There are two ways to launch and recover a boat from the Goldhanger Sailing Club and for the first launch at the club I don't want to do either of them. This is mainly due to not knowing how to use the club facilities. So, Plan A will be to launch from the public hard at West Mersea. The weather window looks good for Thursday the 21st May with high tides at 04:00 at Mersea and 16:50 at Osea Island. This means a Wednesday afternoon or late night drive to rig Naiad, put her in the water in the water and get out of the Mersea channels well before low water at 10:00. This would then allow a trip up the Blackwater on the rising tide.

The fly in the ointment is the predicted wind direction. The forecast has this as just South of West force 4 gusting 6 on Wednesday afternoon and early evening, moderating overnight to 3 gusting 4. This make the Public Hard at West Mersea a lee shore and those are always difficult to sail from in the best of conditions.

So, Plan A was scrapped and Plan B created. 

This is one of the two public hards at Tollesbury at low water. In the forecast wind direction that makes the hard at Mersea a lee shore, this one a weather shore. That it the wind blows off the land and on to the sea. Perfect.

This is a closer look and the only obstruction is the sill at the entrance of the marina and that is where the green marker stands in the mud. The sill is concrete and not something you want to hit. Still, the launch will be at high water so there should be little chance of touching it.

This is the way out, the Woodrolfe Creek and the forecast wind will be blowing along this creek and will blow Naiad along nicely.

This is a screen capture of Google Earth showing the area in question. Tollesbury is on the left of the image. Naiad will be launched just where you can see the words 'ontin's Creek' (the 'B' is off screen). This is a low water shot and Woodrolfe Creek is just mud at this point. But at high water, Naiad will sail along the creek to the end, turn right. sail down the southern arm of Tollesbury Fleet, cut across the mud bank at Shinglehead Point and anchor where the I placed the anchor symbol....more or less.. following the red line.

I'll spend the night on board, a lovely thought, and wait for the low tide on the Thursday morning. Then up anchor and sail up the Blackwater to Goldhanger.

That's plan B.

Plan C is to wait until another weather window.

Time for a cup of tea.

There are just a few more modifications to carry out on the travelling trailer before Naiad can be strapped in place for the trip down to the River Blackwater.

The previous roller at the bows was replaced with a better one and you can see that the 'wings' of the vee protect the boat from the metalwork.

There is a section of the hull that used to be supported by the rollers, but those have been removed and I wondered about putting in a support just for when the trailer is moving.

So I made one from scaps of plywood. It's that big chunky thing. The four bilge runner supports were extended, the extensions being glued in place with domino tenons.

This how they look when placed on the trailer.

All four were bolted in place before being covered with preservative. You'll notice that Naiad is just hanging in the slings at this point. I did put some blocks under her stern and used the two aluminium steps as bilge runner supports. None of these are touching but if anything happens she only has about an inch to fall.

The heads of the bolts were recessed into the supports such that they will not damage the hull.

The next modification was to add stop blocks which will prevent the boat from slipping sideways. Well, not too far. These will be bolted into position after the boat has been recovered onto the trailer.

As before, the bolt heads were recessed. These bolts are inserted into holes in the supports that have been threaded using a wood-threading bit and give a surprisingly good grip.

The aft stop blocks are the same as for the fore stop blocks.

The inner bolt is a little tricky to get in place as the hex key can only be used for half a turn before it hits the hull. Still, it does the job and that's all that counts. Now all four stop blocks need to be covered with preservative.

Time for a cup of tea.

Whilst the stop blocks were drying, I removed the cranes and started the process of lashing Naiad down to the trailer and making her ready to travel. This included packing all the bits and pieces into the minibus.

One thing I did a few days before putting Naiad onto the trailer was to try out Shoal Waters' old foresails.

The first question did they fit lengthways? As you can see they did.

Since it was a calm day I unfurled the sails as well.

Now why am I doing this?

The answer to that is that the foresails I have for Naiad are not correct. If I unfurl the jib, the one at the very front of the boat, it does little to aid the sailing. Most of the time that sail just tries to force the boat around. There is a very small window where the sail works, but it is very small indeed. Off the wind, that is with the wind coming from the back half of the boat, the sail could be used, but not otherwise.

Since I have both sets of sails I measured them and compared them and Shoal Waters' sails are all smaller in area except for the staysail.

These are the sail areas in square feet:

The plan is to try Shoal Waters' headsails on Naiad and see how she sails. It might mean retaining Naiad's smaller staysail, but time will tell. The difference between the main sails is not likely to be a problem and Naiad's main is just 13% larger than Shoal Waters'.

Time for a cup of tea.

The weather forecast for the day was bright and sunny and fairly warm and since the forecast for the rest of the following week was cold, overcast and wet, it was time to get the gantry cranes reassembled and Naiad suspended over the trailer before the rain set in.

Putting the cranes together took longer than I anticipated as I found that I had only marked half the components and fitting the rest together turned out to be a 'try everything and see what fits' exercise. Still, I mananged in the end. The gaff and boom on Naiad were removed, the mast lowered and the cranes put in place.

The chain hoists and strops had to be carefully placed so as not to have the strops trapped between the boat and the trailer. This also meant that they were a little further apart than I would have liked.

The lifting began with frequent checks to make sure that the boat was only lifted far enough to get the trailer underneath.

Lifting the boat in slings is always a trial. Even though I know that the cranes are capable of lifting Naiad easily, I'm always concerned about her slipping out of the strops or otherwise falling to the ground. So much so that when running the trailer underneath the boat, I only remove the blocks upon which she has rested these last few months when they impede the trailer. Then, if something does go wrong, she only has s few inches to fall and then onto wood and not concrete.  

Eventually, she was over the trailer as you can see here.

She was gently lowered until the keel rested on the two main load-bearing cross timbers.

The two new cross timbers were then adjusted upwards until they too touched the keel.

The supports for the bilge runners were then cut to size.

These were cut to be a little shorter than required, leaving a 5mm gap, more or less, between the block and the runner. These are not there to take the weight of the boat, but to stop the hull from leaning over. Having that gap ensures that they do not end up under load. If there is too much gap, bearing in mind that all the timbers are softwood and will expand and contract in the humidity and from being in the water, then I'll just add temporary shims to fit.

The next tasks are to add extensions to the timbers such that they reach the outer edge of the timbers upon which they rest, I didn't have timber long enough to make these in one piece without having to cut into a new longer length, but I did have shorted lengths and hence the compound result. Then the new supports will need to be coated in preservative and fixed to the timbers when that is dried.

Finally, I have to make four removable stops that will fit on top of these new pieces which will be fitted once the boat in positioned correctly on the trailer and will prevent the boat from slipping sideways during transit. That is the disadvantage over this new system, the boat does slide sideways easily. This is good in one sense as it means that positioning the boat  on the trailer during hauling out is easy, but this is not a good thing when towing the trailer.

Time for a cup of tea.

With the purchase of Shoal Waters last year by my cousins and myself the plan was to refurbish Shoal Waters over the Winter and put her into the water on a mooring at the Goldhanger Sailing Club where she has been based for 12 or 13 years. Naiad, on the other hand, would remain at home where I would carry out the required maintenance over the Summer ready for her to go in the water for the 2027 season with Shoal Waters being returned home to continue the refurbishment.

However, it turns out that there are two leaks in the hull that I cannot find and she cannot be launched until these are fixed.

So the plan changed and Shoal Waters will remain at home this year instead and Naiad will go into the water. This meant that I had to drop everything and start work on Naiad. Most of this consisted of scrubbing, painting and varnishing and the installation of a USB charging hub. I had intended to make a new distribution box for her electrics, but since that will take a number of weeks, it has been delayed.

I also need to work on the trailer.

The previous work I undertook on the trailer, putting bunks on the sides and a central timber to spread the load worked in principle but was a nightmare to use when hauling out. It was far too easy to misalign the boat on the trailer and cause damage. So a rethink and rebuild was required.

The main damage comes from the metalwork. If, for example, you miss the roller here and the boat touches the metal, the bolts gouge chunks out of the hull.

Here is some light damage on Shoal Waters. Here the metalwork only scraped off some of the antifouling paint but it is far too easy to cause significant damage.

So, I removed all the bunks and timbers that I put on at the last trailer remake, doubled up on the two main load bearing cross members...

... and added two new smaller cross members on the front of the trailer. These are adjustable in height and will be put in the correct position once the boat is loaded onto the trailer.

These two pieces will protect the hull by not allowing the boat to touch the metal at all. 

I have also replaced the roller at the bows with a vee shaped rubber piece that will also protect the hull from the bolts.

Naiad will be slung in strops from the gantry cranes I made and lowered until the bottom of the keel just touches the main cross members. The two new cross pieces will be raised until they also touch the keel and bolted into place. After that short sections of timber will be fixed to the main cross timbers and will support the hull by allowing the bilge runner to rest on them.

The intention is to allow a foot or so of sideways movement when hauling the boats out of the water and to still be supported by the trailer. When the boat and trailer is out of the water, then the hull can be adjusted to sit square and central using jacks and levers.

Hopefully.

Time for a cup of tea.