Paul
Groom is a treasure, he and Craig Gordon live
about 250 km apart and would not have known of each others
existence if I’d not introduced them for mutual support
in building their Pathfinder
cruising dinghies. He and Craig hit it off really well sharing
ideas and experiences and as designer it has been great to
have the two of them building what were effectively the prototypes
. So it was with real pleasure that I read Pauls email a couple
of weeks ago telling me that although the weather had been
seriously windy that launching day for his boat, a few weeks
work ahead of Craigs one, had been an unqualified success,
the boat performing well under jib and mizzen only in weather
that would ave been pretty trying in an untested boat and
with an inexperienced crew.
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Drawing a new design is a matter of applying a combination
of experience and academic theory. In the case of Pathfinder
I had several predecessors in the water in quite large numbers,
and had a good handle on how the type works, but to hear that
the first of a new design is working as intended is always
great, and Pathfinder was reported as being well balanced,
powerful, stable and fast which really made my day.
A couple of weeks after the good news about the new baby
, Paul rang to say that he was bringing Varuna to Craigs home
waters in Tauranga an hours drive from me, and wondered if
I would like a day out , would I? Try and stop me!
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We pulled up at the public boatramp in Tauranga with not
a breath of wind around, glassy flat calm but the fat little
clouds over the land suggested that there would be a sea breeze
a little later so while I puttered around with the camera
Paul and Craig rigged the boat and about 15 minutes later
we were afloat.
Athough I drew the plans, and had leaned on the gunwales
while the boats were being built, the amount of space in Pathfinder
always surprises me, these are big spacious boats and the
three of us fit in with room for a whole crowd more if needed,
while the two of us were stretching out and relaxing on the
seats Paul fired up the 2hp Honda and pointed us out to where
a faint dark line showed the existence of a faint breeze,
!/4 throttle pushing us at hull speed and the wake looking
very clean with little wave action and almost no foam.
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Sailing was great, just enough wind to drift along nicely,
and I must say that the boat proved able to make surprising
progress in wind that we could only just feel. We sailed around
, not aimlessly but it would have looked that way, just enjoying
the boat, the sparkling water, the scenery, the company and
the lovely autumn day. In among the big freighters, past the
gofaster yachts starting the days racing off the Yacht Club
jetty, along past the ferry and the fishing boats and out
to the pines and sandy beaches of Matakana Island. New Zealands
North eastern Coast is near tropical and with a combination
of warm waters and mild climate it’s a winter sailing
paradise. This is a truly lovely place and I wonder why I
don’t spend more time out there.
Craig is tall, probably 6ft by my guess, Paul though is taller
at 6ft 4in! Between us I would say that there is over ¼
ton of us, and we tried the boat for stability by sitting
all three on the lee side deck, we got our tails splashed
but not wet with about 6inches of freeboard still to go, with
all that weight on one rail! Good, next? We’d been calmly
wandering around up on the foredeck and the boat rocked so
little that we felt able to stand and look about without hanging
on, but Paul decided to see what would happen when he climbed
the mast. Now this is a sailing dinghy! You don’t do
that in sailing dinghies! That’s a recipe for getting
wet! But no, he got up to the gaff jaws and we were not rolling
about dangerously or anything. I got a photo to prove it!
I cant rave on about the boats performance in a stiff breeze,
we didn’t get one. But in the few puffs we had of 8
/ 10 knots she accelerated smartly and pointed up well, feeling
quite neutral on the helm until the mizzen was sheeted in
which gave her just a light pull on the tiller.
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After a while Paul dropped me on a jetty and sailed in circles
so I could get you a few piks of the boat under sail, and
sadly the wind gods chose that moment to have a rest so the
shots are not real action ones, but you can see the boats
proportions and shape, her rig with the mizzen well aft of
the gaff main to help lessen the interference of the two sails
when going to windward, and the considerable space she has
inside.
We drifted along, the tide helping to make the best of the
breeze as we went back over the shallows and sandbars to the
other , more commercial side of the harbour, and with the
clock ticking on and the tide racing out we took the last
of the sea breeze, such as it was , back up the estuary to
the boatramp. She makes good progress in these very light
winds, leaving hardly a mark on the water while slipping along
quickly enough to make headway against the tide. We all enjoyed
the attention as a procession of outboard powered fishing
boats large and small motored past heading for their cars
and trailers, every head on board each of them turning as
they passed the little gaff yawl as we lay back in comfort
and peacefully drifted the last few yards back to the launching
ramp.
We timed the unrigging and preparation for driving away,
just over 10 minutes for the two of them to get the masts
down and everything stowed. Like rigging up, it will get quicker
as the crew learn the jobs but even so it doesn’t take
long.
Back at Craigs place, sitting around the table having coffee
in the sun while children, dog and other visitors came and
went was the perfect end to an afternoon on the water. Totally
relaxing, great! Cant wait until Craig finishes his Pathfinder
and we can sail two of them in company.
