Tanzer 16  #1306 (built 1976) First Sail -- Thursday, September 19, 2013 -- Got the new boat in the water.  Uncharacteristicly for me--I didn't practice rigging in the driveway before taking the boat to the ramp.  In fact I didn't do anything to the boat--just added water and went sailing. 

The mast is considerably heavier than the C-Lark, but even so, it went up without a lot of fuss.  Pretty easy to rig except for the second stay.  To get enough tension to fasten the shackle I had to tie a short line to the stay and make a loop so I could step on the cable and use my body weight to apply tension to the stay while the shackle pin went in.

Of course there wasn't much wind.  A steady 6 knots until we got on the water at 3:30 then it turned fluky.  Waiting for the evening breeze wasn't really an option because it gets dark earlier now.  The down side of dry sailing is that you need at least 1/2 hour of daylight to secure the boat back on the trailer.  This was our first look at the trailer without a boat on it.  The trailer could use a bit of work, but it's plenty serviceable for now.

The boat sails nicely; we could balance the helm by just shifting our weight, and that was simple to do.  The deep, roomy cockpit makes it easy for old guys to move around.  The simple rig minimizes the spaghetti in the cockpit.  We accomplished our goals: we got the boat in the water, learned how to rig it, had some fun, and came back with a short to-do list before we start racing in May.

The boat is in pretty good shape considering that it is 37 years old.

Two foot tide at launch time, made for a long trip down the ramp.  Took three trips back

to the truck before I remembered everything--like the battens.