First sail of the full size Wa'apa

Today we made it onto the water with the new middle section (making 24 foot), extended trailer, safety ama and twin laser rigs.

Things that went well

Today's wind started at a force 4 and now we have twice the power we were going pretty quickly but it was a bit too much for Liz to balance on her own. The safety ama saved us several times, touching down in a very smooth, progressive way and giving us plenty of time to release the sheets. Unlike the drain pipe, there's no great explosion of spray and reduction of speed when it hits the water. I'm very happy with it. It's nice and light to move around too.

The reshaped steering oar was a big improvement, removing all the twisting force and making steering much easier - but it's much too short, I had to sail from the rear cockpit to reach the rowlocks, which meant I couldn't help balance the boat. It also bends alarmingly - I need to beef it up, and maybe cut it down to be an ordinary paddle.

Tacking with two sails was a huge improvement, over both the single laser rig and shunting the crab claw rig. We'd sheet in just the rear sail to head up, then when almost head to wind Liz would back the foresail to push the bow around, then sheet it in to bear away. We did some tacks without the steering oar but found the oar useful on the tacks that put the ama out the outside of the turn. Occasionally we picked up quite a bit of speed in reverse but backing both sails on opposite sides still turned the boat with ease.

The new beam lashing arrangement worked well, saving lots of time at the start and end of the day. One end of the rope is attached to a hole in the seat, the turns just go around blocks on the outside of the boat (no more fiddly holes) and the running end is secured to a cleat (no more dodgy knots). It's just about visible in the picture above.

Things that didn't

There was a nasty splintering sound almost as soon as we powered up, and the centreboard folded at it's pivot. I couldn't see any signs of rot, I think we just expected too much from half inch plywood. It even broke the two inch thick handle that was supposed to reinforce the pivot! Fortunately we didn't really miss it as we were just reaching back and forth.


More seriously, the rigs aren't balanced. I couldn't apply much power with the aft sail without the boat heading up into wind. This meant I needed the oar to keep us straight, and thus needed to stay in the aft cockpit to give the oar something to lever against. It's possible that this is just because we didn't have a kicker (vang) on the front rig, or we may have to try a smaller sail at the rear (laser 4.7, maybe even an optimist rig!). Moving the rigs forward would involve a hole in the forward watertight compartment, and moving the centreboard would mean not using the nice reinforced pivot I've built in the middle of the boat, and possibly drilling a number of holes the find the right spot.

Anyway, we had a blast and have a fresh set of problems to solve.

Other thoughts

I also spent a while sailing the clubs training dinghys for our open day, and it was an interesting comparison. The Wa'apa was very dry to sail, while the Wayfarer smashed into every little wave and sent sheets of spray over the crew. It was fast but also very relaxed without every gust or lull tipping the you over (although not relaxed enough to take photos - the oar is a two handed job!) It's also very light - I could move it around on our little dolly on my own, even on a slope with slightly soft tires.

Here's a picture of the boat on it's trailer, with the safety ama on top - pretending it's a much bigger boat with a cabin.

The trailer worked well, but doesn't have a lot of ground clearance at the back. The lighting board was knocked off when we hit a rock in the roughest part of the track in the dinghy park.