MAIDEN VOYAGE

I enlisted two sailing friends (thanks JACK J and RON R!) for the maiden voyage. The wind did not cooperate, blowing only a couple of knots. It did give us just enough breeze to sort out the sails and deck rigging. Fourteen months from opening the kit crate, I now have an ocean capable sailboat. After the maiden voyage, I now have a new list of to-do items to tend to, but I can now go sailing as a reward. The maiden voyage revealed a few short falls on my part: I seem to have forgotten any cleating system for the asymmetrical jibs, I never evened opened up the electronics manuals, the jib sheets were two feet too short, and the motor mount needs to travel up/down farther. These were all easy fixes. A few days later I sailed solo, and took the "hard on the wind" picture.

Maiden Voyage

Ron and Jack

Looking Up

Ghosting Along

Hard On The Wind (yes, the Pacific Ocean is just past that jetty)

MOTOR MOUNT

The electric outboard is on a custom high/low mount. It travels up and down on standard 25MM “Tee Track”, and uses standard 25MM cars. The best part is it comes off with no tools, and only sticks past the transom by 5MM (so it will fit in a shipping container, without having to unbolt anything). After real-life motoring, I had to make it travel both up and down a just little farther, and brought it inward toward the transom.

Epoxy backed holes

Low Mount (first try)

High Mount (first try)

Finished Mount, (Both Higher/Lower/Closer)