20 Apr 21:
Well there's Webb who circles the globe, repeatedly, and then there is Murray, who mucks about in skinny water more eloquently than anyone we know. He dropped by recently for a visit in his highly Murrayfied Viper 15 named LILLIAN.
Murray doing donuts in the shoal water.
Murray arrives in style, daggerboard up and rudder retracted.
We first met Murray when he acquired this Laser M sail from us. He modified it with straps and velcro on the luff so that it can be raised and lowered with a halyard. The sail is sleeved and can still be used as such. The lower mast comes from a Sunfish and the upper mast is bamboo.
The "Bamboom", Murray style.
The rudder was modified with a line uphaul and bungee downhaul.
Padded seating for 2, plus a portable pad.
Murray made the uphaul cleat from dogwood, and added a grip stop on the tiller extension so a wet hand won't loose grip. These small details are indicative of a Sailor who knows his way around small craft.
Murray had lunch on the dock then took Clark out for sail, I even got to work the tiller for a bit. LILLIAN is a very forgiving boat, she is a good weight and well balanced for carrying through tacks, and very stable, a great set up for a raid boat.
Murray swapped back to the tiller so he could raise the rudder for beaching and moved his ballast (me) forward. We didn't point it out earlier, but Murray added reef points to his loose footed rig and a boom vang.
LILLIAN maneuvered confidently in close quarters, she has a little bit of a keel that helps her track straight even when the daggerboard is up.
We bugged Murray to come visit again, at our new homeport. He is excited about our new sailing spot and we hope to see him very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment