The maiden voyage of the good ship Freddie Kay took place on Saturday the sixteenth of September. At Richland chambers Lake south of Dallas Texas

      The wind was out of the north; marina inlet was on the south shore. Not yet being familiar with the boat, as this was my first sail in her I decided to motor out of the inlet and then raise the sail. I started the motor and began to back off of the shore the motor quit. Not yet being familiar with the engine as this was my first time out with it I had shut the choke off to soon. The boat started drifting south I got the motor started but was not going anywhere. Not being familiar with the marina, as this was my first time there I had drifted into shallow water and the prop striking the bottom had broken the sheer pin. So far everything was going just fine. Half of the people in the marina were watching me including the people there for the messabout. I had a spare sheer pin but the marina owner who was helping me helping me change it dropped it on the dock and it rolled into the water. I have to say a few kind words about the marina owner here. When he found out that this was our maiden voyage he refunded our launch fee. When he dropped the sheer pin he actually went into the water and got soaked looking for it. He made a new sheer pin out of a nail and we reinstalled the motor on the boat. Rick Winn pushed me off and I motored out of the inlet. I wanted to take Rick out with me but was afraid that if I came back another disaster would strike. Sorry Rick we will have to make it another time.

     Once out of the inlet I raised the sails and proceeded out into the lake under a ten knot wind. The sail was worth all of the trouble. The boat handled well and pointed a lot sharper than my old catboat. The Stevensons have designed a fine little boat that does everything as advertised and then some. I sailed the boat for awhile on the main sheet only without any tendency for a weather helm. When I returned to the marina I dropped the main and the boat ghosted along very nicely down wind onto the beach.

     The boat was launched during the Lone Star Fleets first messabout. We did not get as many people out as I had hoped but Mike Shahan brought his Skipjack, Rick and Debbie Winn, Kevin Green, and Tim Rinkevich came out on Saturday. Tim and Mike went out in the skipjack and I want to thank them for the pictures taken of my boat on the water.

     Here I am in the boat. Note that the gaff is not fully up. No matter how many times I tried to get it to set properly it wouldn’t. I have since decided that the rig just isn’t heavy enough to accommodate the single line lifting system and have gone to a two line system. Both lines run through pulleys on the mast and then to fairleads on the cabin deck and back to cleats at the cabin bulkhead. The jib halyard and sheets run thru similar setups on the port side of the cabin. See the picture below for an idea of how this is done.

     I took the boat out again Sunday with  Kevin Green on board and we had a good day on the water. The wind was blowing about ten knots again with a few gusts. Fortunately there were no new disasters.