Return home

After 5 years in Houston, we have now moved back to Brittany and off course, Kerness too! I did not try to go across the pond sailing Kerness! There are many people crossing the ocean with all kind of embarkations, but Kerness is still a small boat!

The container arrived directly at our new home. Kerness is now in our garage and has a friend! The friend is called "Trim". It is a Norwegian pram, built by my father about 20 years ago. It took him some time (years...) to finish Trim, so this is why I write "about"... So now he is proud to be sailing it with the grand sons!

So Trim and Kerness can now sail together in the river in front of our house.

Afternoon sail

After finding a spot for Lady C. (http://sportboat18.blogspot.com/2011/07/looking-for-place-for-boat.html), I , launched Kerness from the Seabrook Sail club yesterday. The wind was coming from the south, the the club's slips are really exposed. When the wind is coming from the North or West, there is not enough water there and when it is coming from South and East, it is very exposed. I am not sure why the club does not try to protect the area better. In any case, yesterday launching and recovery of Kerness what not easy. No damage though. I was very careful!
The wind started to blow around 2:30 pm. I was done with rigging up Kerness around 4:00 pm. I went south accross the Clear Lake channel, very busy at this time, against the 15 knt wind. I sailed for about 2 hours against the wind, maintaining 3 knots. There are so many pelican fishing and flying around in that area, it was amazing. At half way, about 20 pelicans flying in squadron passed me at full speed, with the wings at about 1/4" from the not so calm surface.
Around 6: pm, it was time to turn around. I could see one fin, from what I believe was a dolphin. Then I sailed downwind along the coast, average 5 to 6 knots, with some surf at 7.2 knots...! The beach is covered with luxury houses that all maintain a nice front yard and off course a boat ramp! I took a look at one smaller offshore artificial port, where boat are all kept out of the water through well designed winch systems. Passing Kemah boardwalk, there was a lot of disorganized waves and that is certainly a place that I will avoid next time! Plus there is plenty loud music and noise. Keep away!

Kerness is really a nice little boat, with great sailing capability and yesterday was really a lovely sailing day!

Thanksgiving eve

Today was a cool clear sky and an unstable 10 knot wind coming from the north sector.

We sailed from Seabrook with a friend and his proa. OK, Kerness is not a racing beast, so there is no point in comparing the proa and Kerness. I was doing a 3-4 knots going up wind and 4-5 knots going down. We sailed for 2 hours and I enjoyed every second of it.

New boat

Today, I thought about building a new boat: Sport Boat 18. It is a very wide boat for its length and looks a bit more sophisticated to build than Kerness. I bought the set of drawing to have a look...
http://www.bateau.com/studyplans/SB18_study.htm?prod=SB18

Seabrook Sailing Club

Last year, before we started the construction of Kerness, we went to visit the sailing club in Seabrook. I found the place very friendly and we decided to go there last Saturday. The weather was perfect, nice wind and temperature, beautifull sun. It was the first time Kerness was in the water since we came back from Britany. We were very busy until now and Kerness needed some care after the Texas 200. During my inspection, I found that the rudder was cracked and had a big dent caused by an unidentified submerged object. I sanded and filled everything and applied one layer of fiberglass with some epoxy on each side of the rudder. I did so on the centerboard, at construction. But for several unexcusable reasons, such as lack of time, didn't do it on the rudder. So what should happen, indeed happened: the centerboard is still in perfect shape and the rudder was cracked. I don't know exactly when, but for sure during the Texas 200. So now, it is repaired. I also sanded slightly the bottom and laid a new coat of black paint. At the Texas 200, several razorblade oyster shells came scratching Kerness hull. Now it is like new again.

So the kids and I went for a little sail at Seabrook. We did very well going north, upwind in the bay. We sailed side by side with a Sunfish, Pol was steering Kerness, following the Sunfish ahead of us. Then Pol wanted to follow a much bigger blue sail boat, I imagine she was around 50 ft. We almost beat her in the calm, but the wind pick up again and we were left behind. Joël was affraid to have Pol steering with the brise coming, so I took back the control bar at this point. At some distance the Sunfish had capsized, so we turned around to see if some assistance was required. Arriving on location, the Sunfish was back up right with the upper portion of her sail covered with sticky mud, that the mast had dragged from the bottom. Both sailors were safely back on board, so we continued our way toward the coast. Then we turned again and headed back to Seabrook, downwind and surfing. The Sunfish was going faster than us in those conditions...


On arrival, Joël took the camera and got a couple pictures...

Origine

This is summer time, time for the Breton familly to go back to our roots in Brittany. When we are not in Houston, we stay here in a quaint traditional little farm at the extrem westernest tip of the old Europe.

My first try at boat building was a tender for our first boat . The boat was replaced last year, but the little tender pram is still in use. This little pram is ideal for oar sculling and the kids started to learn the right movement. Around here, they say that kids learn this just after they start to walk! It is so simple. One can barelly see the oar movement and the boat goes forward gently.

I made my own drawings for this pram, using a freeware: "carene". The constraint I had was to cut the planks in one 8 ft plywood sheet only, because I did not know how to join 2 planks in a scarf at that time. I used exactly the same stitch and glue technic as for KerNess, with the exact same success: quickly built, strong, light and good looking. After about 9 years of careless use, it is still in good condition.

More pictures from KerNess at the Texas 200

Thanks to the participants who published those photos.