There had been a plan early in the month to take Rathenice and Karl’s boat up the river to Wareham on the 5th ready for the annual duck race on the 6th. Helen was playing at that event with the town band and also at a concert in the church at night. We were aiming to socialise in the boats between the two playing sessions and also sleep on the boats from Saturday to Sunday. That plan got cancelled due to the stormy weather but not before I had put in several hours fitting new foam blocks to provide Helen with a more comfortable bed. That has made her a little happier with the prospect but, in the end the duck race got cancelled as well as the boat trip.
The stormy weather damaged one of LSC’s members’ foresail and also took out the mooring strops on two boats out near the channel. Both ended up along side the concrete wall between our club and the next one north. I got involved in helping salvage one of these but the other one was too damaged to be economically repairable and is in the hands of the insurers.
Meanwhile on-shore, my wife’s mother has had a fall meaning Helen has been looking after her dad in Birmingham. That has been creating plenty of driving back & forth to keep me off the water.
16th Willow and I went out on the boat today. We were at the club at about 8 and rowed out to the mooring. Willow was a bit of a problem as she wants to sit on my knee or between my legs while I am rowing which makes it a little difficult and she keeps getting her nose hit by my hands or the oars.
I started by taking off the mainsail cover and sorting out the battens so that sail is ready for use. I will need to lubricate the mast track a little as I suspect it may be challenging to hoist single handed.
Today’s main learning point was that I need to look at the routing of the sinking line between the mooring strops and re-arrange it according to whatever wind or tidal drift will be needed to get off the two buoys. I managed to get that to work at the third attempt without snagging on the rudder, outboard or keels. While I was fighting with that problem several more loose bits of the outboard throttle disappeared so I had to screw in a bolt to be able to move the throttle. That was achieved and I was vaguely in control for the rest of the trip – Engine vibration seems to bias it towards slowing down unless continually adjusted.
Initially I headed towards Poole under outboard propulsion and un-furled the Genoa somewhere close to the race platform. In the end I didn’t use the mainsail because I wasn’t feeling confident about the course holding while I was at the mast. That also meant I was only using about 4/3 of the genoa area.
I reckon this may be the first time Rathenice has been under sail power in almost 20 years – Possibly 10 of those being before I bought her and the rest being my renovation period. Once the Genoa was working I sailed across the Swash channel towards Brownsea Island. I had vaguely thought of going round the other side but there wasn’t much wind so I sailed down almost to the castle before crossing the channel close to Bell buoy and then sailing through the moorings back towards Salterns Marina. I started the engine and furled the Genoa almost at the entrance to their buoyed channel and motored back into the lagoon.
The first mooring attempt did not go particularly well with difficulties caused by the engine not going out of gear properly leading to the linking line catching on unintended parts of the boat. A second circle round worked properly with me managing to stop within boat hook reach of the bow strops.
After tidying up the sails and putting the cover on, Willow and I ate our lunch (My sandwiches and the rest of her breakfast for Willow) . That also gave her some more time to settle in on the boat which was helped a little by having some of her toys in her bag. We then headed back ashore at about 12:30. GPS tracking reckoned the whole trip was 1.1 NM done in just under 2 hours yielding a speed over ground on 0.7 knots at least partly due to trying to oppose the tidal currents caused by the drop from the highest tide to the second peak. That would definitely have been faster if I had put the main up as well because I would have been better balanced on the helm as well as having more available power.
First posted 16th June 2026.