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I launched my Pocketship today - 'Little Wing'. Wow, what a journey. Two years and three months.
I've been pushing hard to get her launched before winter and everything aligned right this weekend. I have lots more to do; lots of touch up, all the electrics, etc. but she was ready enough to sail. She trailered well (other than a near disastrous trailer problem) to the Potomac River, rigged up nicely, and launched easily. All my friends were busy, so I did it solo. As she was ready to slide off the trailer, I realized I didn't have any dock lines attached! Almost had to go swimming. I had some trouble with the sail slides on the luff; it was tricky as I had to steer her into the wind, run up to the mast, jiggle the slides, then run back to get her into the wind again. Once had her sails up, wow. What a sweet boat. It was perfect day - sunny, 80 deg, with winds around six knots or so. Just right for shake down. Wind picked up a bit at times and I got some heel and maybe, maybe, almost touched a rubrail to the water. But mostly it was lazy, wonderful sailing. The other day I wondered - What if I don't like the way she sails? Well that's not a problem; what a nice little boat.
There are a few things to take care of: A tiller extension and maybe a main sheet jam cleat would be useful for solo sailing. The rudder bangs around a bit on it's mount. I think the jib jam cleats are too far forward; I had to get up to free them. And the sail tracks. I did dry lube them. Maybe they will free up with time. And I need to figure out the bowstay/ trailer bumper problem. I have storage at the state park where I can keep her fully rigged on the trailer, but that means the bowstay must stay attached, which gets in the way of the bumper...
Thanks so much for all the help and advice over the years!
I'll add more to this thread later, detailing what I did differently on my boat. Others have documented the build process and how nice a Pocketship can look when done by a craftsman. Mine is a 5 meter boat - she looks good from 5 meters (or more) distance.
In the end, today, I didn't want to go back to the dock, but I realized the sun was going down and headed back. I then remembered I had brought a Bluetooth speaker and turned it on and set my music to random. The first song to come up was 'Forever' by Fleetwood Mac:
I like the way the light falls today
Slow, too lazy for anything
And I see boats that are sailin' past me
You know, I wish this day could keep on goin' and last forever
Yeah...