Sailing Swallow in the rain

12 thoughts on “Sailing Swallow in the rain”

1. She went pretty well to windward, considering. Wind was with tide, and we still made it back 🙂

2. Well, she was definitely been converted in some ways, before the film. But we don’t know what she was originally; could have been sail or
   row!

3. You can take authenticity too far!

4. Thanks for the info Magnus, I’ve been fretting about this ever since someone pointed out that this Swallow is a converted rowing boat and suggested that adding a keel would be difficult

5. The traveller on my lugsail dinghy is wrapped in leather, but I doubt if the original Swallow’s was (as we must remember she was a real boat). But her mast was finished in linseed oil not varnish, (see Swallowdale), so reinstating the finish would have been just a case of rubbing over with a rag dipped in the oil. While I am at it, the hull should be painted too! Varnish is a daft finish for a work boat, which Swallow originally was.

6. We have a traveller, just like the one described in the book, but
   since we have no reef points (yet) it is not needed. It scratches the mast terribly so I wonder if it should be wrapped with a thin bit of leather? We tried wrapping the sail around the boom to reef, but there were various troubles with that method.

7. There is no traveller on the mast. Was this left off just for that day or is it impossible to reef the sail of this version of Swallow?

8. Full-length keelers tack ‘slowly’ all right compared to daggerboarders, but they will shoot better as well. I suppose daggerboarders are best overall, since that’s whet everyone uses now.

9. The original keel had another 6 inches of wood scarfed on to deepen it, last year. She seems to manage ok to windward, though she tacks very gradually!

   • If they would raise the bottom of the sail, I think they call it the bottom, or something like that, they could let the sail go by over their heads and not have to be forever ducking.

10. I’m still curious to learn about the bolt-on keel and Swallow’s performance to windward

11. I'd still like to know how she handles to windward. can anyone enlighten me on the success of the bolt-on keel?

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