ok I finally got a moment or two to reflect on yesterdays sail and can make a few comments about how Pirate Girl.. Patty’s new 323 handled well.. we went out with a couple friends one of who is a very experienced sailor and had done a lot of the work on putting Pirate Girl together.. stepping the mast and rigging her etc..
With an 18 horse yanmar diesel engine Pirate Girl chugged down the waterway at a solid 5.5 knots without straining… nice and smooth…. this would be the third time I’ve been on her under power and I like it much better than Sea Puppys 2 stroke outboard… however I will admit that if you go below while the diesel is running it is much noisier and a bit more vibration from the engine.
The wind was blowing hard in the ICW and where it hit us broadside it would heel us over a degree or two. As we came out the mouth of the inlet into the rising swells of the ocean the wind was not quite as strong but still blowing a solid 17 or 18 maybe gusting over 20….
Letting out the in-mast furled main is a very controlled operation.. after letting it out about a 1/3 of the way we tightened the foot with the outhaul .. there is a 2 to 1 purchase system that helps with this as well as it leading to the winch on the port edge of the cabin roof. The winch is the same larger size lewmar 32st winch as is used for the jib sheet winches. The Jib was again easy to let out 🙂 especially with the strong wind.. It was a little harder to tighten back up… we found that you needed at least 4 wraps around the winch and maybe even someone tailing to put pressure on the line or it wanted to slip as you turned the winch.. probably just the jib sheets being new and slick.
at this point we were still under power and killed the engine… We fell off onto the starboard tack and gathered some speed.. then tacked back over on to the port tack and ran down the the coast line a bit.. within a couple miles we tacked back again to starboard tack as we were on a lee shore there and had to tack to avoid it.
All this in 18 knots with probably 6 foot seas.. I can honestly say I was very comfortable on her… the motion wasn’t bad.. we did have to hold on but I didn’t feel alarmed going forward to adjust the cars on the jib tracks. One hand for the boat one or myself and all that. No spray that I can recall made it back to the cockpit though the foredeck did get a fair ammount. I had a foul weather jacket on but nothing else and my jeans didnt even get damp.
When we bore off to head back to the inlet it was one of those miracle moments we all recall .. going from bashing to windward and feeling like we are in the middle of a storm to sudden peace and quiet… We stayed away from dead down wind so as to not chance a jibe. Once back in the inlet the sails were furled.. again the main was very easy even in the stronger winds.. Ease up on the outhaul while one of us pulled in on the inhaul by hand. . the jib required much more effort with someone cranking it in with a winch. Still easier than bringing down a hanked on sail.
On the way back in we tested the turning radius both to port and starboard and it was impressively small… she could turn in about a 30 ft circle both ways. we actually disagreed on which was the smaller. so they were close.
I also have to complement Patty on bringing her back in to the dock… not much current but a fair amount of wind pushing her away from the dock and patty backed her in right up to the dock and stopped within a foot or so so that we could just step off. here dock is not the friendliest to do this at in the best of conditions with two outer concrete posts that are not much more than 4 feet wider apart than the beam of the boat.
some observations pro and con..
Pros
… she had a nice turn of speed.. we saw steady 6 knots on almost all points of sail and she pointed decently.. you could hold her to the windex marks to windward and she would go once she had built up some speed.. however.. it was better to fall off a bit and build up some speed before edging back up.
The letting out and pulling in of sails was very easy.. even in the higher winds. the in mast main especially.
She was very dry in the cockpit.. much more so than some other boats in those conditions that I have been on.
She did not excessively heel.. we didn’t once put the toe rail into the water.
Cons..
I was not happy with the clutch and winch arangement..
There are 5 clutches on port and the one winch which is self tailing.
in adjusting the mainsheet, outhaul, inhaul, vang etc…all those lines sharing the same winch was a pain.. They kept getting in each others way.. To be honest It probably wouldn’t have been an issue if I had a little more experience with her and didn’t have to stop and think about which line was which…… The main halyard and jib halyard are at the mast.. they don’t come back to the cabin… we had wanted to put more tension on the jib halyard but there is no winch on the mast.. you can only tension it by hand. I would like to see both these and the spinnaker lines run back to the cocpit also with another winch and some clutches on starboard as well. ( a side note.. Sea Puppy has this many and more lines yet I have not had the confusion of use problem with her.. so I think that with a little getting used to Pirate Girl this con would go away in all fairness.)
Steering… though i didn’t get to steer her… it seemed to me to be very unresponsive at slow speeds and have almost no sensitivity at all at any speeds.. … even in these stronger wind conditions. also I noticed that it did not look as comfortable standing behind the wheel bracing yourself with the wheel as sitting holding a tiller… possible if there was a arched seat behind the wheel to sit on at any angle of heel like I have seen on some other boats it would make it more comfortable.
Jib doesn’ set as well as a hanked on sail. However I was impressed with it given the wind strength…
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