Month: June 2018

A couple of photos sent in by another sailor (thanks Ron!):

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been chipping away at finishing up the Button Swan’s sailing rig.  The jib sail has been made by Bob, Nick, and Louise, and Bob did some finishing touches on Saturday.  We had a great day of working out the last of the rigging questions that we’d had, and got the boat set up with both sails!  And boy, does she look fine, and sail wonderfully!!

After a bit of a shake-down sail, we came back to the dock for some adjustments, and went back out for another test.  There are still some finishing touches left to complete, but we feel we’ve got the system set up pretty nicely now.

This boat really moves!  We had perfect conditions for testing her, a nice steady breeze and flat water, and were hugely impressed with her speed!  She has no problem beating to windward, her long keel doing a great job of keeping her tracking, and when tacking, the jib does its job splendidly, pushing the bow around through the wind – tacking was quick and easy.  She is a bit tender, and we’re curious to see what she’ll be like in heavier winds, but we do have two reef points to let us reduce sail for more manageability, so it should work out fine.

She is a delight to sail, and we are overjoyed with how she has turned out!  I hope that everyone will be able to get out and enjoy this wonderful boat!!!

We had a great turnout on the dock for the first annual Heritage Harbour Swap’n’Shop – lots of fascinating things to look through, and though we didn’t get a whole lot of shoppers, there was a steady flow of money changing hands.  Oarlock and Sail sold some books and magazines, as well as a sweet looking vintage soda siphon which was donated (thanks Marty!).  Some vendors bought more than they sold, but hey, some of that may be resold next year – hopefully we’ll get more buyers!

At the end of the sale, one of our dock neighbors donated a sweet pair of oars to the club!

After the sale, some more prep work was done on rigging the Button Swan.  Here, the bowsprit is being tested for flexing – looks strong enough to lift the boat out of the water!