The View from the Helm

Here’s Harriet Rose. The first time I ever got to sail a CAROL, something like thirty years after I first designed her. Everyone had told me that she sailed great, and my first impression was, they were right. We didn’t have much wind, though, and we had the engine ticking over to show a little wake, so I’ll just have to find my way to Chichester, England again next year to try her out in a bit more breeze. The interior is tiny but it really does work, albeit with the seat cushions closer to the floor that they would be on a larger boat. Once the depression gets going you could do worse in your unemployment than buy a set of plans for this wonderful minimalist cruiser and say to hell with it all, build a CAROL for yourself, and spend your time cruising.

mY nESTER WITH THE MAST IN THE WRONG PLACE

Many of you will have seen in my book, photos of my Nester dinghy sailing.  I enjoyed her, but she  had two flaws- she twisted quite a lot, and she sailed with lee helm.  My own fault, of course- for convenience I put the mast too far forward. I built the forward side-to-side member at sheer height so as to have enough “engagement” of the bottom of the mast (about 11 inches)  to eliminate any stays. How could I have failed to see a better solution- one with the mast in the right place?

So I’m ripping that member out, removing the rowing thwart aft of it, and making a new rowing thwart, enough higher in the boat to result in exactly the same height of engagement, yet not too high, I hope, to still be able to row from that position. I’ll keep you abreast of progress in this blog.