A sailing weekend!

A week ago, Marius Olsen who is on the final stretch of his GIS build asked if I was free for coffee and abut of show and tell since he was passing Gothenburg on his way to France. I wasn't, but asked if we could meet up at our summer house on his way home. Their plane was to arrive Gothenburg in the morning so that seemed possible. Therefor, Rackham the red was hitched to the car when we departed for Orust on Friday afternoon. 

Saturday offered  splendid autumn weather. Calm, a bit of fog that was clearing as the sun heated up the air. Harry and I put the boat in the water at the Lyrösund ferry and coasted with the current towards the small village of Nösund. Here the wind picked up fast and we tacked up towards the fishing village of Mollösund.  No fast powerboats, one or two sailboats in the distance and a lot of lobster fishing small boats, a steady 6-7 m/s breeze, and Saturday candy in our pockets. At the outside of the island Lyr the waves got bigger, and when we turned towards Smögholmarna we surfed the waves on a reach at fantastic speed. When we passed Smögholmarna the water flattened and we had smooth downwind sailing more or less all the way back to the ramp. 

All in all, we had a great sail! Coming back the the house, my mom had prepared Spaghetti Vongole, Yum!

Sunday Marius and his family turned up at lunch time. We had the sail up, discussed details on the rigging, the workings of the GiS rudder and its relative merits, etc. and then had lunch with more boat talk. It was very fun to meet in person. Plans were made for a Northern Europe meet up. Next summer there might be three GISes in Norway, so if we can trick someone from the continent to join we can brake the record for most Goat Island Skiffs at the same place (current record is four). 

Marius, thanks for the visit and the French cheese and sausage, hope to see you soon again!

Sailing with my brother

What might have been the last warm weekend of this summer, my brother was visiting for a Metallica show, and the day after we got out sailing together. Really fun to get out together with another sailing adult. A nice breeze, full sail, sunny and warm, what's not to like about that?

 Rowing out from the ramp.

 My brother at the helm. My five finger shoes is also visible. These have really good grip even on wet surface which makes life easier.

 There seems to be a small leak in the centreboard box/floor joint.... Have to fix it this winter.

Some more sailing!

Sailed a longer trip in a hard breeze. Started with the whole family onboard, but Barbro and Hugo choose to get off after a short period of time, a bit too windy and uncomfortable was their verdict.. Hopefully there will be more sailing four up later. Harry and I continued for a very nice 1,5h sail in the local area. Managed to get a couple of litres of water over the side in a sloppy tack, but otherwise it went very well. Added more downhaul and less outhaul since the last sail which resulted in more speed and less heel. Very nice.

Finally I got to sail my goat at my home waters. It was a bit too windy for a longer trip, but Harry and I had great fun sailing around for an hour and a half or so. Since the last sail I had added hiking straps and that made a big difference to the feeling of safety as it was much easier to keep it flat during gusts.

 Here you can see my downhaul and halyard arrangement that works really well. Easy to use from the helm. You can also see the reefing arrangement and my box boom. Harry was in charge of "fika" and handed me sponge cake and fruit toffee on demand.

 This picture shows my nice ratchet block being fouled by a loose piece of string, my new hiking straps and my fivefinger covered feet. The shoes really improved grip, so I will be using them in the future.

 A detail of my halyard cleat.

 I could du with a bit more downhaul and a bit less outhaul I think...

 At the end the windspeed decreased and we got time for a selfie.

 In action. Pretty happy with how I hold the tiller and sheet, but I think a 10 cm longer tiller extension would have been even better.

Some additional pictures from the first dip into the water

It's easy to see from the pictures that I had a hard time rowing because of the wind... Should have put the centreboard down at least a bit, seemed to calm it down quite a bit on the following occasions. It's also easy to see that I'm enjoying myself!