Getting the best out of sailing

Ever since I learnt to sail 52 years ago, I have loved sailing.

Having only ever had one sailing lesson about 3 years after staring (I never had the time or money to pay for more), I have always thought as myself as still learning. I haven’t ever been into racing sailboats but have crewed in a few races. This dosen’t mean to say I don’t want the sailboat to go as fast as it can.

I started sailing at the age of 12 in a 8ft “Scamp” dinghy which I just sailed around the moorings in Gillan Harbour, I had built the dinghy myself the previous winter, she was a bit basic but got me into sailing. I built a 10-11ft “Embussy” dinghy 2 years later which I had my first and only lesson from my uncle John a dinghy instructor the following year. I learnt a few things but mainly just the calls for going about and jibbing.

Two years later I sold the “Embussy” dinghy and bought a “Enterprise” 14ft dinghy which I refitted. All these sailing dinghies were built of wood runners and plywood, Back then there were very few GRP boats. GRP constucted boats didn’t start until the middle 1960s, we were now into the late 70s but only about 10% of local boats were built of GRP. I bought my first GRP hull and deck (not a sailboat) in 1976 which I fitted out and first launched in 1982. I had gone away from sailing, it took the meeting of my second wife Vicki for me to reestablish my love of sailing.

I met Vicki at the end of 2003 and she moved in the following April. We started looking for something we could both enjoy, at the time I was playing golf but Vicki couldn’t walk well, so that was a non-starter. I suggested sailing, Vicki hadn’t ever done any but had been on a lot of canal holidays. So we hired a Wayfarer a few times from “Sailaway” St Anthony, Vicki really loved it and around August that year I bought a GRP Bradwell 18ft daysailor called “Acorn” which went on a drying mooring at St Anthony for the rest of that sailing season and the following season. “Acorn” was a nice small yacht which sailed very well but it was impossable to turn around, while in the cabin. Vicki and I wanted to go cruising and “Acorn” wasn’t going to be big enough!

So we went looking for a bigger yacht, we looked a quite a few before buying “Gala” our Hurley 22 in September 2005. “Gala” being a fin keeler, she needed a deep mooring and Sailaway didn’t have any availible, so we managed to get a mooring for her in the Helford River. It was from here we cruised her, over the next 11 seasons logging over 5000nm in an area between Dartmouth and The Isles of Scilly (she took us safely to and from Scilly 3 times). “Gala” was very heavy for her size and she needed the top end of a force 5 before thinking of reefing (very stiff), she was great to sail in force 6, on the negitive side of this was the need to motor her in anything less than force 4 or sail very slowly indeed! Another problem with her was in a small choppy sea (just as the wind picks up) she would sit still like a knodding donkey not making any way at all. “Gala” was mast head rigged and so her genoa was 2/3rds the sail area and we very quickly found out she would sail very well on any reach just on her genoa. And on a broad reach, her mainsail would take the genoa’s wind, so she would sail faster just on the genoa without the main. She had her good and bad points but we loved sailing her. It was her maintance which first started me looking for a bigger yacht (I wasn’t so flexible anymore to get into the nooks and crannys within her now I was getting older). So we started looking for another bigger yacht around 2014-15 but it wasn’t until November 2016 that we bought “Elektra”

“Elektra” our Sadler 29 was designed and built by sailors to sail very well. To be fair I didn’t know a lot about Sadler 29s before I bought one, I didn’t know about the foam buoyancy or the double skin, unsinkible. But the foam has proved to be a great insulation against the cold water and keeps the cabin cool durring hot weather. We liked her shape, she looked like a nice sailing yacht she was a new experience! She was again, mast head rigged, she will do 3kts though the water in 6kts of wind, so most of the time we are sailing. She needs to be reefed early but will still continue to sail safely for fun on her ear, but pulling in the reefs early, she well sail another knot faster when sailed more upright. Elektra has continued to impress me over the years in many ways. She has bilge keels or as Sadler advertised them as a twin keeler, she will point nearly as close to the wind as a fin keeler and go just as fast. She will go faster than many other yachts of her size and keep up with lot of bigger yachts. Like all yachts there are some bad points, slamming is one of them! But like another owner said to me last year the positives out weigh the negitives. Since owning Elektra she has taken us to and from Scilly 4 times over 7 seasons. We have continued to sail “Elektra” in the same area as we sailed “Gala” because of the same restrictions on my time, but I am retiring at the beginning of next year, so we are planning extended cruising in 2025 (watch this blog for more info).