From the Drawing Board
Occasional ramblings from
a Small Craft Designer

by John Welsford

Out on the harbour in Varuna

Varuna, A Vedic God, “Keeper of the Celestial Waters” also one of the veteran steam ferries that plied Paul Grooms home waters for many decades until her retirement in the 70s

Paul Groom is a treasure, he and Craig Gordon live about 250 km apart and would not have known of each others existence if I’d not introduced them for mutual support in building their Pathfinder cruising dinghies. He and Craig hit it off really well sharing ideas and experiences and as designer it has been great to have the two of them building what were effectively the prototypes . So it was with real pleasure that I read Pauls email a couple of weeks ago telling me that although the weather had been seriously windy that launching day for his boat, a few weeks work ahead of Craigs one, had been an unqualified success, the boat performing well under jib and mizzen only in weather that would ave been pretty trying in an untested boat and with an inexperienced crew.

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Drawing a new design is a matter of applying a combination of experience and academic theory. In the case of Pathfinder I had several predecessors in the water in quite large numbers, and had a good handle on how the type works, but to hear that the first of a new design is working as intended is always great, and Pathfinder was reported as being well balanced, powerful, stable and fast which really made my day.

A couple of weeks after the good news about the new baby , Paul rang to say that he was bringing Varuna to Craigs home waters in Tauranga an hours drive from me, and wondered if I would like a day out , would I? Try and stop me!

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We pulled up at the public boatramp in Tauranga with not a breath of wind around, glassy flat calm but the fat little clouds over the land suggested that there would be a sea breeze a little later so while I puttered around with the camera Paul and Craig rigged the boat and about 15 minutes later we were afloat.

Athough I drew the plans, and had leaned on the gunwales while the boats were being built, the amount of space in Pathfinder always surprises me, these are big spacious boats and the three of us fit in with room for a whole crowd more if needed, while the two of us were stretching out and relaxing on the seats Paul fired up the 2hp Honda and pointed us out to where a faint dark line showed the existence of a faint breeze, !/4 throttle pushing us at hull speed and the wake looking very clean with little wave action and almost no foam.

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Sailing was great, just enough wind to drift along nicely, and I must say that the boat proved able to make surprising progress in wind that we could only just feel. We sailed around , not aimlessly but it would have looked that way, just enjoying the boat, the sparkling water, the scenery, the company and the lovely autumn day. In among the big freighters, past the gofaster yachts starting the days racing off the Yacht Club jetty, along past the ferry and the fishing boats and out to the pines and sandy beaches of Matakana Island. New Zealands North eastern Coast is near tropical and with a combination of warm waters and mild climate it’s a winter sailing paradise. This is a truly lovely place and I wonder why I don’t spend more time out there.

Craig is tall, probably 6ft by my guess, Paul though is taller at 6ft 4in! Between us I would say that there is over ¼ ton of us, and we tried the boat for stability by sitting all three on the lee side deck, we got our tails splashed but not wet with about 6inches of freeboard still to go, with all that weight on one rail! Good, next? We’d been calmly wandering around up on the foredeck and the boat rocked so little that we felt able to stand and look about without hanging on, but Paul decided to see what would happen when he climbed the mast. Now this is a sailing dinghy! You don’t do that in sailing dinghies! That’s a recipe for getting wet! But no, he got up to the gaff jaws and we were not rolling about dangerously or anything. I got a photo to prove it!

I cant rave on about the boats performance in a stiff breeze, we didn’t get one. But in the few puffs we had of 8 / 10 knots she accelerated smartly and pointed up well, feeling quite neutral on the helm until the mizzen was sheeted in which gave her just a light pull on the tiller.

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After a while Paul dropped me on a jetty and sailed in circles so I could get you a few piks of the boat under sail, and sadly the wind gods chose that moment to have a rest so the shots are not real action ones, but you can see the boats proportions and shape, her rig with the mizzen well aft of the gaff main to help lessen the interference of the two sails when going to windward, and the considerable space she has inside.

We drifted along, the tide helping to make the best of the breeze as we went back over the shallows and sandbars to the other , more commercial side of the harbour, and with the clock ticking on and the tide racing out we took the last of the sea breeze, such as it was , back up the estuary to the boatramp. She makes good progress in these very light winds, leaving hardly a mark on the water while slipping along quickly enough to make headway against the tide. We all enjoyed the attention as a procession of outboard powered fishing boats large and small motored past heading for their cars and trailers, every head on board each of them turning as they passed the little gaff yawl as we lay back in comfort and peacefully drifted the last few yards back to the launching ramp.

We timed the unrigging and preparation for driving away, just over 10 minutes for the two of them to get the masts down and everything stowed. Like rigging up, it will get quicker as the crew learn the jobs but even so it doesn’t take long.

Back at Craigs place, sitting around the table having coffee in the sun while children, dog and other visitors came and went was the perfect end to an afternoon on the water. Totally relaxing, great! Cant wait until Craig finishes his Pathfinder and we can sail two of them in company.