The story here is that I had to end my involvement in the cruise a couple of days early. The O-bolt, by which the lower block on the mainsheet connects with the hull, pulled out of its housing. I rigged a temporary set up in light airs to get me back to Pin Mill. The fix was to source a new bolt, nut and associated washers, reach down and along through the bilge with a nut and washer and connect with the new o-bolt going through the hole, and then tighten. That’s the theory. The practice was devilishly fiddly, but I somehow managed to get there in the end.
Mended, with new bolt and penny washers included both on top and on the underside. The worrying thing is that no nut was found in the bilges from the previous fitting. So I have no idea how it has taken this long to break. This component copes with considerable forces.
We attended the Coniston rally, 22-25 May. Unfortunately, the electrics on the boat had failed, so I wasn’t able to record tracks. My estimate (from previous visits) is that, over the two days, we went about 10nm.
As seems to have been the way with this season, this trip resulted in some damage, this time to the stainless steel keelband. When launching, unbeknown to me until hauling out at the end of the trip, I managed to catch to keelband between a fissure in the slipway, which resulted in the keelband peeling off at the stern and doubling back on itself. Consequently, we spent the entire trip dragging water around with us rather than slipping through it with more grace.
Initially, I managed to bend it back to this position, since it had been bent back on itself, pointing forward. I haven’t pictured the final repair, but it is now more or less attached to the hull, thanks to two longer screws and lashings of Sikalflex…
On our return, I managed to bend it almost back into position and applied sealant to hopefully plug any holes. Alex, at Anglia Yacht Brokerage, said that the best solution is to pull it off altogether since he'd come to the conclusion that steel capping on the keel was more trouble than it’s worth. That might be a close season task. Hopefully for the remainder of the season, my repair will hold, but I shall have to return to this issue at some future point…
Cruising up the Bure towards the entrance to Ranworth Broad
Another Broads rally. This one, for the first time, was based at Bureside Holiday Park, which made for an excellent venue. There's a decent slipway and acres of space for camping, with electric hook-up all round for those that need it. It's a good venue and, I am sure, one to which we shall return.
Kizzy came along and enjoyed her walks.
Lugger 'Jimbo' in action
On day 2, we took a short trip up the River Thurne to Womack Water, where there are some handy moorings for a walk into Ludham
I was pleased with the return trip from Womack Water to Bureside Holiday Park. Beating into the wind, this track shows over 90 tacks (red track) which, when put together with the outward (yellow) trip, means that we went about well over 100 times... Once out in the river, I managed the entire return trip without engine
I attended the Coniston Rally which was the usual brilliant fun. I'd been here once before with Daisy II and really wanted to bring Daisy IV for a repeat trip. This one had the added bonus of being midweek and, of course, the company of Kizzy!
I made the following video compilation which gives flavour of the trip.
In May and June, I made two visits to Titchmarsh Marina in order to sail around the Walton Backwaters. The first was a reconnaissance trip to prepare for the second which was a Drascombe Association rally I organised.
This is a blog of sailing activities aboard Daisy IV, a Deben Lugger built in 2012 and purchased in 2023.
Previous boats were Devon Lugger, Daisy (2005-6), Drascombe Coaster, Daisy II (2006-2019) and BayCruiser 20 Daisy III (2019-2024). During the years of boat ownership, I have covered well over 6000nm around the UK, most of which are documented in my various blogs. Sailing grounds are based around the east coast, mainly the Harwich area. Over the years, making use of a versatile roller coaster trailer, I have also covered the east coast from North Kent to Whitby, and various other locations around the south coast, Severn Estuary, Cumbria, inland reservoirs, and the Norfolk Broads.
