Well the sea trial went reasonbly well today despite lots of rain. Doing over 6 knots to weather was really fun. :-)
I wonder how easy this boat will be to cruise with 2 small children (4 year old and a newborn) and a wife who does not have much sailing experience. Specifically I need to figure out how to be able to leave the tiller for short periods of time. I read that some folks use a peice of shock cord wrapped 3-5 times around the tiller. The boat does have an autohelm as well but in English Bay this may not be very practical. The current owner advises me that his cruising main and furling 140% genoa generate much less power. Under this reduced sailplan and making use of the lazyjacks the boat has more weatherhelm but is more manageable with two people. I guess it will be easier when my oldest son will be old enough to steer.
I will want to lead the cunningham and vang control lines aft and will likely have to replace/add a clutch port side to accomodate these two additional lines. A Boomkicker and a dodger are on the list too.
The current owner claims there has never been any blisters below the waterline and knows of only one wet spot. He figures there is a dinner-plate sized spot around the starboard chainplate. Would this be the kind of thing that could be repaired from below with little cosmetic impact topsides? Should I have this taken care of sooner rather than later?
We will see what the surveyor has to say tomorrow.
Regards,
Dominique
