Rigging Launching Teria - first day out

At the coast guard ramp we found a spot out of the way to the side to rig up as weekends are pretty busy. All the boats we saw there were powered fishing boats which didn't need much time to get set up and away. We were the sole representatives of the trailerable yacht fraternity.

Quite a few things were already aboard like fuel tank, porta-loo, Esky of food, water, safety gear
Sailings a huge subject and even rigging a sailboat up involves knowing allot of nautical jargon so for those new to sailing i'll skip most of that for now, though a few strange words may slip in i will attempt to explain as we go.

Rigging up an investigator 563 before launching

• Removing the taillights board and tie down strap
• Undoing the mast holding supports and moving the mast into raising position
• Raising the mast and securing fore and back stays.
• Setting up the sails ready to hoist.
• Getting the outboard onto the bracket and fuel connected

Rigging up was practiced at home a couple of times first before going public. It took us about 50 minutes to get the boat launched, but with a few improvements and more practice it could be halved??(Meanwhile the fishermen were doing it in 5-10 minutes each, yes it's so much simpler. It's the whole sail vs zoom debate. You've got to like sailing, burning little fuel, challenges and the journey rather than the destination go through rigging up or down and sail slowly about, horses for courses)

I wont get into rigging up details until a later date, as there's so many nautical names to parts on a boat there are heaps of books written to describe it further.

Good thing about the Investigator is that the mast can be raised by one person if need be, on many trailerable sailboats its usually the rigging up bit that needs at least two people. 

The masts up and secured and the mainsail is bent on.






Now the jib is also bent on, the outboard's ready and I'm gingerly backing it into the water.

I'd like to say the launch went smoothly as silk but it was really lucky a good friend who knows a few things about fishing boats was there.  The keel was deep for a trailer boat so the ute had to go in a bit deeper than i'd have cared for, stopped when the exhaust pipe made bubbling sounds then drove back up a bit.   I'd watched a few U-tube videos of cars disappearing beneath the waves etc, so to stop this the handbrake was pulled tight, engine off and 1st gear engaged before getting out of the drivers seat.

Tied a painter onto the bow ring. The painter is a rope for you to control the boat so it won't get away on you. Next was to unshackle the winch rope and safety chain from the bow ring...unscrewed the break back. push, big push, all together heave-ho push,  she's stuck on that trailer.

So pulled the trailer and boat back out to see whats causing that, usually its the pivot centerboard fallen down and hooked on a roller, but it wasn't that. So pushed rocked harder, something was still amiss but Teria finally did slide into the briny! 

After this it all went well. Climbed aboard, the fully serviced motor ran like clockwork and Teria backed out nicely in reverse gear against the prevailing wind. (Must find that ramp designer one day and have a word with him).

Glenn drove the ute and trailer to the car park, while i carefully maneuvered Teria towards the only pontoon next to the ramp.  Docking went well, and the yacht hung off the lee side on a mooring rope . That gave me time to fit the rudder and tiller. It may have been better to fit them before launching but my trailer sailer book said not to, and i was worried the old fixed style rudder may hit the bottom while in reverse and that could have been the end of  the trip.

Launched - Public floating pontoon for all tides.

Cast off and into forward gear

On the way out i released the centerboard drop rope. When it stayed slack it indicated that the centerboard had not dropped. This would have been a problem on many trailer sailers with no keels but  luckily the Investigator 563 has a shoal draft ballast keel too, the 20 kg center-board is only about 30% of the lateral resistance and maybe 20% of the righting moment, (it won't sail sideways or tip over) so we continued on.

Sailing off Townsville, at last!

We raised sails when clear of the port. Broad reached downwind then close reached upwind towards the Townsville Breakwater where my wife was taking these great photos..all was well or so we thought..