Hello!
I'm the owner of CS 17 nr. 72. My name is Torleif Holm and I live in Trondheim , Norway. It has been useful and inspiring to follow the activity on this forum. Now I decide that I dare to write something myself in my norwegian-english. I have had a lot of fun with my boat, and I really like its combination of simplicity and good performance. However , the Trondheim fjord can offer some really demanding conditions and I have been knocked down two times by catabatic gusts. The first time I got out on the CB quick enough to prevent the boat from turning uppside down. The second time I was abit slower...
With good help from a yacht and two brave kayakers it all ended well. I already knew that my seat lockers weren't water tight, and now I learned that my deck hatches weren't either. The main- mast and sail sank. The mizzen mast slipped the mast step and cracked the thwart as I turned the boat right. The security aspects and the economical aspects of this events inspire me to make an experiment: I want to try a jib-headed ketch rig with a smaller mizzen placed close to the aft deck. I will try a jib on a balanced jib boom.(Simular to swallowboats Storm 17.) For this rig I will fit a mast rail on my remaining mast, and place it in the "reefed mast hole". The mizzen is going to bee my new main sail and the other two I cut down to their right sizes from some old sails I have at home. I hope that it will work well to sail the boat with only jib and mizzen in strong winds. Is there anybody who has ideas about how to make this rig well balanced?
Finally I'm thinking of building a box on the keel plank, alongside the CB trunk, where I can add some lead ballast. Is this a good idea? If it is, what kind of problems should I bee aware of when I do this operation?
Torleif