Posts from ‘April, 2010’

All is not howitzers and roses on the boat design front.  My little cartop cat, Slipper, is proving a tough nut to crack.
When last I talked about Slipper’s deficiencies, I was planning a couple of “improvements.”  Over the last few days, I cut back the length of the rudders by four inches, and put fences [...]

My first time sailing Slipper, I was somewhat discouraged by her reluctance to tack, or at least, her reluctance compared to Slider, my 16 foot open beachcruiser.  So, my first attempt at making her a snappier tacker was to cut a lot of area from the big skegs I installed to support the barn door [...]

I’d been waiting for over a week to take Slipper on her first sail, but the weather hadn’t cooperated at all.  Yesterday afternoon, the winds dropped unexpectedly, and as soon as Nancy got home from work, I hooked up the trailer and away we went to our neighborhood launch ramp.  Our sons were both away [...]

I’ve been desperate to try out my new little 14 foot cartop catamaran, but not desperate enough to tempt fate.  For a first sail in a new sailboat (and particularly in a new design) winds should be fairly light.   If you take a new boat out into even moderately heavy air, you’re asking for [...]