This page contains a selection of photos from Alec, near Bermagui on the South Coast of New South Wales.
Launching
Heather Mary and friends at the 2007 Goolwa Wooden Boat Festival
Trailer
Sailing
Beached at Two-Fold Bay
Two-fold Bay - 28 January 2009
Alec launched his Eun Mara Heather Mary in early February 2007. What I love about these boats is the attention to detail, and the fact that though they are built from the same design they are all subtly (and not so subtly!) different. Alec has used the external rudder/tiller arrangement, as I am doing with Skerry, and I do like the effect as shown in the last image.
Here are Alec's photos, with a few words.
The 2nd technical launch was a great success and she sails beautifully. One minor problem, after 3hrs of sailing, water was observed in the cabin and the floor boards were floating. Panic and back to shore. Fortunately we found the leak which was, where I drilled the hole for the pin that holds the centre board on the port side, I had inadvertently put the point of the wood bit through the support beam in the inside face of the case and left a 3mm hole. It is below the water line at times so that was the source. Panic over and easily fixed. I was envisioning a major problem with the centre boards, but thankfully all is ok. This is why I have technical launches before the social one.
(My favourite photo - Richard)
Heather Mary and friends at the 2007 Goolwa Wooden Boat Festival
Alec had HM ready just in time to enter her in the 2007 Goolwa Wooden Boat Festival (near Adelaide, in South Australia).
This shot shows a small part of the festival. HM is moored alongside the pontoon on the right of the photo. Don't expect to be able to pick her out; I just wanted to show the setting. (Goolwa is near the mouth of the River Murray which, along with its tributaries the Darling and Murrumbidgee, drains most of southeastern Australia. In its heyday it was busy with paddle steamers servicing towns hundreds of kilometres inland. Hence its status as an historical Australian port.)
Here is proud owner Alec trying not to look too smug! That decking really does consist of laid planks, not just painted lines as is often done to simulate the effect.
And here's Alec again with four wanabee builders:
At the front of the picture are me (Richard, from Canberra) in the white top, and Ian (Dunedin).
Behind, from the left, are Bob (Portland), Alec (Bermagui; pink shirt this time, just to prove he has at least two) and Ron (Sydney).
Ian trying out the cabin for size.
Beautiful laminated tiller.
The decking at the front.
Just a nice photo.
HM with another Oughtred design, a Caledonian Yawl, in the background.
And here's that Caledonian Yawl again - beautiful.
This is a Eun Mara under construction in a Goolwa boatbuilders. The workshop was not open to the public, hence the reflections in the glass. The cabin top has been raised to accommodate a very tall owner!
Alec received his new trailer in September 2007
Here are some photos of Heather Mary, received from Alec on 22 November 2007.
Beached at Two-Fold Bay (near Eden)
Alec sent the following photos in late January 2008. Here are the words he put up on the Eun Mara Discussion Group:
We had a wonderful sail on Two-fold bay in Eden over the New Year and went out in a 25 kt breeze.
In case any of you computer literate types want to put this on our info system I've made it into a sort of report.
Performance, Heather Mary January 2008.
Conditions, 2m swell, 1/2m seas, 15-20 kt winds.
The Heather Mary handled the conditions extremely well, we were four adults and she was extremely impressive. Her weight meant that the seas did not stop her way as can happen with some trailer sailers and she ploughed on manfully (womanfully) pointing surprisingly high.
I learnt one very important lesson and as I already knew the advantage of this type of rig is to shorten it down and bring it inboard. However I left the mizzen up too long in the strengthening wind and the steering vane effect on the rudder meant that I snapped two laminations in the tiller from the strain. All fixed now with brass bands on both sides of the tiller. Thanks to the lazy-jacks I could get the mizzen down without fuss and made it back to the sheltered anchorage with no other problems.
Next time out I'm going to practice heaving-to if I can remember how to do it.
I have discarded the slab reefing and have permanently bent on reefing pennants on the luff and leach. As I have to be at the mast to reef I saw no advantage in the long lines for the slab reefing and they became a nuisance. I know some will have their throat and peak halliards taken back to the cockpit but I find that in a gaff rigged boat this leaves an awful lot of "string" in the fairly small cockpit.
With the reefed main the wind spilled from the top of the sail without pressing the boat at all. The HM was very dry with no green ones on the foredeck and the lee gunnel at least 150mm from the water. Very very impressive, well done Iain O.
I decided to see how she took the ground and intentionally ran her ashore on a falling tide and she was fine. I slept on board at an angle but it was very comfortable in the lee berth. When the tide came back in she just quietly floated off with no banging or worrying moments.
