1st time on the water for Lutra.

DavidH's picture
Submitted by DavidH on Sat, 09/18/2021 - 16:09

Forums:

Trailering and rigging - no problem. Sadly there was no wind. Rowing was easy, and surprisingly good considering the short oars. The boat is very stable under oars too. One problem encountered was that the boom hangs too low, making going about when we found a breeze almost impossible without contacting the boom. I think this is a fault in my setting up. I would appreciate any advice from the forum on that.

The plastic rowlocks worked ok. the oars need a bit of work, but I think she will go much better with longer oars.

Lovely little boat - I'm delighted with her!

curlew's picture

curlew

Sat, 09/18/2021 - 22:19

Things that it might be:-
The attachment of the clew to the boom. It might be non standard, and if so, the sail clew needs to be tied down very close to the boom.
Sail not fully pulled up. Or yard not being pulled in close to the mast.
Trying to pull the sail up when the sheet and kicker are not free.
Mast sloping back.
I think just pull the sail up and stand back and look at the set-up to see what is wrong.
David
Curlew

DavidH's picture

DavidH

Sun, 09/19/2021 - 09:10

Good advice - thank you. Especially the bit about pulling the sail up and standing back to look at the set-up. I'll report back.

On another note, and I know you've designed and use a different rudder/tiller set-up so would appreciate any comments you may have David, I find the standard tiller set-up to be fragile and complicated ( I suspect this is because it was primarily designed for racing).

Because I won't be racing I'm thinking about a longer, sturdier tiller, but still incorporating the haul-up/haul-down lines. I fitted an auto-release cam cleat for the haul-down line as my first mod, and this works well, with no need for bungee to hold the rudder down.

I won't think about modding the tiller until I've sailed a few times.
The oars are a different matter, and initially I'll lighten the outboard sections a bit to see how that goes.
Cheers,
David
Lutra

DavidH's picture

DavidH

Tue, 09/21/2021 - 14:46

Problem of low boom solved. The yard wasn't pulled up against the mast fully - due to me using the wrong halyard. Addressed that and one or two other little niggles this lunchtime.
Cheers,
David
Lutra