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July 4th – Maiden voyage of my Weekender, the Lady Di. She’s been ready to go for over a month now, but when I have had the time the weather has not cooperated and when the weather has been good I haven’t had the time.

Finally everything more or less came together and even the forecast wasn’t perfect I decided it was time to launch. I was actually ready to put it in the water yesterday but the weather forecast deterred me and then conditions turned out perfect. That wasn’t going to happen today.

The boat was to be launched on Seton Lake, a semi-treacherous body of water which is long, and narrow (compared to its length) and steep sided (think mountains). The prevailing winds are westerly but because of the terrain the winds can come from all quarters and can go from dead calm to whitecaps with little warning.

The day was overcast and the lake was flat. That made me happy as I could then the launch the boat on the west facing shore instead of using the boat launch. The launch is at the mouth of a river and the current was strong enough to give me pause. The oars and electric motor were both untested and I didn’t want to get swept down stream.

The launch went off without a hitch. I put my son on the oars while I put up the sails. My son became to complain about steering difficulties so I gave the wheel a crank and nothing happened. I pulled off the deck plates and peered at the steering mechanism and there was the reason for its non compliance staring at me. One end of one of one of the turnbuckles had screwed out. I managed to get it reattached, but the steering was somewhat sloppy.

Still I was thankful for the dead calm. It would have been pretty ugly to have the steering fail with any kind of wind and a lee shore.

Since my son was continuing to whine about the amount of rowing (even though the weekender does row very well) and the lack of sailing I decided to start up the electric motor. I first checked to see that it didn’t eat the rudder and it didn’t! It pushed the boat along quit nicely.

After about 40 minutes of rowing, drifting, and motoring we finally saw the first sign of ripples on the water. Minutes later those ripples translated into a gentle breeze that began ghost us along under sail power. The wind slowly strengthened and we began sailing at a respectable speed. At this point my wife discovered that the seats are very nice to stretch out on and she closed her eyes.

We tacked our way up the lake making several shore to shore crossings. I was impressed by how well the boat handled. Life was good, soooo….

At that point we were hit by a strong gust of wind. You know the saying that the time to reef a sail is when you first begin to wonder if you should reef. We never did get to that stage. My son shouted that it was time to drop the mainsail. He had sailed the lake with me in an 8 foot dingy and knew the winds on this lake were nothing to fool around with. We had had the dingy become uncontrollable a couple of times. And even at this time of the year Seton Lake is pretty cool. So I rounded up into the wind and we dropped the main.

Whitecaps were forming. We decided to call it a day and proceeded down wind under jib alone. Everything felt very stable although the steering was a little floppy and we had number of accidental jibes. Of course they cause no problems when sailing under jib alone. The main was down, who cared! But another problem was looming ahead – where to land.

Landing on the beach from where we launched held no appeal as it was rocky and exposed to the full force of the wind and going to the boat ramp entailed chancing the current helped along by the force of the wind. But once we got behind the dock which protruded into the river we would be protected from both wind and current. So the launching ramp it would be. As we approached we dropped the jib, turned the electric on high, did a power turn, and came into the dock… piece of cake.

All and all it was a very successful day. The boat handled beautifully and now I know that as long as I don’t do anything stupid the boat will get me there and back. I also know that I need to put some reefs points in the main.

Congratulations! I can only imagine the feeling one gets when years of planning and work end in a successful sail. My little boat is still a month or more from launch at best. I intend to use a very small lake for the honor. In case I am not the boat builder I think I am it will be a shorter walk to shore.

Congratulations! Nothing like the feeling of that first sail.

Good job! Glad to read how your boat handled.

Congratulations Richard, to a memorable 4th of July, it must feel like million bucks out there.

Brian.

Congratulations. Sounds like you had quite a day!

I was going to suggest that we could get together for a sail. I am planing a trip to BC this summer. I checked the map, you are WAY up north. Looks like a long drive to Vancouver.

joel

It was a very good day until the wind became unruly and even then it was still a good day.

Actually, we are only about four hours north of Vancouver and that doesn't even put us near the half way mark as far as going north in BC. In fact, we are referred to as the southern interior.

But of course everything is relative. :lol:

We do visit Washington State several times a year and even got down to the Oregon coast last March. Beautiful country. We really enjoyed our trip!

Well done skipper, I have a saying that goes, the worst day sailing is still better the the best day at work :lol:

Greg