Launch Day & Sea Trials
So, the day had come and the weather was looking glorious, my best mate Nathan, (did I mention he is my best mate?) had come down to get involved. Previously, we had done a lot of messing about together with boat moving and stuff, plus he was on furlough. We work well as a team. Extremely well in fact and he’s also quite forgiving especially when things go a little pear shaped, as I learned when taking him dinghy sailing in 20plus knots at sea. He’s almost like a crash test dummy as he’s up for any thing, which means I don’t have to do things on my own and it’s nice to have a little company when things go wrong. So he fitted the bill there.
The Launch
We had been waiting for the tide to come in so we could launch but we couldn’t wait any longer so we lowered her down the slip with Nathan guiding me like a pro. She was floating but we weren’t just going to move her straight round onto the club pontoon next to the slip, unless we were sure she wasn’t gonna sink. So we left her sat on the trailer floating while I checked for leaks. It appeared that all was good.
I connected the fuel hose to the engine and primed it, looked up at Nathan (who took this picture from the walkway of the slip) and said “do you wanna see something really cool?” as I reached for the pull cord about to start the motor; I gave the pull cord the biggest pull I could and some how the back of my hand smashed into the end of the boom. Nathan burst into laughter and responded “real cool mate”. The engine fired up and we ran her up in the slip then moved her round to the pontoon. We put the main sail on and popped the cover on as we were only planning on a light sail under the Genoa.
Sea trials
Nathan and I, after a couple of hours of messing about, decided it was time to take her for her maiden voyage. Libby and Rea were both at work but the plan was for Nathan and I to do the initial trial and they would join us later for another little trip out to sea. I certainly wouldn’t want to have done it with Libby! Imagine if it turned into a disaster. So Nathan and I called for clearance on the VHF and headed out to sea. As we popped out of the harbour entrance we unfurled the Genoa and killed the engine once again. We were sailing!!!!!
We headed out to sea about half a mile, tacked round and went back in. It was awesome. We hung about and waited for for Libby and Rea to come down for an after work/ evening sail. We were confident that every thing was working ok: engine, rudder, genoa, it all felt good.
2nd trip with Libby & Rea
Libby and Rea arrived to see Nathan and I rather excited, it had been a lovely warm day with a very gently wind from the south.
We called for clearance a 2nd time and headed back out to sea. Same as before, unfurled the Genoa and killed the motor and every one had a little go on the helm. We turned around and headed back in as the sun was beginning to set and the wind had completely dropped off. We ticked over as we made our way back down the river to the club mooring.
Celebration
As we moored up the sun had truly set leaving us with the most amazing back drop. We cracked open some celebratory beverages and discussed the potential that Elise had to offer, what we could do to her in the future and how much of a lovely evening sail we just had.
We continued our evening and enjoyed each others company as darkness set in.
To sum up…..
Libby and I were really pleased with how it went. Months of working on her and with the uncertainty if Elise was going to be a success or not, we were feeling rather relieved. I certainly wasn’t boated out after the sea trial, quite the opposite in fact. I was already thinking about all the adventures that we would be able to have. The east coast of England has some amazing cruising grounds that I hadn’t explored.
Our next sail ended up in a bit of a disaster at sea when we lost the rudder. It was really scary. I learned so much. If you would like to have a read then you can fit it here.
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