Rings of Power.

Pathfinder build blog May 2023

First…measuring the rig for a 4 sided sail

This week I suddenly found myself to be ‘out of sorts’ – which, in England, is a term I grew up with to mean something like not quite right or in ‘Jack-Speak’ (Royal Navy language) to be ‘dischuffed‘ rather than ‘gruntled‘ say. I think that the simple reason is that iv’e gone from my usual everyday situation of having lots to do and with problems to solve to kicking my heels a bit because I really don’t have anything that urgently needs doing last week – in fact i’m out of jobs as far as I can tell because the Pathfinder is as much done until I get the sails and lashed to it’s trailer and, once again, I think the trailer is all done too.

Yesterday I took a few hours off (from doing not very much) and headed into town to make a heist on the jewellers…..only joking….actually went to the chandlery (diffent jeweller) in town to look for small shiny bits for the boat ; the small and expensive parts that are my equivalent of boat ‘bling’. One thing I did find at the bottom of a bin of odds and ends in the more practical and interesting chandlery was this little ‘B’ signal flag which is now doing duty as my trailer overhang flag. To be perfectly honest it’s not really big enough and I should really buy some red bunting and simply make one but it should satisfy the local plod if they take an interest.

One red signal flag and two ‘rings of power’

I made at least one mistake in the chandlery in that I bought a pair of the wrong type of jam-cleats – wrong for their intended role as jamming cleats for the uphaul lines on both tillers. Just being in the chandlery though really reminded me of the basic stuff I need to secure the boat alongside as and when we launch it….lines and fenders for example. Iv’e had a search through all of my spare stuff in the workshop to see if there’s any cordage that I could press into service as mooring lines but everything is either too long and too thick (like me) or too posh (not like me at all). I have an idea forming about fenders and that mostly involves buying some fabric and making cylindrical bags to take a couple of unused camping mats (Thermarests) that have done good service and might make viable fenders and be additional buoyancy bags when lashed in place under the side decks.

Time to set up ‘Fritz the Beaver’ and get sewing perhaps.

Things I did get…..so. I consciously avoided the outboard engine rack because there’s a long shaft 3.5 Hp Tohatsu with my name on it but I can’t or at least shouldn’t buy that before iv’e paid for the sails first and then bought the expensive fittings that I need to fly them and control them. I did buy a bucket though which was the highlight of the day except for the odd looks I got while walking back through town with it…..I did think to wear it over my head and pretend to be the guitarist known as ‘buckethead’ ….or just a total dickhead !

The poshest piece of boat jewellery bling that I came home with was this low friction ring which will serve as the boat’s primary anchor fairlead and once home I messed around for a while finding the best way to lash it into place on the bowsprit. I used these low friction rings in several applications on my last boat and really liked them so i’m experimenting with using more of them instead of blocks where loads will be semi static as with the peak and throat halyards and the all-rope anchor rode. The all-rope anchor warp is one that iv’e had sitting in the workshop for the last ten years and was originally my kedge anchor warp off the Frances 26…..it’s at least 2 sizes too large and there’s 75 metres of it so , like it’s owner it’s both long and thick but it’ll do for now.

One ring to rule them all.

Where once I enjoyed complexity in the form of multiple lead pullers to move genoa clews in and out I now much prefer simplicity in my deck gear…..simplicity. low cost and things that actually work and either don’t break down or which I can replace by making a new one myself. One example of this is the set of cleats I made for mooring and anchoring and then the second set I made for the halyards. Rather than multi-block line jammers I spent a bit of time making these simple Ash cleats out of an Ash stick I had lying around in the workshop – I did originally intend to do an all-Bronze deck gear set up but cast Bronze cleats came in at around £36 a pop and even now I have a total of 14 deck cleats fitted with the only cost being time and a whole heap of nice fasteners.

I happen to think that traditional cleats are much kinder on modern ropes when compared to jamming cleats plus they fit the style of the boat. Although I have a few I don’t particularly like the look of wooden blocks because they always seem out of scale on smaller boats – as it happens I also had a small store of nice unused control blocks and cheek blocks so they’ve been pressed into service too.

What to do now though ?

At home iv’e spent a bit of time cleaning out the workshop even to the extent of sorting and ‘knolling‘ the little cups full of unused mixed fasteners, sorting and throwing out many of the small plywood scraps – I also broke up the old garden table that I used as my principal plywood cutting bench and re-vamped the long boatbuilding strongback for it’s next job this autumn.

It feels odd though because iv’e maintained such a tight focus throughout these last two and a half years that having really nothing to do this week feels a bit like being either retired or ‘released from treatment’. I didn’t work on the project between the end of October and the end of February either this winter just gone or the previous one but then I had a big job list to get through in the winter. Now, we’ve seen the outcome of that work because we’ve just passed the time of peak color in the garden and right now the English bluebells and woodland Clematis are flowering full on.

It’s important to say that the Pathfinder isn’t finished but it is ready for it’s first launch and sea trials, I already have a list of jobs that I want to do between planned trips and an even longer list for this autumn and winter – by the end of next winter though it’s my intention of having a full on expedition boat ready for next year. I do know that there are other big projects that I want to get on with later this year and one of those is to re roof the workshop, concrete one side inside where it’s just granite blocks and then build new workbenches.

Right now, for a bit of self entertainment i’m using up some of the small plywood scraps for a model making project that has nothing to do with boats and more to do with the scenes and set construction from the recent film adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s ‘Dark Materials’ series.

The sailing plan.

As most of you will have already worked out building a boat isn’t an end point but has a whole sailing project attached to it and my version of that is to sail and row around as much of the English coast as I can over several years while filming it and talking about the whole experience via my blog and through my new Youtube channel. Thus this year iv’e put a lot of time into filming and learning to shoot and edit video to at least try and make something watchable and I hope somewhat entertaining. I admit that it’s a bit hard to make some subjects even remotely interesting – like preparing the boat and trailer for the road but the point is that it’s essential practice done before I head out on the water.

My best plan right now is that this month (May) will be taken up with launching , the bending on of sails and the setting up of all that gear and then doing sea trials under sail, oar and scull. After that, in late May but more likely into June i’d like to get WABI IV down to the far west country and sail the first section of that – i’m thinking of launching in Newlyn , getting around the Lizard and finishing that first trip with a pull-out at Mylor. The more detailed structural plan is to sail in tend day chunks just as I did with the Liberty in France during my 2019 Brittany cruise.

One of the more important points about the ten day sailing principle is to sail and film for ten days at a stretch but then bring the boat home, attend to the inevitable early jobs and then spend as much time as it takes to construct the video’s, write the blog pieces that go with them and edit/publish the end result at least once a month.

If then we get a longer dry spell at the end of summer i’ll probably spend a longer period at home while I re-roof the workshop and use the current boat shelter as dry storage while i’m doing that job. I don’t ever want to be just a summer sailor so I want to be back on the water for the autumn as I really like that time of year. We might though break that plan in June and take the boat to Norfolk for a short break but that depends a lot on my confidence and competence with the car, trailer and boat on the road…..right now my confidence is a bit lacking shall we say.