All eyes peeled

Out with dad's boat we motored to the nearby island of Tavolara where a score of small and not so small boats were circling and admiring  S/Y A. 

S/Y A is the largest private sail-assisted motor yacht in the world.
Built for a Russian zillionaire, she measures 140m LOA and rumored to have cost 400M€. Grace not as abundant as her tonnage in my view...

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I was actually more drawn towards this other boat, a traditional fishing boat from our waters. Rigged with a large lateen rig,these are very seaworthy and load carrying capable  boats. They have several variants throughout the Mediterranean , but sharing the same base principle of double ended, wide bilge, and wood carvel construction .

This particular example, converted to a family pleasure craft, was motoring around the Dunkirk like flotilla of bystanders admiring the mind blowing size of S/Y A .
Later during the day,  I noticed a lateen mainsail at the horizon. They probably reverted to hoist the sails to enjoy the afternoon warm thermal winds.

Heros

Batman and Robin dropped in during our summer holiday in Sardinia ...

Holidays!

Getting ready to board the ferry to Sardinia...

A memorable weekend

The first weekend of July, "Astrid" and her crew took part to a traditional sail gathering organised on a nearby alpine lake.

The  Lac de Serre Ponçon is a large artificial lake created by a dam built in the fifties to provide hydro electric energy and safeguard the local valleys from risks of over flowing.

A local association organises a traditional sail gathering on the waters of the lake every two years.
Camping on the border of the lake with the boat's bow a few steps away was fantastic. As so was the sailing in company alongside more than forty beautiful boats, including traditional lateen rigged mediterranean fishing boats, traditional crafts from Marseilles called "bettes", a bantry yole, traditional breton luggers and many others.
Our Pathfinder was also much admired which was really flattering.

All in all a great experience to be repeated in 2019, including the best handmade driftwood model boat contest.

Sunday Picnic ... and a splash

Launched Astrid from our new private slipway (that serves the 20 or so houses in our residence) and enjoyed a great weekend sailing. Saturday still a bit of fresh northwesterly that had been blowing for the past three days (the famous mistral). Probably a force 2 or 3 but with a residual swell. Caught off guard while sailing solo and fiddling at the mast by the gooseneck and ended up thrown overboard into the water. On my involuntary way out of the boat I grabbed hold of a jib sheet to maintain a link to the boat. I managed to get back onboard in no time. Thinking in hindsight about what happened (I was wearing an inflatable life vest) I realised for the first time a down side of the yawl rig: it's inherent sail balance means that in most cases the boat will continue sailing straight in its course despite the only sailor being thrown  overboard.... a similarly sized bermudan rigged dayboat would probably round up into the wind pretty soon after the helmsman has left the party.
Anyhow, an interesting experience.

The weekend continued on with a fantastic sail to the nearby St. Pierre island on Sunday where, thanks to the lifting centerboard and the beach cruiser nature of the pathfinder, we could reach one of the secluded small pebble beaches for a family picnic . What a privilege!

Season opener

This weekend we finally kicked off the new sailing season in grand splendour.
It has been a long time coming due to work and family commitments and the new and time consuming project of moving to a new house.
Winter and spring went away quickly with house refurbishment works having to be designed, planned, authorised and finally kicked off. That took all of our spare time.
The rationale behind the future move is that the house is located in close proximity to the water, about 50m, and it shares a private slip with the other neighbouring houses.

Launching this weekend was an eagerly awaited exercise since testing the slip (which is quite steep) was a long time priority as it ties with the overall idea of buying the house in the first place.
(thank you Laurent for the photo and the help! Thanks dad and Mike for the help too!!)

Launch and recovery went without issues. How nice it is to rig the boat right in front of one's house. I also took a nice picture from our future bedroom window.... where Astrid is seen at anchor in the bay ... while the "real" Astrid and the kids await to walk down for a sail.

The season is officially open!!

Season preparation

Season preparation is starting. So far I've only begun hacking at the to-do list that I wrote while lazying on the sofa during the winter.... improving hatches, improving onboard flexible mounts, clean up and treating the teak floors.... most importantly I'd like to find a solution for a better positioning of the jib sheet fairleads.
The notable achievement so far is that I have fixed the centerboard pivot that had the tendency to come unseated to expose the sealing o-ring leading to leaks. Now it is secured by a bolt holding it into place....

Before: with the retaining latch gone missing the cb pivot has crept out of its intended seating position exposing the o-ring thus leading to leaks

After: the cb pivot secured in place with a M6 bolt