More of a builder than a sailor

Maybe I promised to have some more footage of being on the water with the Narhwal. I have to read the earlier posts to confirm that 😉.

In the mean time I can bring up lots of excuses why I havent been on the water more often. I guess cold feet is one of them, however I also discovered that I am more of a builder than a sailor. 

In the past few months I considered all kinds of building plans: From building a new boat from scratch to restoring an old ship and, to modify my Pocketship.

Findings that need modification 😇

Although I wasn't as much as possible on the water I sailed enough to get to know my ship better.

I discovered (as most Pocketship owners did) that the boat can be a bit leeward. The common applied solution is to trim the mast a bit back wich in my opinion doesn't effect much. 

Secondly, and that is a common Pocketship characteristic as well, is that the Pocketship has a relative slow turn rate for such a small vessel. In close hauled courses after tacking it is recomended not to tension the jib to fast as the boat slows down considerable and the rudder effectivity is decreasing. Adding up to the leeward tendency it is a bit tricky to keep the boat close hauled after tacking. I found out that in Strong winds (6 Bft) the effect is even worse loosing control completely bearing away up until a broad reach.

Now for the slow turn rate I guess the model of the rudder is one of the culprits. Of course it fits esthetically the nice classic lines and it ommits the necessity of a complex tilting mechanism.

Another reasson for the slow turning probably is the long keel streching over almost the entire lenght of the hull. Now the keel was an eyesore allready for a longer time and for several reassons: First off all it causes some trailer issues. As most standard trailers can accept V-shaped hulls, when it comes to even a shallow keel, the trailers have to be modified. I did a lot of tinkering to my trailer and even modified the front of the keel to be able to get the boat on the trailer smooth and easy.

Furthermore the keel also makes the boat sit quite high on the trailer but the most important issue is that you can't keep the Pocketship level easily if you beach the boat or fall dry on the Wadden.

The Pocketship showing this on the right is built by Bruno Lequeu of Dijon, France.

Now as expected my aluminum Pocketship is some heavier than the original wood-epoxy version. Therefore it sits about 1/2 to 1 inch deeper in the water which is negligible in the water. On the trailer however it can make a difference. But getting out the leas ballast can be quite an operation. So all in all I need to get rid of that keel someday 😑.

First major modification (plan)

The theory of reducing leeuwardness is simple: Either move the center of effortness (CE) backwards or the center of lateral resistance (CLR) forward (or both ofcourse). Moving the CE backwards means that the center of the complete sail-area backwards. When a boat is trimmed well, this can be done by minor shifts of the mast. My approach is a bit differtent: I want to shorten my mainsail by cutting a part of the leech and shorten the boom. Than add a small (unstayed) mizzen (see picture below).

Execpt from moving the CE backwards this way I also attain some more directional control.

Although not stricly necessary I also want to remove the boomgallows. It doesn't serve a purpose for catching the boom anymore and only for lowering the mast for trailering I make a removeable support, either apart or in combination with a divisible mizzen-mast.

Also the layout of the main sheet will change. The standard layout tends to "entanglement" either with other lines or with myself. So I want to implement one attachpoint on the boom probably with some tension divider.

After this modification I want to sail it a bit more frequent. The second major modification (plan) I will implement in 2024 so that I can tweak the plan with the latest experience. This will consist of trimming the keel, change the centerboard (longer and narrower) and change the rudder.