Milestone #1: We left the driveway in Bozeman with "Duck" in tow (5,000 pounds) on Tuesday and arrived at the coast on Wednesday. The van pulled the heavy load at about 60 mph slowing down to 35 mph over the steep passes. We got 10-12 mpg.
Milestone #2: We launched at Oak Harbor on Thursday, put the mast in, and tightened the rigging. It floats!
Milestone #3: Friday morning we put on the sails and sailed for 6 hours in 6-14 knots of wind. It sails!
Milestone #4: Saturday we motored for about 6 hours from Oak Harbor to Anacortes. The 2 HP Honda pushed the boat at nearly 5 knots wide open and 4 knots at 2/3 throttle. It runs for 1 to 1 1/2 hours on about a liter of gas. Very satisfactory.
A motivation for working on this Etchells conversion project was that it was "a pretty boat".
This week at Oak Harbor was "Race Week". About 100 racing sailboats had converged for a week of racing and the harbor was full of new, light weight boats with carbon fiber masts, and aggressive racing crews.
We were overwhelmed by the barrage of attention and admiration from the racing sailors. People shouting from their boat "Pretty boat. What is it?" People on the dock inspected the boat from different angles and voiced their appreciation. It was almost funny.
So, more than you may want to know about our little project.
It is going well and we hope to use the boat for a few weeks.
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