Friday, April 3, 2015

Tanzer 16--Testing a Winter's Worth of Improvements

Tanzer 16--Testing a Winter's Worth of Improvements -- April 3, 2015 --  There were two little glitches, easily resolved, but all of our little iterations of improvement worked well.  April 2 started out frosty, but warmed up to 58 degrees (F). Winds were predicted to be 5 - 10 mph out of the SW. We had been planning this outing for two weeks and made sure we had rain gear. We didn't need it.   Thursday was the only dry day of the week.

The mast went up smoothly--came down easily too.  Glitch 1:  I did not have the gin pole on the packing list and subsequently we had to dash back from the marina and pick it up.  It was such a slow day at the marina that nobody objected when we left a half-rigged boat the staging area for 40 minutes. The A-frame is now on the check list.  I have alway had a terrible memory*; that's why I tend to be hyper-organized.


Tony providing auxiliary power for the trip back to the
marina.























Re-routing the halyards down through the hull and back the centerboard worked well.  Much easier to single-hand.

The little winch used to tension the halyards worked like a champ.

The new arrangement of the traveler with an extra block for 2:1 mechanical advantage made it easy to adjust the boom position even with a steady breeze -- for the few minutes we enjoyed a steady breeze.

The tiller snubber shock cords made it much easier to let go of the tiller for just a second.  (We were able to experiment with shifting weight to balance the helm--the rig is in tune.)

We tried out the topping lift for the spinnaker pole but didn't actually need it since it was a beat out and a beat back--when we didn't have to use auxiliary power (see Tony above).

We never actually used the new anchor, but it fit in the lazarette nicely.

So all in all a great little first sail of the season.  It was a winter well spent.  We think we are ready to race!

Oh, Glitch 2:  The beer cooler was a little too big for the lazarette.  Tony is working on finding us a smaller cooler.  Now all we need is our new T-shirts, hats and Genoa.

More wind would be more fun, but it's hard to beat a
a dry day on the water.  jim  (who once misplaced an
automobile)


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