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Grith said..
We sailed over 8 hours under asymmetrical spinnaker yesterday coming back into the Whitsundays from the outer reef. Not many trailer sailers ever venture out there!

How do you stop the boom permanently throwing a shadow across that solar panel near the mast? It's my understanding that even a relatively narrow boom or mast shadow across even part of it would render it almost useless.

Is that just a storage position and it is removable to place elsewhere when at anchor?

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BeamReach said..
Grith...Well Done !! Looks like a perfect day !!
Very scenic!!
Did you anchor overnight in the outer reef area?
How many NM was it?
Cheers

We anchored for one night on Line Reef as we assessed the waterfall entrance into Hardy Lagoon. We then made our way in on high tide over what turned out to be one of the two dingy only waterfalls. No wonder it felt like a maze of close calls on Bommies! We stayed a further two nights there in Hardy Lagoon snorkelling and I did a partial bottom scrub as the keel was sticking.
Super moon rise whilst we were anchored on Hardy Lagoon. I happened to be out in the dingy assessing the flow out the waterfall entrance and on the way back to the yacht the moon came up just as the sun was going down!

Grith...Thanks for the update.. The water is like glass and great super moon shot. Sounds like you were very lucky in Hardy Lagoon.
Cheers

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julesmoto said..

Grith said..
We sailed over 8 hours under asymmetrical spinnaker yesterday coming back into the Whitsundays from the outer reef. Not many trailer sailers ever venture out there!

How do you stop the boom permanently throwing a shadow across that solar panel near the mast? It's my understanding that even a relatively narrow boom or mast shadow across even part of it would render it almost useless.

Is that just a storage position and it is removable to place elsewhere when at anchor?

We still get a surprising amount of solar input from the cabin roof mounted solar and flexible unisolar on the dodger despite shading from the boom and main a lot of the time.
However if at anchor and needing more power the cabin roof panel detaches via two thumbscrew mounts from either the port or starboard cabin top handrail and tilts up one side to rest against the boom and the flexible panel from the dodger relocates to sit on top of the stacked main in its zipped up bag. This does generate seriously more solar input. A recent comparison on our Bluetooth vitron controller chart showed approximately 200-300wh untouched per day on average whilst occasionally moving panels at anchorage generated around 500-600wh of power per day. These panels supply our house and starter batteries whilst our Bimini and targa bar mounted 720w of panels feed our EcoFlow lithium Powerpacks and are only impacted during very wet and overcast days.
Vitron power chart with panels not being moved as extra power wasn't needed.

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Grith said..

julesmoto said..

Grith said..
We sailed over 8 hours under asymmetrical spinnaker yesterday coming back into the Whitsundays from the outer reef. Not many trailer sailers ever venture out there!

How do you stop the boom permanently throwing a shadow across that solar panel near the mast? It's my understanding that even a relatively narrow boom or mast shadow across even part of it would render it almost useless.

Is that just a storage position and it is removable to place elsewhere when at anchor?

We still get a surprising amount of solar input from the cabin roof mounted solar and flexible unisolar on the dodger despite shading from the boom and main a lot of the time.
However if at anchor and needing more power the cabin roof panel detaches via two thumbscrew mounts from either the port or starboard cabin top handrail and tilts up one side to rest against the boom and the flexible panel from the dodger relocates to sit on top of the stacked main in its zipped up bag. This does generate seriously more solar input. A recent comparison on our Bluetooth vitron controller chart showed approximately 200-300wh untouched per day on average whilst occasionally moving panels at anchorage generated around 500-600wh of power per day. These panels supply our house and starter batteries whilst our Bimini and targa bar mounted 720w of panels feed our EcoFlow lithium Powerpacks and are only impacted during very wet and overcast days.
Vitron power chart with panels not being moved as extra power wasn't needed.

Thanks. Interesting.

Vela is a Sage 15 sloop. Designed by Jerry Montgomery for Sage Marine. Similar to the Lyle Hess designed M15 for Montgomery Boats. Both companies are no longer producing boats. Cruising equivalent of minimalist uber lightweight backpacking. Some people have enjoyed cruising in the M15 and S15s. Even to the extremes. Back in the '80s Michael Mann sailed his M15 from California to Hawaii.

From my experiences the S/M 15s are decent big sea and heavy air boats. Bit like a cork in large seas. 5.2kt hull speed, but Vela has hit 8kts "surfing" down swells and not broaching or pitchpoling. Did experience a +50kt bare pole knockdown. Once the gust dropped the boat popped back up.

Home waters are the western end of L. Superior around the Apostle Is. National Lakeshore. Back in the '80s I use to tour the islands for weekend to week long kayak trips. Seeing the sailboats always had me thinking someday. Learned to sail on Lasers and 420s. Eventually took early retirement and purchased Vela. Thinking time to cruise the islands and nearshore waters. But..... My on water passion is windsurfing. The nearshore F4 and stronger winds are not frequent enough. The NOAA Nearshore Marine forecasts are semi useless. Up here we more or less look out the window and drop everything to go windsurfing when there is decent wind. Cruising will be for when the body no longer enjoys windsurfing.

If unaware. Check out trailersailor.com There are a number of forum members who are into cruising and trailer sailor cruising get togethers.

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OldGuy3 said..
Vela is a Sage 15 sloop. Designed by Jerry Montgomery for Sage Marine. Similar to the Lyle Hess designed M15 for Montgomery Boats. Both companies are no longer producing boats. Cruising equivalent of minimalist uber lightweight backpacking. Some people have enjoyed cruising in the M15 and S15s. Even to the extremes. Back in the '80s Michael Mann sailed his M15 from California to Hawaii.

From my experiences the S/M 15s are decent big sea and heavy air boats. Bit like a cork in large seas. 5.2kt hull speed, but Vela has hit 8kts "surfing" down swells and not broaching or pitchpoling. Did experience a +50kt bare pole knockdown. Once the gust dropped the boat popped back up.

Home waters are the western end of L. Superior around the Apostle Is. National Lakeshore. Back in the '80s I use to tour the islands for weekend to week long kayak trips. Seeing the sailboats always had me thinking someday. Learned to sail on Lasers and 420s. Eventually took early retirement and purchased Vela. Thinking time to cruise the islands and nearshore waters. But..... My on water passion is windsurfing. The nearshore F4 and stronger winds are not frequent enough. The NOAA Nearshore Marine forecasts are semi useless. Up here we more or less look out the window and drop everything to go windsurfing when there is decent wind. Cruising will be for when the body no longer enjoys windsurfing.

If unaware. Check out trailersailor.com There are a number of forum members who are into cruising and trailer sailor cruising get togethers.

Thanks for the tip on trailersailor.com. I am already an active member of the Australian version trailersailerplace.com.au. Our Imexus 28 yacht is at the other extreme end of trailerable yachts not the micro camping end which I have also done a lot of previously commencing cruising a Hartley 16 many many years ago!

We have now returned home to SE South Australia after over 8 weeks cruising The Whitsundays in a trailer sailer. It took four days of daylight only driving not months of slog down the east coast, though Bass Straight and into the wind usually across to SA. We rushed home instead of the planned leisurely drive with occasional short exploratory short cruises as we were remotely and sight unseen negotiating the purchase of a property suddenly for sale here in our unknown corner of the world. Successful. We purchased most trailer sailer owners dream ( not the house which is modest and needs an upgrade) a 1708sqm block with sweeping water views and it's own boat ramp and jetty for about the price of the worst freestanding house in the worst suburb in Sydney. In Sydney a property with these features (and perhaps a few other advantages ) could run into tens of millions! Our current home is also waterfront with its own jetty but on a fairly tight block unable to accommodate all our water toys and difficult to launch some from with twin level embankments and high rock retaining walls.

The new place is just around the corner still also accessible mast up on trailer to the high quality new rarely used local boat ramp which is diagonally opposite our existing much newer two storey home.
Given the current very elderly owners used to have a 26 foot Bayliner powerboat which is actually much deeper draft than our 28 foot Imexus and store it and launch it at home, I feel I shouldn't need the lovely new council boat ramp anymore.

We also own the vacant block next to our current house but I was struggling to design a new home to fit on there that could still accommodate the yacht on trailer and our truck camper. Our now two waterfront homes and a waterfront vacant block still cost way less altogether than just my previous home in rural NSW but we will sell the vacant block to fund the renovation of the newly purchased one and probably rent the existing home which had been our original intention for it following our proposed building a new home on our block next door.

It is a little remote here being about an hour and five minutes SE of Adelaide but we are close to the highways to both Melbourne and Sydney and can even dodge Adelaide with our huge travelling package when heading north to QLD, NT and NW WA via going up the middle as we have just returned from doing.

All this new life and toys were made possible by a recombination couple selling both their modest mid range homes in NSW, retiring early and moving to exceptionally cheap rural SA as a base to travel, adventure and sail from. We missed a promised cruise with my daughter on the Hawkesbury on the way home so she flew down here and we did a 6 day cruise of The Coorong instead.

If that is your letter in the Aug 2024 Afloat - well done including the FB page.

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r13 said..
If that is your letter in the Aug 2024 Afloat - well done including the FB page.

Yes and yes!:)
The Facebook page Trailer Sailer Cruising Australia has really taken off now with over 3700 members and multiple posts and comments most days.
It's encouraging to see some renewed interest in trailer sailer sailing/cruising. Personally I am getting cabin fever here in Wellington East renovating our new retirement home instead of adventuring in the Kimberley's as was planned for this winter. However having rashly purchased our new retirement home here in Wellington East SA whilst still out cruising in the Whitsundays last year she who must be obeyed has demanded we finish the Reno and move in before venturing off again on yacht or in camper. Tradies are so hard to secure at present the whole process has been dragging on and expensive!:(
The compensation should be the ability to see our yacht ready for sailing in a heartbeat from all the main rooms in the new house.
Providing visiting friends and guests with sunset sailing cruises should be a breeze. :)

Finally back to sailing again after over 6 months of renovating our hopefully forever new home in Wellington East SA. Far too long away from sailing with only the occasional kayak paddle to ease the pain! Last weekend we did our first cruise in company with the Trailer Sailer Association of South Australia which commenced at Wellington allowing us just to sail over to join them. Our current waterfront home and adjoining vacant waterfront block will be sold after we move around the corner to our new place which is now just waiting for kitchen and laundry bench tops and some tiling before we can move. Wellington East is a great spot for a trailer sailer based retirement or online working life ( fibre to the home) and property here is still amazingly cheap for shallow draft navigable waterfront homes. Our lake and dock depths here can be as shallow as 1.4metres so no deep keel yachts unfortunately. We are about an hour and 10 minutes from Adelaide by mainly freeway and 8 minutes to our local rural town Tailem Bend. Mast up access to the public boat ramp with launching pontoon is available due to underground power and the side lake we are located on is 4 knot powerboat restricted eliminating the wake boat/jetski disturbance experienced by most Murray River waterfront homes.
Three day cruise on Lake Alexandrina and the Murray.
Our current home 4 bed 2 bath two storey home and adjoining vacant block both sheltered and north facing soon for seperate or joint sale. Both on 756sqm. $900,00 and $400,000 respectively.
Backyard view over to the excellent little used public boat ramp and picnic area.
We would love to welcome some more trailer sailer owners to our little piece of paradise.

Finally back cruising by trailer sailer again! Seen here sunset happy hour with other members of the Trailer Sailer Association of SA currently on a 14 day Gippsland Lakes cruise in company. Shot taken half way down Bunga Arm with nothing but a narrow stretch of sand dunes separating us from the ocean. Too many for a cockpit based happy hour so everyone collected on the beach. :)

PS Waterfront vacant block back in Wellington East sold and settled but we still have a waterfront house to cleanup the gardens and sell upon our return.

We are back from cruising the Gippsland Lakes for four weeks now and as usual I am hard at further modifications required or highlighted on our recent cruise.
Firstly a Bimini support again stripped its screws (we tow with Bimini and Dodger erected ) and this time a bigger screw wasn't an option so an access hatch to the previously inaccessible area was needed to fit a reinforcement plate and nuts and bolts. This also allowed relocating my tackle box to this area removing it from being buried under fenders, lines and covers deep in a cockpit locker. Also my desalinator I had made portable had its anti vibration feet trimmed and handle also trimmed which now allows it to stand in my generator box and stay in that position in use instead of needing to be relocated and lashed to my swim platform. This has also opened the option to carry 2 further 20l fuel containers or my Honda eu10 generator also in this box. The choice would be dictated by the proposed cruise and timing with winter being tough on solar electricity collection and long motoring distances on fuel capacity. Unfortunately our next proposed big cruise to The Kimberley's for 3/4 months could do with both but this isn't feasible.

One more advantage of having a trailer sailer as your cruising yacht is longer term secure storage. We are off overseas to share chartering some yachts with friends and then one by ourselves. Polish chartering is remarkably cheap and the charter yacht we have chosen to sail by ourselves is very close in size and layout to our Imexus 28 but without the outrageous outboard. The lake district in Poland is what our Imexus was primarily designed for I believe but none are available for charter. Our yacht back home is secured under covers and behind high locked gates and high fences down beside our home. With some friendly neighbours and our off the beaten track very quiet location I am pretty confident that all will be safe and secure until our return in a few months.
It was a tight squeeze for the yacht and our camper but my measurements all proved correct with only one stern anchor needing to be removed to stop it snagging a downpipe.