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excelllent news ... and when you get your wayfarer, do join UKWA!

the guys in the other boat did, i slept aboard

Well, not having owned let alone sail a Drascombe the only possible reply I can give is to buy a Wayfarer, but that is a biased view, of course. I can say the Wayfarer is stable, comfortable, and compared to most open cruising boats, fast without being 'racey'. They will sail pretty close to 45 degrees to the wind and go very well upwind. They also go brilliantly downwind, particuclarly using the spinnaker in lighter conditions. They are heavy, but the boat is readily handled ashore with the right approach, and the right kit. The sailing qualities fully laden (as for a 2 week trip) are much more solid and the boat is far less ready to plane, but it still goes well. This does open up possibilities that slower boats can't consider. This passage took a little over 4 hours each way, for instance: meaning we could leave home early, drive 3 hours, set up, load and launch, and be in Fowey in time for an early supper, and be pulling the boat out just after lunchtime on the second day back where we started: that said, wind conditions were as close to ideal as they could be. The UK Wayfarer Association is super friendly, supportive and offers superb support to learn to get the best from your boat quickly and safely.

@@bigbadthesailor5173 Thanks for all that detail, I'm very tempted by the speed and ability to make progress to windward without resorting to motor. One thing about the Drascombe hull it does look after me very well in rough seas - but doesn't get very far!

@@rickyspecs Wayfarer is famous for handling the sea.

very glad to have been of service!

they do come up! several were beautifully restored in lockdown/covid times. join the UKWA and keep an eye on apollo duck. well-built wayfarers should be cherished.

Hi. If you are in the UK I'd suggest joining UKWA and/or get their Wayfarer Book. There is also a really helpful facebook group: join and have a scroll down - the important questions do come up a lot!! - its called Wayfarer Dinghy Group. all best

Thank you! Sorry I’m not in the UK, but I did find and order the Wayfarer Book from Trident, and will look into the fb group. Thank you for your advice!

exactly that Jonathan - that is where they were when I got the boat - on ugly homemade alu mounts - I fashioned the rather eccentric mahogany mounts when I was very much a newbie 10y ago after breaking the spi halyard mount one day. However, they are really useful for toe-holds for long-legged helms like me - I tend to use them instead of the toe-straps. There is another set below with the spi up/down lines. All very racey - I made a decision to live with all the rope and keep the 'raceable' set-up; we like it but a lot of cruisers regard my boat with horror ...!

@@bigbadthesailor5173 ahh interesting, makes sense. I rather like the setup with 'racing' controls - after all, racers are looking for systems which work quickly and effectively which they can reach from any point in the boat, which is actually very useful for cruising!

Ah, the compass mount - it needs work - that was a temporary fix. I'll keep you posted! The urge to complete a plan vs holding it lightly in the face of changing circumstances is an art, which I can't claim to have mastered at all. There were some other factors in the decision such as the timing of tides, the presence of races to avoid etc. We were both excited to try the Mull of Kintyre, but we were also aware that there is probably a reason why to our knowledge no-one has done it in a Wayfarer. The experience that afternoon was of being 'told' to turn back. There is no doubt that had the pain in my back not started up that we would have had a lovely week pottering around the firth of clyde and crinan canal! You know it's right when the enormous disappointment is easily outweighed by a sense of releif.

@@bigbadthesailor5173 Interesting. I might think about 3D printing something... Yes, you're absolutely right. Good decisions generally feel right after you've made them!

@@WayfarerAdventures we should have a quick vid call about this, as I have a design in mind for this (and a boom end camera mount) - I generally make things up with wood and epoxy, but a printed version would be better. I think you have my email?

@@bigbadthesailor5173 I have - I'll get in touch!

We've sailed further close hauled in similar winds/seas before, but well rested, the wind was forecast, and in company. It was a gut decision - reached more or less simultaneously by myself and my son - but analysing it in more detail: the thing with unpredicted winds is you loose the confidence in a passage plan based on ... wind direction and speed! In the cool light of day, safe ashore it is possible to analyse what was going on with the winds around Arran, but with bucket loads of water coming over the bow several times a minute and the effort of keeping the boat stable such reflective processes aren't really possible. We'd been held up in Lamlash (SIM trouble) had an even larger and more challenging passage slated for the next day: our last chance to round the Mull of Kintyre. Exhaustion is the enemy of safe sailing particularly in such a small boat and unaccompanied. We would have been knackered by the time we reached either Polliwilline or Campbeltown. It was disappointing, but neither of us doubted the wisdom of the decision for a second.

It all depends on what you mean by 'protection'! Appears to be the best anchorage on Arran for yachts. In a Wayfarer you can use nooks and crannies denied to keel boats. Excellent holding ground near the village (muddy sand) if you've not got a mooring. It could be very uncomfortable in an easterly I suppose and the bay is big enough to generate its own 'fetch'. The pilot books for the clyde will say more. Excellent chandlery and facilities in the 'village'.

@@bigbadthesailor5173 Thanks for replying, happy sailing.

I agree it is a highwayman’s hitch, 3 interlocking loops, but to me a new way of tying it.

The design is sitting on a sweet spot andhas a combination of qualities hasn't ever been bettered: many boats have specific advantages in one area, but generally at the loss of another. Hartley Boats are the copyright holders, and their business is all about selling new Mark IV boats, which is of course their perogative. Wooden Wayfarers do come up for sale and if you wanted to 'build' one the only avenue - and still be able to call it a Wayfarer - is a rebuild/restore ... it has been done.

Wayfarers were indeed origannly made from designer Ian Proctor's build plans, often as a kit from likes of Smallcraft, UK, a few decades back. I had the plans from my 1st Wayfarer, back in the 80s, but sadly now long gone. You could try contact th UK Wayfarer Owners Association.

Hi John. I know Roger but have never been on one of his trips, and my boat lives in the UK, so it must be another one! The Blue Wayfarer (Kwela) on the other hand appears all over the place in Roger's book.

Hi. Thanks, and I do take your point: I will do this for at least one future video. However, often the ambient noise doesn't record as you would hear it on the boat, you just get a lot of wind-roar, bangs and other somewhat unpleasant noise on the phone/camera and often there is chat and other stuff going on. This is because you actually see here about 30% of everything I recorded: I don't leave the cameras running for long periods. Also I usually sail with my son, and the music is often music he has shared with me. On this trip, this music was actually running through my head during the entire voyage - it was the actual soundtrack of my experience!.

@@bigbadthesailor5173 I understand. Thank you!

It is an Osprey. The boat was designed by Ian Proctor in the early 1950s, in the same competition that created the Flying Dutchman and 505: it just missed becoming an olympic class because Proctor helped the other designers improve their boats! It is now mainly sailed in the UK. They are brilliant fun, like a big old sports car. Best thing is they plane upwind!

the sailing bit is generally the easiest so long as you've had enough hours on the water - but there are plenty of challenges on most of these trips and those are the times you don't have the camera out - you're too busy dealing with it!!

we definitely didn't sail TO France in them - Britanny ferries from Plymouth to Roscoff - but they are great little boats nevertheless!

Ah well, never mind!

To compliment is to praise. To complement is to complete. Which did you mean?