced the peak outhaul on the opposite side of the yard to the throat - probably a well past midnight mistake in the pre-launch rush! |
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