Happy New Year Everyone
Went to a local lake with the family for a little paddling and sailing. The paddling craft were on the water within minutes but I struggled for what seemed like hours setting up the sailing rig on the Kruger Cruiser. I broke a part on the BSD BOSS outrigger but luckily I had spare parts. (Thanks Dave). For some reason I couldn’t get the akas to go together. With frustration high I set out sailing only to have the port side cable for the rudder’s foot controlled steering break. Luckily the previous owner Greybeard had also installed a rope system for hand steering.
I was able to sail for the better part of the afternoon in a 8 – 12 knot breeze using the main and mizzen BSD sails. I took turns taking out my wife, son & daughter. We all had a great time. I learned a few things about the boat. It tracks amazingly strait going to weather. The helm is perfectly neutral and it allowed me to sail for short periods without no hands touching it. It does well on a close reach but not so great close hauled. I also learned that the boat sails and tacks well with a single lee board on the front aka. Tacking was extremely slow with both leeboards in the water but put up the aft leeboard and the boat picked up about half a knot. Top sustained speed was 6.6 knots. I have to learn a more about the sail plan to figure out what its going to take to get good performance close hauled. I need to test more with the jib but I want to be out with another sailor before raising the 3rd sail.
Here is a little video from today.
Chilling in Light Winds. 6 – 8 Knots
Hiked Out a Bit in Moderate Winds. 10 – 12 Knots