I did decide to give Worm a maiden sail, even though we had no rudder. I got in and found another disaster - the rear thwart had come unglued. It hadn't been the best fit and the wetted area was not ideal but it was a real blow. Luckily we had the cordless drill and it was quite firm with four brass wood screws fitted.
Then I started rigging her. The four parrel beads I had made from the old teak hand rails were not quite enough but worked well with a half-hitch between each one as a spacer. I couldn't remember how the plans used the two sets of holes on the boom jaws but using the aft ones for sail lacing and the foreward ones as a combined parrell line and downhaul worked well. I made a kicker and a horse and a loop to attach the sheet to the boom and it all seemed workable.
The one cleat I hadn't fitted yet was the one on the yard for the halyard as I was still experimenting with how far up the yard the halyard should be tied. Too low and the yard would fall upside-down when raising. Too high and the boom was too low. I compromised with the boom at decapitation height - ducking will be required!
Iain recommends a topsail halyard bend for attaching the halyard but I couldn't find instructions so I just used a clove hitch. It worked fine, partly because Hempex is nice and rough and knots well.
It was really windy so a good opportunity to reef. The only problem is that the eyes are too big so there is no way to easily fix the pennants to the sail. The reef went in really easily but makes it necessary to move the halyard bend further up the yard. At least the boom can be raised more out of head's way.
Next came trying the leeboard. We were surprised how bouyant it still is, even with the lead fitted. This turns out to be a good thing for lifting it out of the water but a bad thing for getting it to stay put. I think a little more lead is best, but not too much.I rowed to the end of J pontoon next to Melvyn's smack's boat. Melvyn and Julia were on board Elen and agreed to give us a lift to the dinner so we told Shotley we would stay another night.
The wind was really flaky there - coming from all directions. It was clear that the sculling notch and oars are not an alternative to a rudder, at least in their current incarnation. Eventually, with some help from an oar - as a paddle and a fender - I got down-wind and out into the open area beyond the pontoons.
I had a play with the leeboard but never got the boat under control enough to see it working. But in its current state its quite easy to move from one side to another. Lots more experimentation and practice will be needed to be able to move tiller, sheet and leeboard effectively when tacking. I guess when gybing the board should be up before the gybe.
The wind was more predictable beyond the pontoons and things became more stable. I won't say I ever had the boat under control, but at least I know approximately what it would do next. When I ran out of room I furled the sails and rowed back to Robinetta. Not a successful sail, but a very good experiment with lots learned.
Furling the rig for rowing turns out to be easy. You drop the yard and raise the boom so its against the mast and tie things up with the halyard. the mast doesn't foul the single person rowing position at all. As it is pretty much impossible to sail other than single handed, this is fine.
After lunch, mostly we stayed in the cabin and read.Around 4pm a huge line squall came over and threatened to take the jib away. We dropped and stowed it, glad not to be on the way to Levington!
Alison got me to make a slide show of some of the photos and we put her netbook on a table in the bar for people to look at before the meal. The food was better than last year and we had some fun prize giving, good craic and a safe journey back in Melvyn's car.
Even the two Pete's are thinking of moving next year's cruise to a different week!
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