The Hyrovane (Windvane) support rig is on the back of the boat. It’s square to the hull, and the bolts are wound up. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. I can’t explain how amazing it feels to have got to this point, especially on the hottest day of the year. Unfortunately we aren’t going to make it into the water on Friday as was planned in the revised plan 996 – but that’s probably a good thing as it’s the Round the Island Race and the yard will be crazy busy. The plan is now to go for Monday and I have increasing confidence that this time it will work.
For such little things, a small yacht can be an incredibly complex system. Rigging, steering, hull integrity, water, diesel and electricity systems overlay each other. In a yacht as old as Trilleen they have ‘aggregated’ rather than being designed from the beginning and as sure as the sun rises maintenance to any system means dismantling a bit (or more) of other systems. As an engineer, this makes me grind my teeth, and I would love to demonstrate that it doesn’t have to be than way with Trilleen as a test bed – but I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to do that, as I suspect I will be having too much fun sailing.
The extended length of Trilleen is going to take a bit of getting used to, and in every alongside berth I need it will cost more, but there simply weren’t an other ways to make it work. It’s one of the terrible consequences of a rudder that’s hung on the transom (stern, back end) of the boat, rather than being supported further forward. The advantage of a transom hung rudder is that servicing them is incredibly easy and all the bearings that keep the rudder straight are immediately accessible.