First Sail

Blink went out for her maiden voyage last night - light air, never much more than 6 knots and averaging 3-5 with large patches of glassy water.  We still don't have everything finished, so were a little limited for cant angle, a few temporary rigging solutions, and sails on their first hoist with a couple of small refinements possibly needed once we adjust the mast rake slightly.

With the masthead Code 0 at about 90 TWA, we were doing about 8 knots over ground (instruments not calibrated yet).  Upwind about 7 kts SOG but at a fairly wide sheeting angle (inboard tweaker not set up yet).

Glassy water, 4-5 knots breeze, code 0, 7-8 knots boatspeed.  We like.

Blink is Launched

Blink was splashed at Seaview today and motored over, accompanied by Caniwi Te Ruru from RPNYC, to Chaffers Marina, her permanent base.  All went very smoothly apart from the weather, which was at it's worst for the hour or so of the launch and delivery across the harbour.

And the water came up to exactly where Mr Shaw said it would.

Some of our favourite pics from friends and crew:

Claudia Vause with our camera's card... (thanks Claude!)

And Mark Holmes

And Joerg

Mast and Rigging in the boat today

Ballast added

Keel fitted in Shed at Seaview, bolted in pretty smoothly

... home

Passing through Waiouru just after 5pm

... through Ngauranga Gorge.  

... turning into Seaview Marina, 8.45pm

 John (JJ) Klinac, Exclusive Boat Haulage.  Safe and efficient deliverer.

En Route ....

Blink left Craig Partridge Yachts this evening ... stopping at Silverdale to pick up the rig tomorrow morning from Hall Spars, planned to arrive in Wellington Wed during the day.  

[ & nice work finding a suitably stunning truck ]

Antifoul on, just about there ...

The levitating boat trick.

Starboard Graphics Done

[ and the first pic of a daggerboard in place ]

Pics From Craig 2nd August

Almost there ... Keel attached to bulb and faired

 And hull fairing for keel in place under the hull

Rudders are in and faired

Windows are in, saildrive visible.  The yellow tape along the hull is the antifoul line, 80mm above the waterline.  No, you aren't seeing things, that's it.

Companionway steps.  Not a lot of room between galley bench and bottom step, but could only be better if steps were more steep, and having lots of things to hold on to near the lower steps not a bad thing.  Will be a nice easy step from lower step to top of keel box, and there's plenty of headroom.  Flange just below (very shiny and pretty) heads door shows eventual floor level here.  Shower drain pump just to starboard of steps.

Starboard steering wheel pod, steering wheel mount at lower left edge (yellow tape).

Larger Nexus cover on NXR (details here, and manuals here).  The smaller Nexus cover to the left/inboard is the autopilot control (link).  The nexus Racebox (details here, and manual here) button and speaker are mounted on the underside of this (stbd) pod.

The small stainless steel buttons on the outboard end control the keel.  Top two are starboard(up) and port(down), bottom one is centre. All of these will function as single press to initiate movement in that direction, another press to stop, or it will stop at the end of travel automatically.  A clever bit of electronics controls automatic selection of electric or engine-powered hydraulic pump, increases engine revs if needed, and oversees keel control.  There is also a built-in automatic return-to-center in case the keel ends up on the wrong side after a nasty broach with the boat pinned on it's side.  

The port side pod, not shown, is a mirror image (although it just has a space where the autopilot is on the stbd side, while we decide on the best option for here)