Although Escapade went back on the water in February and had the mast put back on in May, there was still something missing…the sails. We had last seen them in September 2016 when we went on the sea trials as part of the process of buying the boat. However, as Escapade was down on the ‘meadow’ at Fox’s Boatyard, the sails had been removed when the mast and rigging were taken off. They had then been stored away safely for the next three years.
Martin had booked holiday for the end of August and this was to be our maiden voyage proper: a week out of the marina, learning about our boat and how to work the sails!
Here we go!
After much searching, we located the sails and one sunny (but not too windy) day in August they made it to the boat. The next job was to work out which way up the went and how to attach them to the new rigging. Never having done this before, there was much pondering and considering before we endeavoured to hoist them. There were also several trips to the chandlery for bits we didn’t know we needed and conversations with various, more experienced sailors (thanks Andy and Janice from Destiny and Oli from Oyster)
Both the genoa and the mainsail needed to be securely attached to a halyard, before being carefully fed into a track and being winched to the top of the furler and mast. In the case of the mainsail this was easier said than done and required a very specialised tool to feed the sail into the track in the mast…a wooden spatula – well they do say that everything on a boat should should be able to be used for at least two jobs!
