Dear Joan,

MY NESS YAWL

In the summer Bulletin the article on self-rescue by Slade Penoyre finishes ‘I cannot imagine what persuaded a highly intelligent chap like Alan Glanville to carry 90 lbs of lead in Lowly Worm. As he found out so dramatically, this ballast did nothing to prevent a capsize, made the boat float too low for baling out, and was too expensive to jettison.’

Lowly Worm is a Ness Yawl, 19’-2” long, 5’-3” beam and 120 sq.ft. of sail. The boat is extremely light at 240 lbs, about a third of the weight of a Wayfarer. At launch 4 years ago I sailed her unballasted for a week in Cornwall and found the boat too unstable and too quick to tip. In this condition it needs at least one crew member sitting out. Unballasted it might be suitable for racing but not for cruising, especially single-handed cruising which is what I do. The design brief says the boat is suitable for 1 to 4 persons. Iain Oughtred, the designer, says of ballast ‘if required 100-150 lbs may be fastened over ply pads to the bottom, or the centreboard can be made of mild steel plate of about 100 lbs.’ I have 90 lbs of ballast fastened to ply pads. This has proved to be about right over several hundred miles of cruising in the last 4 years.

The problem during my capsize last year was not too much ballast but insufficient and incorrectly positioned buoyancy. I now have approximately doubled the effective buoyancy. My article in the Bulletin did state this. AG