Excellent Day

Sailed my Farrier Trailer Tri 720 down Middle River onto Chesapeake Bay. Wind 10kts out of the north, tide coming in/up the channel. (This is my fifth sail ever with this boat - climbing the learning curve.) Out around the back of Hart Miller tacking through Pleasure Island channel circling back.

(for my sailing-nerd friends:)
List of issues working/worked through:
Centerboard lid leaks looks resolved. Wound up rebedding the whole top lid with butyl tape. Discovered a number of screws stripped in their holes. Replaced with larger/longer.
No more mast pumping or wobble. Retuned the inner shrouds and forestay. Added another block to the shroud tensioning tackle. Will replace rig with even more mechanical advantage.
Had been suffering with engine trouble - wouldn't start. Checked through all the standard things just short of a carb overhaul (did that at the season's start two months ago.) Think I discovered the issue. I thought I was being smart by buying a NEW gas tank. The tank came with a fresh new gas line. I now am pretty sure that fresh NEW line has a reduced inner diameter to the hose (a little hard to measure.) Replaced with the old tank + old line. Also tried out something I saw online - starting with throttle to 1/2 (instead of the lower 'start' position.) Don't want to jinx it (but it looks to be working...)

Added tel-tails to the leech of the main and made myself familiar with those on the luff of the jib. As far as upwind sailing, have begun experimenting with different track positions of the jib sheet block based on behavior of jib's weather tel-tails. Also paying attention to keeping stream attached at main's leech and keeping an eye out for backwinding by the jib. Downwind I'll be thinking about a whisker pole arrangement...dunno.

Speaking of downwind, out on the run on the backside of the island (probably in the full tidal current of the shipping channel) I think I experienced the full effect of tide against wind. We clipped along nicely but the boat would yaw maybe as much as 30 degrees every few waves. Not scary, just curious. Since it was a somewhat downwind run the idea occurred to me to pull up the centerboard. Not sure but I think it reduced the yaw maybe by a third to half?

The upwind return gave plenty of opportunity to experiment with pointing limit. I only have a mechanical windex at the masthead that I installed myself and whose angle-indicator vanes were squashed and I hand-re-bent. I have almost no idea what I should expect with this boat. Is it correct that if the indicator vanes are about 30 degrees to dead-ahead then my pointing limit is 30 degrees apparent wind? That results in considerably less than 30 degrees true - maybe 50 degrees true. (I can get my headstay pretty flat now.)

Since relocating the engine/engine mount I've lost the tiller-engine linkage (while I figure out the new geometry.) But the repetition of departing and returning has now found me preferring to raise the rudder and hand steer in reverse with engine alone the last 50 feet. The engine on the current bracket can turn 180 degrees port to starboard. Maneuvering between the pilings feels almost 'surgical'.

While I was still stumped by my engine 'problem' I began exploring electric motor options (reliable, quiet, smooth.) I do have a 550watt trolling motor I've used on my beach cat. I gave it a proper test on a 10-knot up-wind day. Very clearly it won't suffice. Even at full draw I was doing maybe one knot. I think that suggests the EPropulsion 1000Watt Spirit 1.0 would be right at its limit. The 3000Watt Navy 3.0 probably would work but that's a lot of money, all its range-anxiety, and the additional weight of a 48Volt bank. And, the Tohatsu appears to more reliable for the time being (fingers and toes crossed.) I do find the noise tiresome - probably need to adjust my attitude.
Lots of other learning details - when raising, detaching rear lazy jacks to prevent mainsail fouling , learning the jib sheet release/headsail furling dance in coming about..., etc.

I really didn't understand how much I'd appreciate/use my tiller pilot (Raymarine ST1000.) For now, in combination with my particular rudder, it allows me to literally dial in a course heading and then go focus on sail trim. Then I can iterate between the sail and the heading, making small adjustments, observing the results. It does eliminate the physical feedback of one hand on the tiller the other on a live sheet. I bet once I get the most basics peculiar to this boat/rig, I'll find myself relying on it less. But when motoring alone (sails safely furled) out the river and back, it is pure luxury.