Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES Rigged for Sailing

03 Mar 19:

Rigged our Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES for sail today, she sports a sprit sail rig. We chose the rig for simplicity, small size of the spars, ease of use and ease of storage. We added a brailing line to collapse the sail while we are on the beach and while we are rowing. We consider it a hasty reef as well.

Skipper's ensign.

Longleaf pine oars nestle under the breasthook when underway, ready for use. The kine on the starboard belaying pin is for the snotter line, that holds the bottom of the sprit spar. The mast thwart is removable, but we have found that it makes a nice backrest when rowing from the forward seat.

The snotter line has a second purpose, it holds the mast in the thwart in the event of a capsize.

The cypress centerboard is not weighted, so we added a downhaul line with cleat, and another line to hold the centerboard up on land.

The padook worked great to paddle away from the seawall and fend off, then there was room for the oars.

The line traveler for the spritsail ties onto a belaying pin on each quarter knee. The jam cleat under the tiller is for the rudder uphaul, primarily used on land. The jam cleat on the inner transom is for the rudder downhaul line, otherwise it is free to float vertical in shoal water.

Skipper's tilt tiller design has been working great, she specified Sunfish tiller straps. My design(s) broke every time!

The Penobscot 14 has a nice 1 inch keel from the bow to just aft of the centerboard trunk, then if flows into a sizable deadwood. Arch designed the centerboard to be offset, a side benefit to that is the centerboard trunk stays clear of debris when beaching. We also added a sacrificial strip of pine along the bottom of the oak keel.

Sunbrella cover holding up great, it's covered in pine pollen vs the boat being slimed.

Log of ST. JACQUES

Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES 30 Mar 18 Row and Sail

30 Mar 18:

Light winds so we took ST. JACQUES out for a row to the bayou and hoped to test out rudder repairs on the way back. I rowed from the front seat for about a mile, Skipper steered and paddled a bit. The Penobscot 14 carries well and is fun to row.

Left the bayou to head home, wind had picked up to 12 gusting to 15 on a broad reach. We dropped the centerboard and popped the brailing line loose on the spritsail. Skipper surfed us back to the house through lots of fetch on the lee shore, ST. JAQUES rolled through all of it on an even keel and felt very controllable. The spritsail acted like a spinnaker, and we didn't have to worry about ducking a boom or a gybe. We covered the last 3/4 mile in under 8 minutes :) As we neared shore we brailed the sail and glided in to shore. Rolled ST. JACQUES back up into the yard on the dolly and she got a fresh water rinse.

Here's a few pictures of the boat to see how we outfitted for the morning expedition. Outfitting for the 1:20 cruise included coffee, water, two foam seats, a throwable device/cushion, 2 towels, a blankie for Skipper and of course the PFDs.

Here are some shots of the rudder uphaul and downhaul. The uphaul is used primarily on land and during launch and recovery. The downhaul is used to counteract the buoyancy of the rudder. The rudder worked great during the sail.

Miles rowed 1.5/Total 7.5

Log of St. JACQUES.

Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES 30 Nov 17 Shoal Rudder

30 Nov 17:

We wanted to try out a fixed shoal rudder for the Penobscot and Skipper thought we should give the Dabber rudder a try. We moved the pintles to test it out.

The boat sailed great through all points with a balanced helm. Skipper liked the tiller being higher, maybe not this high with the final version.

The blade is abit small, so we will add a little tail to the new blade.

Log of ST. JACQUES.