It was really blowing today (20 knots confirmed wind) so we went out and had a pretty good hard sail. Put the rail under a couple of times, and generally I was nervous about the boat the whole time.

I did get her moving pretty good though. We definitely hit hull speed on a broad reach once. All in All the old Folkboat stood up pretty well to a good wind. She is very stiff, the rudder stays nice and neutral/balanced and it was fun. Except for me being worried she was going to break apart the whole time...

I still wish that I had replaced the Keel bolts this year rather than wait until I pull her. I can't see where the leak is coming from, but it is under the mast step. It got worse after this sail, and now I'm really worried. I will be sailing it down to have it pulled on Saturday, and I keep wondering if the keel will fall off before I get there. It would be the forward most bolt that is bad, so it may be nothing, but it still has me scared.

We sailed out from Shelburne Bay and all the way to the breakwater at Burlington Harbor. It is only around 5 miles, but we were sailing straight into the teethe of the wind so we did quite a bit of tacking to get there. Tom and I are pretty good at the tacking her now, so we made it look good. Today was the first time that we really needed to use the jib winches to sheet the jib, and I think that the forestay needs to be tightened, and I need more adjustment on the backstay.

The broad reach back to the bay was fast. It was a nice relaxing feeling to be going with the wind instead of against it. We made in back in about 5 minutes. We decided to head up into the lee of Red Rocks cliffs to drop the sails as it would be much more comfortable. By this time the wind was really kicking, with gusts up to 26 Knots, and waves from 2-4 ft. Finally getting behind the cliffs put the fun back into it, and once we had the sails down we motored back to the Mooring. This meant that we needed to cross with a beam sea, and Tom went forward a little early. I thought that he was going to go over board once, as he was bouncing around trying to hold on. In my eyes it was a dumb place to be.

When we got back she was leaking pretty good out of the normal places on either side, but some sawdust got things back to a slow trickle. I put on the fresh battery, and I really hope that things are ok tonight.

Going into this project I had a pretty relaxed lets go out and sail attitude, but I have been getting more and more nervous about the boat. Her almost sinking scared me, and I haven’t been able to relax while sailing her. I wish my first outing had been more gentle.

Noah