INVESTIGATOR 563

Hi Folks,

Went out on the Bay on Thursday. This was a day I would not normally have chosen to sail on as it was predicted to blow 15 to 20 knots. But, I had tee'd it up with a guy to go and he has many years of sailing experience, so I figured it would be ok.

We were out with the working jib (which originally came off a skiff and is quite stiff and tall) and a front came through at 10.30 with some descend gust in it. The little boat handled it ok, luffing up and the the vang broke, so that spilled a bit of wind off the main, before I could get a reef in.

When I got home I looked at the weather for the bay and yes, the gust were up to 29 knots. With the reef in, she handled fine and though we were getting wet from the rain and the spray, we had a good sail and did some respectable speeds, once touching 6 knots on the GPS.

At the ramp, a man approached us to ask if the boat was an Investigator as he had just acquired one. He said he thought it was an early model as it had foam between the fibreglass (mine has ply) skins and that there was a place for the motor to attach inside the port cockpit locker. No steps in the transom and the hatch was solid fibreglass with no window.

Anyway, we had a good sail and it was comforting to see how well the little girl handles in a bit of a blow.

Cheers, Robert

I have been out in some strong winds but one thing I have noticed is how well my boat, Pip, responds to an early reef in the main sail at say, 10 knots of breeze, and yet the second reef seems good* for 30 knots - this is with a full sized headsail. When reefing early like this there appears no actual loss of performance - the boat accelerates well and will achieve hull speed. Moreover the weatherhelm pressure feels perfect and there appears to be no slippage to leeward.

I think the reason for this is that the fixed rudder is a spade of a thing and is easily overwhelmed - especially since it points out the back of the boat and is not at all forward of the pivot point on the pintles. I think the boat responds so well to reefing early because this helm pressure is removed.

* I use the term 'good' under advisement. We did sometimes broach during the Queenscliff to Geelong in this windstrength and we would have gone for the third reef earlier, say 25 knots, had I had a manageable reefing system at that time. I could not undo the knots and control the boat. Even so, the weather helm was not excessive and most of the time easing the mainsheet was enough.

My new reefing system requires us to remove the vang and drop the appropriate amount of sail down the mast and rolling the excess around the boom (This looks quite tidy with battens parallel to the boom). Next I hook my reefing line to the appropriate leech cringle (I have three) and belay the loose end around the boom in the opposite direction to how the mainsail is rolled before passing the line through a snail cam cleat fixed on the boom. Any excess tail gets tied off around the boom. There is less excess if using the second reef. I am yet to use the third reefing point which is quite deep on my sail (about a third to halfway up the leech). I suspect this would calm things down considerably. The next reef would be to furl the headsail. Make sure you have enough cord left wrapped around the drum after the sail is set to ensure you can furl the sail completely when you want to. Any loose sail left flapping can easily create a difficulty under conditions that are already difficult.

A bit of a ramble really.