Oilies on and farewells said, we motored out of Bangor and in to the Menai Straits towards our first waypoint, Puffin Island.  We were away!

Twilight in the Irish Sea

It didn’t take long to get settled in and it certainly didn’t feel like months had passed since I was last on a boat.  I was feeling right at home.  Once we were out of the Menai Straits and passed Puffin Island we hoisted the sails and for the first time we were under way without the engine ringing on our ears.  It was then that it all came back to me.  That wonderful silence after the engine has been shut off and the amazing feeling of being pushed along purely by the wind.  Ragamuffin heeled over a little, tightened up and she began to push through the sea.  It wasn’t exactly a white knuckle ride, just gently does it as there wasn’t much wind.  But for me it was a marvelous feeling.

Unfortunately, what little wind there was didn’t last long.  To reach Fleetwood in time for high tide the next day, we had to make an average of 3 knots.  This should have been easy but with no wind at all we were getting nowhere.  So we started the engine and probably motored for around 7 hours before eventually the wind picked up and we could finally make way and switch the engine off again.  It was not a moment too soon either.  As pleased as I was with the performance of the engine and its amazing fuel efficiency – it was doing my head in!

As it started to get dark we decided it was good practice to take in a reef just in case it began to blow a hoolie during the night.  Funds haven’t yet allowed for the equipment I need to run the mainsail halyard and reefing lines back to the cockpit, so trimming the mainsail means I have to climb on to the coach roof.  Although I do manage this task ok, I have to accept that I would be more at risk than someone who doesn’t have difficulty with their legs.  So because of this I prefer to try and avoid that risk at night during my watch.  Anyway, this particular night, taking in a reef turned out to be completely unnecessary because the wind barely got above a gentle breeze.

Then whole trip was memorable but two things in particular will stick in my mind.  The first was the bitter cold temperature during the night.  I can’t remember ever being that cold.  Although it probably wasn’t really too bad, I think the lack of sleep made it appear much worse.  I only had about 1 or 2 hours sleep in 36 hours which I know is ridiculous, but I had waited over 8 months to sail Ragamuffin and no way was I going to waste this time by being asleep.

Julian aboard Ragamuffin

The second moment I will remember was off the coast of Liverpool, again in the middle of the night. We could see lots of big boats anchored in the distance waiting for enough tide to get up the River Mersey. Duncan and I were practicing our RYA training and identifying ships by their arrangement of lights.  A second later, Duncan told me to look over my shoulder.  I nearly choked on my coffee.  About 300 yards away, there loomed this colossal tanker!  Thank goodness it was on a parallel course and moving slowly.  But I was stunned as to how silently and without notice it appeared.  I mean, how can something the size of a tower block sneak up on you like that!  All I will say is it was  a good job for us they they didn’t to turn to starboard.

Dawn broke, and we began to warm up a little.  We also had a reasonable amount of wind for once.  The motion of the boat however was very uncomfortable because of the confused sea state. I decided to shake out the reef and unfurl the genoa and the speed picked up.  This pretty much fixed the pitching and rolling.  We also decided we would have a bit of fun and try and get the toe rail in the water but there was not quite enough wind for that.

A few hours later we sighted Fleetwood.  We followed the Isle of Man ferry through the channel marker buoys (we thought it best to let it go first!).  When we reached the marina we were greated by some friends and family – a really nice surprise. They still had the same fresh faces as the day before, but unlike me, they had been to bed the night before.

I have really enjoyed my first sail in Ragamuffin and was sad  it was all over.   But, looking forward, its just the begining of some great adventures with her.

Here is some video of my maiden voyage in Ragamuffin.

Cheers, Julian

PS. I’m sorry for the long post. I just couldnt stop!

Ragamuffin being launched in Bangor, North Wales

Last Saturday 25 April, Ragamuffin finally hit the water for the first time since I bought her in August last year. For over 8 months we’ve been working to make her ship shape and for a long time it felt like this day was never going to come. But now it has. It was an awesome couple of days for me from launching Ragamuffin on the Saturday, to sailing her around the clock to my home port of Fleetwood, arriving on the Sunday.

We arrived at the Boat Yard in Bangor at about 9:30am and in time to do some final preparations before the launch at 11:30am. We had only been there 10 minutes when some guy came up to us and said we could go in the water now if we like. I wasn’t really ready for that to be honest and I went from feeling quite calm to full on panick stations. But as we had a long sail back to Fleetwood, we thought it was better to be in the water sooner rather than later.

Before I knew it, 2 men had removed the two forward oil drums that were holding Ragamuffin upright – leaving only 2 drums either side of the stern – and they reversed in with a tractor and hydraulic trailor. In no time at all, Ragamuffin was on her way through the boat yard to the waters edge to be next in the queue to go into the slings. I didn’t really know what to expect because I’ve never done this before, but I imagined it was going to be some huge operation to get her in the water. The whole thing left me a little stunned. I just about had enough time to slap some antifoul on the areas where the oil drums had been before she was loaded into the slings and chucked in the water.

First job was to have a good look around for any leaks and to make sure the engine was running and cooling properly, then the slings were released. We tied up around the corner whilst we got ourselves prepared and to give my family, who had driven down to watch the launch, a chance to have a good look around the boat – she’s only small, it didn’t take long.

My good friend Duncan had kindly offered to help sail Ragamuffin back to Fleetwood with me (not much arm twisting required). So once he and I had got ourselves organised, we jumped aboard, bid farewell to those who had travelled far to see us off (or to make sure we left!) and cast off for a 24 hour sail back to Fleetwood.

Part 2 coming soon…

We decided at the last minute to do a total rewire of the electrics. It was quite a big job to rip out the whole lot and replace it with new, but it was definitely worth doing. Now there is a lot less cabling and the layout looks logical rather than the tangled mess it was before. Before it would have been almost impossible to quickly fix any problems had there been an electrical fault which is the last thing you need at sea.

Ragamuffin is starting to look really good. She’s painted and anti-fouled at last, thanks to a break in the weather. The only thing missing from her appearance is the white lettering for her name, and some white pinstripes which will finish the job nicely.

She was turning quite a few heads this weekend. I didn’t realise this but it seems that quite a few people at the boatyard have been following her progress. I had lots of lovely comments from people passing by. I must admit when I stood back to admire Ragamuffin I felt really proud of her. I can barely believe she’s all mine.

There are still some jobs to do, but these will have to wait until later in the season. I really wanted to run all the lines back to the cockpit for safety reasons and to make trimming the sails a lot easier. To do this I need some clutches and a couple of winches, but at the moment funds do not allow. So until that is sorted I will not be sailing single-handed but hopefully it won’t be too long.

Finally I want to say a really big thank you to Duncan. Without you the boat would not be ready to sail. I really appreciate all your hard work and the enormous amount of time you have put into getting Ragamuffin ship shape. I hope one day I will be able to make it up to you.

Among my ‘to do’ list is a small crack in the rudder needs investigating, an overhaul of the electrics, a new electric bilge pump plus a whole lot of little jobs. The other thing I’m keen to do is to run all lines back to the cockpit to minimise the amount of time I have to spend on deck. It’s a lot easier and safer to be able to trim the sails from the cockpit without the thrill a banzai dash above decks.

Here’s hoping more sun.

Julian

I decided to think about it for a while and made a couple of visits to the boatyard to take another look before making up my mind. When we got home from our holiday we decided to make an offer and after some bartering we struck a deal. She was mine.