We finally sailed "Strider".

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Boat20.htm#Latest

Boat feels great. Heavy, smooth, reassuring, motion like a traditional
boat but responsive and tight turning like a modern craft. Exactly the
combination I was looking for.

We had a short period with plenty of wind for the working jib we flew
for the first day out and she was moving right along. Heeled down to
the sailing angle I would try to maintain in a heavy breeze, there was
not a hint of weather helm and she seemed perfectly balanced. I'm sure
there will be more helm pressure when trying to drive to windward in
strong winds but I suspect the rudder modification was a big
improvement to the steering qualities.

She's not a very stiff boat which is probably at the root of a lot of
the weather helm complaints I've heard about these boats.. That's the
price of all that weight in the hull instead of ballast. I suspect
I'll be using a bit of iron jib for any long windward legs when I need
to be there instead of just enjoying the sailing.

I'm very happy with this boat. Someone asked me why a designer would
buy one. Well, she behaves pretty close to the way I would have
designed a boat to act for what we want to do with this one.

The previous owner had led every line except the ones holding the
fenders to an impressive array of lever cams just forward of the
cockpit. I'm sure he would have ended the fender lines there as well
if he could have figured out how. That's not the way I want to sail
the boat since I want to teach my kids how to work on deck and don't
want all that activity and lines in the cockpit with the larger
numbers we'll be sailing with. Since he moved one of the winches from
the mast to the cabin top, we are now short a mast winch.

I don't want to spring for another winch right now and the one on the
cabin top will be handy for other things. It seems silly to have a
seldom used line like the roller furling/reefing jib halyard in the
cockpit so here's what I'm thinking of doing for that line:

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Halyard.jpg

Since roller headsail changing underway is so infrequent in fair
weather coastal sailing, I think this should work well. Halyard
tension will be precise and convenient without having to use a winch
handle. If I do need to get the sail down, the cam cleat will let me
get enough slack to undo the sheet bend.

--

Roger Long