She Sails! Er...paddles!

After a whirlwind morning it is my honor to say that the S/V Sea Hawk was launched to much success today. This was a "soft" launching so the normal page and a half script for the naming ceremony was not used.

"I christen thee Sea Hawk! May God bless her and all who sail her!"

Formalities done it was into the water. There were very few leaks and after a few minutes she stopped leaking. There was NO wind at all. But a wise man says "Sometimes you have to paddle to find the wind", so paddle I did!

This boat is amazing. Okay maybe not amazing to some but compared to my first effort this is a far better craft! The hull is for a better word slippery. Rowing is a breeze and if I got my numbers right the sailing should be good. The keel and skeg really help to keep directional harmony and it shows in the rowing and general tracking. A wise man also say "If you can't find the wind, take a nap". This boat lightly loaded has plenty of room to lie down!

With no wind I decided to let The Typesetter have a go. And wouldn't ya know it, I broke my rudder! It should be noted the entire rudder assembly is overbuilt to an amazing degree. Lots of through bolts and a big heavy tiller. This thing is massive thanks to my little "incident" on Lake Union this summer. Turns out the rudder is fine but the tiller/rudder joint was weak.

Snapped right at the bolt. *Shrugs* Easy fix and a lesson learned I guess. The bungee works great to keep the rudder down and it'll be up and running soon. So Mike took a spin. Even with low freeboard the boat handled it well.

 And I finished the day by looking for a geocache using my GPS and my skiff.

All in all I'm very pleased. The boat is stable, paddles well, not much more to say. I just hope for some wind on Sunday!