Sail "Mark III"... the finished product...

[Smish]

Managed to get out on the water at about 9am on Sunday 8/05/2011 for a final test run on the sail set-up.

Forecast was for winds gusting over 20kts... Not! When I arrived there was only a gentle breeze of maybe 8kts... needless to say I was a bit disappointed! I had only a few spare hours before family commitments in the afternoon, so I got the boat on the water as quickly as I could. Although not exactly a thrill ride the sail pulls things along nicely in even the most subtle winds which proved dynamite the previous day at Willy trolling a nuclear chook SP at a just over walking pace. The breeze did have a little more kick in it on Sunday and I was able to successfully tack around 45-47 degrees into the westerly sailing SW from Millers then steering toward Point Cook and turning into the wind heading toward Skeleton Creek. Conditions were very good and I wanted to stay out longer but I was running out of time so I turned back to Millers with the wind behind me. About 400m from the launch site the there was a lull in the breeze so I picked up the paddle to move things along as I was now running late however if I had of looked over my shoulder and seen the front approaching I wouldn't have bothered! In seconds the gentle W breeze turned into a blustery 20-25kt SSW! This was more like it! The boat seemed to want to turn up into the wind so I let it... I was sailing close reach into the wind at around 8 to 10kph, which really surprised me... not so much the speed (meh...that was a bit disappointing) but the direction, with no leeboard down I was still sailing into the wind? The stability of the setup was a revelation as well, as I turned around to head back to Millers I thought there may be a chance the wind would bowl me over but it was rock solid and at no time did I feel like I had to lean to keep the boat upright.

Overall my sail setup is not built for speed, definitely no high performance machine, but as a stable little fishing boat that will get you up to trolling speed, can sail into the wind taking you anywhere you want to go and get you home if you get caught in a squall... it does a good job and will become a permanent fixture every time I head out for a fish because with sail+paddle power it's surprising how much water you can cover with very little effort!

Can't wait to head back out to Rickett's and troll up some salmon! All this sail stuff has kept me away from fishing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzcAc0uNhc



Cheers,

Andrew

[Smish]

Can't seem to embed the youtube clip properly?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/gzzcAc0uNhc[/youtube]

or

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzcAc0uNhc[/youtube]

I'm doing something wrong but can't work it out...

[GoneFishn]

Can't seem to embed the youtube clip properly?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/gzzcAc0uNhc[/youtube]

or

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzcAc0uNhc[/youtube]


I'm doing something wrong but can't work it out...

Just past in this part of the code gzzcAc0uNhc in after selecting the youtube tab.
Can't wait to fix my computer so I can see the video (using mobile atm)

[Smish]

Just past in this part of the code gzzcAc0uNhc in after selecting the youtube tab.
Can't wait to fix my computer so I can see the video (using mobile atm)

Cheers, thanks Kelly.

[paddlepop]

looking good Smish..

whens the Regatta...race ya!

need to get all the other kayak sailors together..

[Smish]

looking good Smish..

whens the Regatta...race ya!

need to get all the other kayak sailors together..

Built for comfort... not speed!

Even though my ego would like it to go faster!

Pragmatically though it works better for fishing "as is", really light winds were great for the soft plastics, kind of like fishing on the drift but you can pick which direction you want to go... (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

I did occasionally hit a sweet spot where you could feel the pressure drop in your ears and the boat surged ahead like it was being pulled by some invisible hand, the speed would go from 3.5 to 4.5kph with no appreciable increase in wind strength, couldn't maintain it though for much more than a minute or so... definitely something I want to explore further...

A Regatta might be a stretch! (Blokes in their shiny red or yellow AI's would sail all over me!)

But I'd be up for a sail and some fishing!

[cruiser]

Looking good Smish,not only having a sail and a bit of a fish but relatively staying dry at the same time

cheers cruiser