Posted by Mike Field on November 18, 2013 at 15:35:37 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: Does your boat have a Ransome inspired name? posted by Martin Honor on November 18, 2013 at 01:08:34:
You're right Martin, she's a newish boat built to an age-old design. She was built in Melbourne in 1986 by Tom Whitfield, an ex-Devonian boatwright now living there. She's really a pulling boat, with sailing rig added. She pulls beautifully and sails pretty well with the sprit main -- especially if I rig the removable bowsprit and set the (flying) jib as well, which is how I always sailed her.
There are many advantages to the sprit rig, one of which is that you can brail up the sail very quickly by pulling on a single tricing-line, either if a sudden squall strikes or for a temporary stow (as here, where I left her in her berth outside my back gate while I went inside for lunch). Another advantage is that if you sail her boomless as I used to, you avoid getting bumped on the head as the boom comes across....
The mast is unstayed (except after a fashion by the two halyards and the flying forestay) and I stopped it rotating, as that seemed to add nothing much to the sailing ability while complicating the running rigging. If you look closely you can see that I've also double-ended the mainsheet which made beating a breeze.
Unfortunately, she's no longer mine. When I moved inland to Canberra eight years ago she was the only boat (apart from my half-century-old kayak) that I took with me. Because she's clinker she should really be kept afloat though, but as we're not on the water here and there's nowhere I can safely leave her afloat without risking theft or vandalism, very regretfully (and with many mixed feelings) I decided I should sell her.
There are some more photos of her at the link (including a larger version of the photo in the last post, where you can see the tricing-line looped around the head of the sail from the throat).
By the way, to see a very fair modern-day representation of Amazon, press the Back button at the bottom of that page and scroll down to listing No.12.