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I'm just about to get the loyal crew moving.  The boat's on the back of the car and the trunk is full of tools.

I took the boat for a tour of the countryside yesterday and lost my ensign so I'm hoping to pick up one on the way out this morning.

My patient wife will be following about 1/2 hour after I leave to give me time to get the rigging somewhat set up and to also have her 4X4 there in case we need a bit extra power to get the boat retrieved.

Wish me luck.  The forecast has a wind warning in it so I might be testing my reef points.  My launch site is at a small inland lake so at least I won't be blown out to sea.

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/marine/fo...teID=07605

Good Luck and great sailing!  Damn the torpedos and full speed ahead!  Ok if there are torpedos consider delaying the launch.

Great days. Have many cameras working the moment you splash her, the expressions (yours) are priceless and will be treasured the rest of your life, so capture them.

Never drive with a flag waving from a staff. You'll just shred the flag or lose the flag or break the staff.

Sail your first sail in light winds, no more then 10 knots, preferably less. Every first sail is met with "issues", fouled lines, adjustments, etc. It's best to do this in moderate to light winds.

Have fun and remember everything can be fixed.

Post the pictures as soon as you can!

Dave

(08-03-2009, 09:50 AM)Paul Riccelli PE,NA link Wrote: [ -> ]Sail your first sail in light winds, no more then 10 knots, preferably less.

I wish - we had at least 20 knots through the whole day.  And yes - many things went wrong but - the boat floated, we are all safe, and there was minimal damage.

Fortunately my loving and patient wife was by and took a couple of pictures - see below.

We launched at Aaron Lake - hoping for a quiet, uncrowded ramp.  
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=44.48...8&t=h&z=17
Well - it was pretty good, and my wife visited with some of the people watching and let them know that we had picked it so that I wouldn't have too much "helpful advice".  One person came by who had just been out in his Siren (about the same size) and came in under power and chatted about the boat.  The wind at this point was blowing roughly 20 knots and there were small whitecaps on the water.

As expected the tiny car couldn’t put the trailer in far enough to launch so I disconnected it, rolled the trailer back until the bunks were awash and (with some difficulty) shoved the boat off.  I then pulled the boat up on the ramp so that it wouldn’t blow way, pulled the trailer out (by hand) and parked.

[attachment=1]

After christening the boat “Floating Bear” with some East India Pale Ale, and with the assistance of some on-lookers, my 15 year-old son and I managed to get the boat (with sails down) shoved around the dock and out into the water.  It was my plan to row out to open water and then hoist the sails.  This plan was thwarted by the reluctance of the boat to be rowed in any direction, especially backwards, that and the fact that the rudder wouldn’t stay down didn’t help.  We then “sailed” sideways into a field of weeds that I ended up using an oar as a barge-pole to escape.

At this point I was satisfied that I had done my duty and that the boat had been launched.  The weather gods had other ideas.  Strong winds from the south kept blowing us north and we were unable to point the boat north (in part perhaps because the rudder wouldn’t stay down) and couldn’t make any progress.  So – this is a sailboat, let’s sail south – and because of the high winds, we hoisted just the jib.  No luck – the boat continued to refuse to point south at all but we did manage to actually sail around a bit, as long as south was not any part of our plans.  Also, being unable to point into the wind caused us to have to gybe rather than tack.  Rowing also didn’t help and we couldn’t turn the boat around even with the help of the oars.  Oh – and one of the oar-locks popped out and wouldn’t stay down.
[attachment=2]

I finally realized that with just the jib, “of course” the bow of the boat was being blown north, so I handed the helm to my son Trueman, told him that if I fell in to let go of all the controls, then climbed up to the foredeck (all 250lbs of me) and manually pulled the jib down.  The “so clever” method I had though of to douse the jib (never to be revealed now) did not work.
I then hoisted the mainsail with a reef in it (about 2’).  It flogged rather unmercifully, but we started to be able to point higher.  The steering was feeling loose though, so I opened the deck hatch (a very handy thing) and tried to tighten the turnbuckle I had installed for just such an occasion.  Unfortunately, I turned it the wrong way and everything fell apart.  We were about 200 yards from a lee shore at this point, moving rather briskly.  I managed to get the steering repaired just in time and we tried to tack.  No luck, the boat wouldn’t come right up into the wind, so we gybed just in time.  We started working our way south with some slight success and decided to hoist the jib again.  Surprisingly it helped rather than hurt our ability to go to windward.

We now were (still) trying to work our way to the ramp making perhaps 50 yards of southing each tack (or gybe).  The rudder kept popping up and during one of these repairs, we waited too long and a gust caught us during a gybe and forced us aground in shallow water.  I got out, took the opportunity to tighten the shrouds which had loosened, turned the boat around (toe rails are my friends), then shoved the boat back out, leaping back in as well as an overweight middle-aged man could be expected to.

More southing, while the sails are flogging themselves rather badly in the high winds, another gybe, another gust and about 10 gallons of water comes in over the rails.  No bailing bucket (it was in the trunk of the car).  A water bottle was emptied and Trueman started bailing while I attempted to handle both the jib sheet, main sheet and steering.  Oh I forgot the mention the 2 times the drain plug was accidentally kicked out which also added to the water in the cockpit.

Finally, at long last we make our way and make the ramp.  Rather than attempting to dock and getting bashed around there, I just ran the boat up the ramp (steel shoe on the keel to the rescue) and started hauling sails down.  This wasn’t helped by the reluctance of the peak halyard to come down.  The throat came down with no problem, but the peak continues to bind.  I really have to figure that one out.
[attachment=3]
Fetch the car, back the trailer in while my wife and son are holding lines from the boat trying to keep it from blowing away.  Back the car in, take the trailer off, tie a line to the trailer so we can find it, shove the trailer into deeper water (but not quite deep enough) manouver the boat on to the trailer (keel guides were a good idea) and winch it on.

Then comes time for my “wonderful plan” – I had a second winch that I hooked on to the safety chains on the trailer and put the hook on the car’s trailer hitch.  Didn’t work worth beans, everything jammed, got twisted and despite the shoe on the bottom of the trailer that “should” have slid along the bottom, it kept getting hung up.  So – back the car in far enough (water almost to the car doors), put the trailer on, and pop it out with no fuss at all (don’t know why I was worried).

De-rig, tie things down – my wife leaves to pick up pizza – and head home, only to lose an oar-lock on the way.  A bit of duct tape to hold the oar in place an we finally make it home.

Certainly an adventure, not one that I’d care to repeat, but both my son and I agree that it certainly had enough good parts to it to make it a good father-son day.

Things to fix:
- The double-sided carpet tape on the sails that I was so proud of failed in many places – will need to be dealt with.
- STEERING – I got used to the wheel and think that if I can only get the steering to stay tight that it will work well.
- Rudder – the @#$ think just wouldn’t stay down.  I used a bungee cord thinking that it would help prevent problems on grounding but I think I picked too small of one or set it wrong, I think it slips between the rudder and the rudder box depriving me of the proper angle of pull.
- Oar-locks – need to either build or buy ones that will stay in place.
- The GD peak halyard.  I'm wondering if I need to upgrade to a smaller diameter, better quality line.

The one thing that was on many people’s mind, my Toyota Echo pulled the boat with a tail wind to the lake (about 1 hour drive) with no problems, launched and retrieved like a champ.  Driving home “into” the same 15-20 knot wind, I certainly felt the car pulling hard and down-shifted for a few hills but had no real issue.

I’d like to express my thanks to Peter and Mike Stevenson for providing me with the plans, and to the community here for their support.

I can now call myself a Weekender sailor.
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Congratulations!

Congratulations on the launch!  As crazy as the the maiden voyage sounded it has inspired me to hurry up and get my boat finished. Thanks for the story of your launch.  I guarantee mine will be twice as problematic but you have encouraged me to weight the rudder.  I'll let you know next spring.

Andrew congratulations on the launch. sounds about average for first launch. Just remember every time gets better and easyer. I will suggest some things you might try for some of your problems. #1 peak halyard try letting your peak down level with the throught first then both kind of togather. You can try this out in the yard and see if it helps  #2Rudder  I have a small hole in the back of the rudder and a small line that goes up over the top of the rudder and comes out on the lower part of the rudder jaw where it is attached to frount of the rudder at just above the waterl line. pull the line one way the rudder comes up pull the other way the rudder goes down, make the line fast and it stays down. I also drilled a hole through the rudder box and rudder so I could pin it up while trailoring it down the road. #3Steering I can't help you much with that as I prefer a tiller. Again Congratulations Bud.

Yep, sounds fairly typical. Congratulations, it feels good don't it.

Again, a light air day so mother nature can be your friend, not the pain in the ass she loves to show inexperienced sailors.

Dry sailing in the driveway, can sort out a lot of issues. Park the boat fairly level and hoist the sails. Make them work, sheet them in, pay them out, learn how to douse, hoist, etc. all in the comfort of the driveway. No, the boat will not sail off the trailer, unless you pick a day with 70 MPH winds. Look for chafe, which is a big problem, learn to lower the peak and throat halyards, without binding (lowering the gaff so it's nearly horizontal, then start the throat down helps) and other stuff. This way you'll feel more comfortable on the water when the Chinese fire drill bell start ringing.

Your rudder pivot bolt needs to be tighter. Tight enough to offer friction, so it doesn't float freely, but only if smacked hard in a grounding will it rise up. You can push it back down with a boat hook or you can arrange a down haul for your rudder. A down haul needs to be stiff and fairly strong. The common arrangement is a bungee cord "over center", but it has to be tight or it doesn't work. The better arrangement is a line, also rigged over center, but in a "break away" cleat.

Again, congratulations you've earned the respect of everyone. Very few actually do what you've done and build a boat. Way to go big guy. Now, post more pictures .  .  .

Congratulations Andrew!

What a great story.  May you have many more seagoing memories to share with your son.

David George