naf

Yes, I especially like being able to drop the sail to glide back to the dock without having to stand up or move forward. It makes my old method (carried over from my previous oar-less dinghy) of docking with sails up and doing a last second turn into the wind right next to the dock to kill speed and then rush to get the sail down look very foolhardy (albeit glorious on the small number of occasions I pulled it off smoothly).

mad that i didnt casually use this pic from today when i was talking about adding the pulley to bring the halyard to the rear

Actual sailing question: when reefing the sail on something setup like the Amanda, am I supposed to leave the halyard in the same place as normal and tighten the reefing line so that it lifts the boom upward, or am I supposed to lower the halyard down and leave the boom about where it would be normally? I tried the latter, and without the storer loop holding the yard tight against the mast the shape of the sail becomes pretty terrible, so assume it was supposed to be the former?

Saw another boat floating in the air. Looks like they use a slightly larger version of my tie-down hoist setup:

Decided to test out track recording in the middle of today's sail, so I got to catch the into-the-wind return leg. Not too shabby I think, since you can't tell that about 5 or 6 of those tacks I thought were the last one to be able to clear the point to turn for home. No sailing catastrophes, but I did put on a pretty embarrassing display of poor trailer reversing for the fish and wildlife officer sitting in the ramp's parking lot.

I took the Mandy out for the first time this season to see another homemade boat out on the water. I last saw it when he was building it in his front yard (its a little bigger than the mandy): Stupid story: forgot to take the centerboard out when entering a windless cove and switching to rowing. makes for an awkward surprise when you run into a sandbar when the thing you're sitting on gets pushed upward...

Finally got a chance to follow Graham's advice (obviously) and try to get used to using the tiller extension. After initially trying out awkward overhand grips with the extension in front of me and steering the boat like a drunk truck driving student learning reverse for the first time, I think I finally caught on to just holding the end of the extension next to me near the gunwales and just using it to push/pull the tiller (instead of manipulating it in 2d). Works a lot better that way I think. Felt pretty conformable, and (although it might just have been the winds) the boat picked up more speed than usual. Comedic story: after a perfect approach to slow to a stop at right at the dock, I forgot to tie off to the dock before releasing the halyard to drop sail, so then like an idiot I remembered and tried to walk up to the front of the boat with the sail still halfway up and then I lean over to grab the dock pier and then (of course) the whole boat turns over and I get to go for a swim. Somehow the daggerboard had come out of the slot also, so my normal righting technique was out, and I just grabbed a line attached to the boat and swam with the line towing the sideways-floating boat up the ramp. Only item not tied down: my hat, which I had actually found a couple years back floating in some nearby water: its on to the next owner i guess.

I had to borrow the trailer for another project, so here's a stupid picture of the boat "floating" in the garage, held up by a couple pairs of ratcheting tie-downs:

Update on adding a block to run the halyard aft: Easiest/cheapest for me was to get B&B to sell me a 4-hole plate and an extra block+shackle (for less $ than just the double block at that popular marine retailer, mind you). Swapped out and looks and works great. And I accidentally discovered a pretty good method for adding 'bungee' to the tiller tamer: just use dollar store 3/16" braid instead of real sta-set or whatever. it stretches just the right amount for my setup. Now I just gotta work on my tiller extension coordination. (At least I store it disconnected now, so thats a start right?)

Trial run with the halyard ran aft went great. I ended up borrowing the boom-vang block & cleat because the wind was picking up and I was worried I would need to reef, but it worked well enough without it to test the configuration. Super easier to do a final approach to the dock when you know with a pull of the line you can drop sail. (Blurry) pic: Didn't notice there was an existing empty hole in the boom I could have run the halyard through until I was back and demasting. Guess I shoulda used that instead of going around Love the suggestions on how to make it permanent on the cheap (is it that obvious that would appeal to me?). I was kind of laughing to myself thinking about just turning the existing plate around backwards and drilling 4 holes on the other end (something about not being centered really bothers me). A double block would of course work, duh again. I'll have to see what they have available at the local used chandlery (a word i just learned). Success also on the "storer loop". My version: Note in above pic: the only thing that wasn't successful today was my homemade pig stick electrical-cord "mount". It never actually fell off but it was close

Ah, so my Amanda might be rigged in a sub-optimal way then, since it does have the reefing line but my halyard terminates on a horn cleat on the mast instead of running aft. My current mast base plate has three holes in it (downhaul, boom vang, reef). I was thinking it might be better to just switch it to a 4-hole plate like the Spindrift rigging plans show and add an extra block+shackle for the halyard there, compared to putting the extra block on the deck next to the mast? I got some longer halyard line so I figure I'll try out the rear halyard setup next time I'm on the water by temporarily borrowing the reefing line block/cleat, as soon as weather/scheduling permit. Assuming the tryout goes well - if anyone has an extra Racelite RL-201 and Harken 072 lying around (and/or a Sprindrift 4-hole mast base plate!) they would like to sell, hit me up.

Oh, yeah I have a note to try looping the halyward up through the yard and around the mast and back to the end of the yard. I was going to wait and try it at the same time I get a longer halyard to try running it back to the 'cockpit'. I'll give the bungee thing a try too. And if that silly tiller extensions breaks off it won't be the end of the world since I'm not coordinated enough to actually use it Here's what successful tiller-locking looked like tonight (yes I tied it on the wrong side of the traveler line and didnt fix it, but it still worked):

Thanks for the video/pics. I made a pale imitation today (my hardware box has less boat stuff than yours I imagine): I still haven't figured out what you mean by "storer wrap" in your previous photo though, btw

latest outing report: no mishaps, so no good stories. i tried my new homemade vhs-tape windex mounted on a short pex pipe on the breasthook. problem is that the sail is always in the way, duh. i think i might go back to a pig stick and flag on the mast (provides low bridge clearance warning also). too bad cause the blue pex pipe matches the boat's paint job pretty well. too scared to try my homemade tiller lock (a block of wood with a j-hook in it with a wing nut to tighten) since winds were a tad gusty off the gulf of mexico today question: is anyone stupid enough to run their halyard to the rear of boat this small, instead of cleating it on the mast? it seems like it would be easier to drop the sail when single-handed dock/beaching or going under a bridge or whatever. raising the sail away from land/dock would certainly be less treacherous i think without having to climb up to the front and run back quickly?

That is my thinking now as well. I had been putting it in the other way, with the thought that the more rounded profile would help push it up in the case of groundings (guess not, ha). Also I just read this old entry from Terry Haines on the woodenboat forum: Makes sense in terms of the angle notch at the top of the DB being on the front, but I don't see how the auto-release would work when the hold-down cord runs parallel to the DB slot. There's nowhere for it to slide out of, unlike say if the hold-down cord just ran across the rear half of the slot. I'll have to go sailing and try running into some stuff to test it out