Maiden Voyage

July 13, 2017

Sorry for the delay in posting, but I had done nothing but work on the boat for months, and other obligations had built up — namely prepping and making kit parts for the annual Connecticut River Museum Boatbuilding Workshop, and getting our steamboat Osprey ready to launch now that all mechanical work is done.

Anyway, the trip back to Guilford from Mystic with Mark and Christine was an experience every bit as great as those we had on the Loop. With three on board and full tanks, we lost about 2 knots of top speed, but cruised along very comfortably (and not burning too much fuel) at 9-11 knots. What would have been a full day sail on Memsahib, took about four hours.

The wind came up and we got some decent waves, and with more weight in to boat, never slammed. The hard chines seem to keep down rolling, and I never felt that kind of snap-roll you get in a sailboat, when a wave pushes you over just right and the keel snaps you up pretty fast. I think Mark was very, very happy with the boat’s performance, although Christine perhaps was not too happy with all the time he spent leaning over the side in various places checking the water flow (excellent, he says).

We did have some teething problems:

— A branch snapped off the mast on the way down to relaunch. Neither the launch crew nor I thought anything was that low along the route, but one tree got us.

— We had trouble powering up coming down the Mystic River, and a lot of smoke coming out of the engine (never good). Mark found the problem — a thick cable from the GPS was pushing on the key, putting her in constant choke.

— I made a total hash of docking in Guilford, and couldn’t seem to hold the boat into the side wind with the thruster. Turns out I had no thruster — it makes a lot of noise but the prop doesn’t spin, so something must have gotten caught in the tunnel and sheared the axle in the prop (which is I think what is supposed to happen. Parts have been ordered and the boat will come out of the water yet again next week.

Here are a few pictures of the trip, but I really want to post the video Mark made, as soon as I can get a link. Here are a few pictures of the Workshop, also.