The last stages of preparation

After months of maintenance and a last few days of hectic provisioning and packing, Auriga finally left her berth at Fox's marina on Monday! More details on the first leg to follow very shortly in a dedicated post.

But let's go back of a couple of day, and let's see what we've been up to in the last few days before the big departure.

What shall we take with us?

Final Preparations - A Tour

Yacht Auriga and crew are ready to leave as soon as the weather moderates. You can follow our adventures on the live tracker, starting Monday morning!

Matt, Giulia and Igor

For now, enjoy a mini-tour of Auriga - in sailing condition for the first time since last summer!

Auriga goes sailing

Having finished most preparations, we used the last of the Saturday sunshine to go sailing!

Having spent all winter and, unfortunately, most of the summer, prepairing the boat for the grand voyage, it was a huge relief for all three of us to finally hoist the sails! With gale-force winds forecast for Sunday, we made it as far as the Orwell bridge before returning to Fox's Marina Yacht Club just in time for our final round of Fox's Deluxe Burgers.

The weather is forecast to moderate on Monday morning, whereupon we will set off for the South Coast.

Message from Yacht Auriga

The weather in Ipswich is rainy, so we are testing the satcomms!

Running backstays

The inner forestay, when tensioned, will bend the mast and sag, unless the mast is supported from the opposite side. This is usually achieved with running backstays (runners) - a pair of wires attaching to the mast near the inner (or, on fractional rigs, only) forestay and tensioned alternately, with the windward one taking the load while the leeward one is eased. The running backstays are needed to fly the staysail on the inner stay, just like the main backstay must be tensioned to fly the jib on the main forestay.

Running backstay (right) supporting the mast

Haul-out weekend

The first weekend of July had been reserved for out-of-the-water maintenance. Auriga was lifted on Friday evening, and we had until Sunday evening to complete all the inspection, repairs and painting.
Our main goal was to clean the hull and renew the antifouling - a layer of special paint previnting growth of any wildlife on our hull.

A video tour of Auriga

Over the weekend, Richard took his junk-rigged Tammy Norie up the Orwell to Fox's marina. We had a chance to have a look around each other's yachts and exchange tips on equipment and maintenance. While Auriga was out of the water, Richard filmed a quick tour of the boat. Enjoy!