On February 6, two weeks ago, I took the afternoon to take the CIY out again. The weather was very nice though the wind forecast was for very light winds. I figured I could get some practice in on my rowing and work on the rigging some as well. I've got to figure out how to make hoisting that lug sail easier.
When I arriced at the Chickamauga ramp, I discovered that they were working on the pier. I had used the pier for the first launch, but figured I wanted to see if I could launch from the ramp like I used to do with the SD11.
After rigging the boat, I backed her down. The ramp is wide but with the construction vehicle and another tow vehicle/trailer at the ramp, there wasn't much room for me to back down and slide Dicsiple Ship off to the side. And there was a little east wind blowing so the boat went to the wrong side of the trailer. Had it been summertime, I would have gotten in the water and taken care of it. I sat there with the boat for probably 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do without getting wet or scrapping the boat all up. Finally, a construction worker asked if he could help. I gladly accepted his offer. He held the boat while I parked the trailer. I jumped in the boat and rowed out into the lake a little ways.
I dropped my rudder and went to sit down on the center thwart. I was standing in the cockpit on top of the removable floor and thinking I was closer to the seat than I actually was and without looking back I sat. I missed the seat!!!!! I crashed into the sharp, square edge of the thwart. It caught me about midway up my back. Hurt like crazy! Oh, I thought, this could be bad: I mean broken vertebra bad or something. The pain subsided so I continued with the outing.
I decided to row a bit. My oars are not exactly identical. When I cut the handles, they are a little different. It even seems like my leathers are not the same distance from the ends. How can that be??? I need to check that. Rowing was ok but it is definitely going to be something I've got to work on.
There was a little breeze, so I hoisted the lug sail. My mizzen was already though not sheeted in. Again, it was hard to get all the way up. Those last 8-12" are hard. I wasn't able to get it all the way up until after trying 4 or 5 times.
In any case, the boat will move with little more than a whisper of wind.
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