Out again...

Officially named the Neptune 16 "Sydney II".  Sydney was the bird-mutt that I got from a rescue 7 years ago.  We had to put her down the same week that I got the Neptune 16.  Had received my registration number from the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.  Since I was putting letters on the boat anyway, I went ahead and put the name on the transom, along with an "Equipped by Duckworks" sticker.  Yep, even my boat has gone "all Boulder" with stickers.

Spent this week relocating the attachement points for the mainsheet purchase on the Neptune 16 to aft end of the cockpit coamings. Used some padeyes from duckworks for the attachements.  Made some more marine ply backing plates and epoxied them.  Again.  Had to crawl under the seats a few more times.  Again.  I need to get all the foam and paint dust out of there.  I think it gives me a sinus reaction everytime I go under.  At least the mainsheet attachement points are farther outboard and the mainsheet no longer puts pressure on the tiller.

On the downside, I can now be sure that it's not the mainsheet producing the lee helm that I noticed.  I took the boat out with a couple of freinds as crew and discovered a few things:
-She sails better with her weight forward.  The anchors were right up in the bow, there was no motor hanging off the transom. She seemed to do better with a crew in the cabin hatchway and the other two in the cockpit than she did with one over the winch on the windward side of the cockpit, and one on each side against the bulkhead. This also got the scupper out of the water.
-Taking the mains'l all the way to the top and leaving the foot a little loose seems to produce a good baggy sail shape for light wind.
-With all sail up, she has a fair amount of lee helm.  This disappears when I was sailing under the main alone (the wind picked up pretty stong and we had a kiddo onboard) with only one other crew in the cabin hatchway. This might be the encouragement I need to try a gaff main.  It would add a little sail area, put the center of effort farther aft, allow me to try a heads'l, and give her a traditional rig :-)  If the COE is too far aft, I can just raise the swing keel a bit.

All in all, it was really nice day with light winds to start, building up to a fun chop that threw a little spray at us.  I remember at one point we were on a broad reach keeping up with 1-2' waves going the same direction.  It was wonderful!