Just a quick post to say a big thank you to Jerry the Rigger for our lurvely new furling line.

We had a very fast sail over to the Folly at the end of May, with my friend Rad onboard. I met Rad on my inline skating instructors’ course and he has never been sailing before. It turned out to be a bit of a wet and windy introduction! We had a steady F7 on the way across, tacking all the way, but of course being in the Solent the water wasn’t quite so rough, thankfully.

We’re still learning about miley: the best helming position is to stand up legs a-kimbo with a foot on a cockpit locker lid either side, so it’s easy to see over the raised saloon. We hit a big wave and I ducked to hide behind the pilothouse (which works a charm) but unfortunately I was a little too enthusiastic and whacked my chin against the grab rail thing on the binnacle. Ouch.

Still, we had a cracking sail, and a well-deserved evening in the Folly to relax… a delicious meal followed by, you guessed it, a spot of table dancing. And boy did we dance!

On the way back to Gosport we uncurled the gibanoa along with main and mizzen. Unfortunately the furling line jumped all the way off the furling drum; we noticed this not long before we wanted to curl away the gibanoa, so decided to leave it up and furl it away in Portsmouth Harbour as it was a bit blowy out there.

Oops! Wrong decision! If we thought it was blowy in the Solent… well, the wind in the harbour was really going for it! Rad and I went up to the bow and tried to go up and furl it away by hand, but we were no match for it. And it really was blowing! So I went back and took the helm whilst James scuttled forward. He found a better grip on the foil and managed to slowly, painfully furl it away by hand. Then he reached a sticking point - not only had the furling line jumped out of the drum, but it had wrapped itself up in a big mess around it, so James couldn’t furl any more away.

Cue the command for a knife! We have lots and lots and lots of knives onboard. It was just my luck that the one I grabbed to give to Rad to take to James happened to be the bluntest of the lot. Oh well, another lesson learnt - knives are now sharpened!

James managed to cut the furling line and curl the rest of the gibanoa away and we made it back alongside in Royal Clarence. What an action-packed first sail for Rad! He loved it, and was an excellent crew member - welcome back any time.

Finally happy to be back out on the water after out rotten bowsprit fiasco, we couldn’t believe something else had now gone wrong that would prevent us from going out again - so we told Jerry the Rigger of our predicament, and as ever, Jerry came up trumps within a couple of days - with a brand new Selden furling line!You can’t beat Jerry for customer service and a real desire to help sailors out.

Thanks Jerry! We owe you a sail!

Jerry working on Miley’s rigging