Saturday, July 14th. breezy sailing from Lista to Egersund. Wind SE strong breeze (10-15 m/s), the swell 1,5 meters, rain.
We sailed with the wind from abaft and abeam, 9-10 knots with one reef in the sail. Holding this course, the ship easily cuts to the sides and slide off the swell. Maybe this is because there is not much rudder-surface in the water. In these conditions there is much pressure on the side-rudder, both on the wicker-band, but also on the rudder-strap. The strap for the rudder is made out of three pieces of leather 5 mm thick, sewn together to one piece 15 mm thick. The strap is fastened on the inside of the ship, passes through the side of the ship through a slit, it goes around the rudder-stock and through the side again, were it on the inside is fastened on the rudder-frame. The rudder-strap ensures that the rudder-stock is pressed into a bearing on the outer side of the gunwale, and this makes it more easy to turn the rudder.
The rudder-strap broke, going down a swell, and three men had to press the rudder against the side of the ship, till we had the back-up strap put in. Maybe it broke because it was soaked after the last 10 days of heavy rain. Leather becomes soft and looses its strengh, when it is wet, and this was apparently the limit of its capabilities. Tonight we will place the new strap on Cable One, to make sure that it is dry and strong when we cross the North Sea. Tomorrow we will fix the old strap, so we still have a back-up.
While we fixed the rudder-strap, the swell came in abeam, which made the ship roll in the water. When we got to shore, we bought two drag anchors to throw out in a similar situation. Then we can have the aft against the wind eventhough we loose the rudder, and the ship will be more steady, even in a large swell.
All in all, we are glad it happened now. It was good to test what have to be done in case of problems with the rudder on the North Sea, which we will hopefully sail across in a couple of days.
Friday, July 13th. Tacking from Lindesnes to Lista. Also when tacking in a 1-1,5 swell and a fresh to strong breeze (about 10 m/s), it still feels like the flexibility of the ship is less extreem as the result of the changes made this winter (fish, bitts and spiking down the second outermost board in the sole). But the real test can not be done before we have sailed in 2-3 meter high waves, as we did last year when we crossed Skagerrak.
During the sailing a shroud pin broke -apparently unprovoked. We had just tightened the shrouds, and some crew members thought that this exact shroud was tightened a bit harder than the others. When the ship hit a swell, it apparently put too much strain on the shroud and the shroud pin broke. The pin was made out of pine and had been lying in linseed oil for a long time before use. Maybe the wood can get more fragile, when lying in linseed oil for too long?
There is much strain on the seams in the sail just under the yard. It looks like the tightening of the head (the upper side of sail) out towards the yardarms (the ends of the yard), is pulling more in these seams than in the boltrope. Maybe we can fix it by splicing in an extra cord in the boltrope to tighten it. We have to watch the seams and reef from above, so they are not strained when the wind is increasing.
Thursday, July 12th. When we have raised the mast, and the mast lock has been put in, we have to pull very hard in the mast block to get the stay pin in the forestay in place. It worries us, that we have to pull so hard, use clubs and much force, to get the stay pin in place. We discuss wether it was a mistake to choose a stay pin instead of a system with a rope between two iron rings, as they use on the shrouds on the Ladby-ship. It would be less violent and give us a chance to tighten the forestay in a more gentle manner.