The week before we left La Palma we had the most appalling weather there. Due to the way moorings were laid for local boats, we were all anchored so that we tended to lie across the wind. The anchorage was extremely crowded, as Sou’westerlies were still prevailing, with, as yet, no sign of the Trades. The wind built up fairly gradually until most people had anchors and warps at all four corners of their boats. Then it really started to blow! Those that had anemometers said that they were regularly jammed at 60 + knots. The gusts were such that Badger (admittedly initially tender) was heeling down to her gunwales. We’d lowered the sails out of the lifts to the deck. Our new neighbours in a 32 ton ferrocement ketch dragged onto us twice. The first time we helped them reset their stern anchor, but the second time, another boat had dragged its stern anchor over their starboard bow anchor which meant that if we reset their bow anchor they’d have had to lean on us during that operation. We had boats downwind of us so couldn’t move. In the end we lent them our length of spare chain 100’ of 3” which they secured to their spare anchor. Pete then helped them row it out and they managed to haul off. We passed the chain to them hand over hand!!
This weather lasted on and off for three days and nights, and when it subsided, most people were too shaken to do much for the next couple of days. You can imagine that we welcomed the advent of the Trades with some relief! We had an extremely pleasant crossing in retrospect, but could not fail to compare Badger’s tendency to roll with our previous crossing when we sailed in a 27’ Wharram catamaran that went downwind like she was on rails. In Badger’s defence, I must add that compared with a round bilge boat her rolling is minimal we were comparing her with a catamaran!
We had a 30 day passage from La Palma to Roadtown, to Aola. We had fairly light winds. We came up with St. Maarten after 29 days, but continued as we wanted to be in Roadtown for Christmas. Our friends in the aforementioned ketch (52’) took 30 days to Antigua as did another friend in a Bowman 36. We all left at similar times. There were some fast passages, but we got the impression of slower than average journeys. (In Stormalong, our catamaran, we took 22 days!)
We spent from Christmas until June in the British Virgin Islands. We had a good time on the BVI. Pete did a lot of sailing elsewhere and returned convinced of the virtues of our junk rig. The sailing there is truly tremendous and we had ample opportunity to compare Badger with other boats. To windward she is, shall we say, comfortable. Pete frets a little, but is comforted somewhat by the fact that as the charter boats are so badly sailed, they usually keep pace with us. Racing boats just leave us for dead. However, off the wind is of course a different story and we reckoned nothing under forty feet could pass us without a spinnaker if we were wung out.
We left the Virgins in June and had a very enjoyable passage to Norfolk, Virginia, avoiding any unpleasant in the Bermuda-Triangle or in the Gulf Stream or around Cape Hatteras..
We travelled up the Chesapeake and then hauled Badger out for a re-fit. The continuing saga of our rudder has now, we trust, come to an end. We fitted a skeg for’ard of it. This was done a) to protect the rudder and b) in the hope of improving downwind stability. Whether the latter is a success we cannot yet say an ocean passage or at least sailing in some decent sized seas, is needed before we can tell. A slight disadvantage has come up of course. Prior to the installation of the skeg, Badger would sail herself to windward with the helm frce under most combinations of sail. A great virtue. Now we have to twitch and twiddle the sheets to achieve this desirable state of affairs. However the addition of the skeg did not remove the manoeuverability, which we were concerned might happen. We also – horror of horrors – installed an engine!
As we have had a (completely erroneous) reputation for purists, due to not having had an engine before, I’ll explain why we took this aesthetically retrograde step.
1. In an increasing number of anchorages, space is at a premium. Getting in under a handy rig and with a manoeuvrable boat is rarely a problem. Getting out frequently is. On this side of the Atlantic people generally anchor on rope and the recommended scope is from 7:1 to 10:1. Therefore boats are ranging about a bit and often end up over one’s own anchor if the wind shifts slightly. Tacking out of a crowded anchorage can therefore be somewhat hairraising, but more importantly can sometimes be impossible. Under power the offending vessel can be gently nudged out of the way.
2. The novelty of sitting for 6 hours, 2 miles from one’s destination in a flat calm has worn off, after 10 years.
3. An engine means that you can take friends out for a daysail with a reasonable expectancy of bringing them home again on the same day. It also means that you can arrange to meet people at some future date.
4. An engine allows access to places that are risky under sail, e.g. areas of flukey winds and narrow channels. It also means that we can go down the Intracoastal Waterway.
In many ways, we regret our decision, but it proved its worth during the first week of use in the Chesapeake. We took friends for a sail, we made a rendezvous and we tied Badger up securely to our friend’s dock which we attempted to sail into, but were foiled when the wind disappeared.
By the way the machine in question is a Volvo Penta 73 hp. saildrive. The actual engine part, for those interested, is the Honda 4 stroke outboard. We also went back from the wheel to the tiller. We prefer a tiller.
In our journeys so far we’ve met only one otter junk rigged boat – a Sunbird nicknamed ‘Nappy Liner’.
We are still delighted with Badger and haven’t yet seen a boat we’d swap with. Her greatest virtue (rig apart) is undoubtedly her comfort both in harbour and at sea. The initial tenderness and heavy masts, which at first are disconcerting, combine to give her a very easy motion and her flat bottom all but eliminates rolling in harbour and reduces it greatly at sea. The junk rig causes a lot of interest.
However, many people happily admit its virtues, but would not have it themselves, not because they want to race, or sail continually to windward, but because, everyone has Bermudan Rig’. We were asking for quotes from sailmakers at the Annapolis Boat Show. Some refused to quote and one didn’t even understand what we were talking about!