At the helm
important as he frequently sails alone.
She tacked through 96º-98º, although getting the large genoa around the baby stay requires care and patience. Off the wind she tracks steadily, but she’s not the quickest. Despite her high ballast ratio, the weight of her tall superstructure along with the resulting high centre of effort of the mainsail, makes her a little tender. Early reefing is the answer to avoid her rounding up in gusts.
First Dawn Treader’s original threecylinder, 28hp Volvo is easily capable of 6 knots at around 2,500rpm, although Stephen says there have been a few times when the 42hp option might have helped against strong tides. Apart from windage on her high topsides, she isn’t particularly difficult to manoeuvre at close quarters with the shaft drive putting plenty of prop-wash over her rudder with a burst of throttle. The prop walk can be used to your own advantage once mastered. The cockpit is fairly small, making three crew the limit if you want to access all the sail controls easily. While a high cockpit sole makes room for the owner’s suite below, it also puts you a long way off the water. This accentuates any side-to-side movement and seriously limits visibility under the large, low-cut genoa. It does keep you dry though and she’s easy to sail single-handed, having the mainsheet immediately behind the helmsman and primary winches right beside the wheel.