Modifications in New Zealand

Over our first 18 months we had experienced various problems with the equipment on Gillaroo and her performance under sail. The main sailing issues were:

Since the failure of the screecher we were lacking the right sails for downwind and reaching. We had our 2nd hand spinnaker which worked great downwind in up to 20 kts. We also had our 2nd hand beat up genoa which we could exchange for the small self-tacking jib and was good downwind or for moderate wind reaching, however it didn’t work upwind and changing foresails on the furler was an tricky business in stronger conditions. What we needed was a moderate sized furling sail that we could mount off a bowsprit like the old screecher, so we could easily change sails between it and the jib as conditions varied.

More serious was pitching problems, particularly in moderate waves while beating upwind; with consequent slamming on the forward beam and waves breaking through the trampoline (we burst the lashings on it twice). My feeling was that this was caused by too much weight forward and high up, compounded by the modified keels we had fitted which had much greater volume than the original design. In other words we had the combination of a lower centre of buoyancy and a higher centre of gravity than the hulls were designed for.

Significant weather helm with main full or on one reef.

All these issues were in my view brought about by modifications we had made to the original design and those changes hadn’t been sufficiently thought through.

So I spent the better part of four months up on the hard in Nelson making the following changes:

A new bowsprit and a 2nd hand reecher sail, much lighter and 30% smaller than the old screecher.

New keels, made to Dereks original design but set further aft to accommodate for the larger mainsail than originally planned.

Raising the forward beam and trampoline by 30cm.

Taking what weight I could off the front of the boat.

Other work included:

Taking off all our anti-slip Decko-Dot which had proved a disaster, and surfacing the deck with an anti-slip paint.

Removing one of the wind fans (the mainsail reefing lines were inclined to get tangled with it while raising/lowering the sail in windy conditions).

Getting the main and jib reconditioned.

Repairs and maintenance to our gas and cooking systems.

Adding additional stays to the rig for security.

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