Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Tuesday 26 May 2015

My friend....

yes I do have one.....has been researching my problems with the sail and has come up with a couple of useful points.
1.  We think the mast sheave box was put in the wrong place when the mast was built and is actually 7" lower than where it should be . I have never bothered to check but now getting the plans out, the mast builder did put it lower. That explains a lot doesn't it!
2. I have the top of the sail tied on the wrong place on the top boom. If I move it further up the boom that will raise the sail slightly. This in turn will help tension the leech better.
3. I think we can alter the downhaul as well so that it goes up through the deck, thus pulling the sail closer to the mast
4. Reefing....the slab reefing is slightly wrong. The reef downhaul that goes through the first reefing point back on the leech drops vertically to a block on the sprit boom. The block needs to be moved further aft to create an angle so that when it is pulled, the aft corner is tensioned aft.

I guess we will have to see what happens
It's worth a try!

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