On sailing a Folksong – Mischief

Seb writes that he has bought Mischief.

Found her in a yard at Calstock on the River Tamar.

There is work to do on her but “her hull, decks and mast are sound; she has new standing rigging; a good set of sails etc.”

“Her interior is completely bare however (pure, as the previous owner put it), with no through hull fittings other than the engine water intake, but she does needs a lot of work done on her interior”

He is doing some immediate work on her “. . . gave her a good scrub; fitted a new fore hatch; refit the genoa tracks; tinkered with the engine . . .”

“I will be taking Mischief to Portsmouth from Plymouth as soon as she is sea worthy.”

Seb has plans for Mischief and originally contacted me about self-steering gear:

I posted on this and two useful links came back – thank you again for those. In the meantime, he (Seb) has noted:

“It seems that few Folksong’s have been fitted with mechanical self-steering gear, so I have been using the Contessa 26 as a source of information regarding the suitability of wind-vanes (given that they are both loosely based on the Folkboat). So far the Windpilot pacific light servo-pendulum gear, or the Hydra Autosteer trim-tab system, seem the most likely candidates, mainly due to their weight and cost.”

My choice would be the Pacific Light but that’s based on study and other people’s preferences – not practical experience.

Here is a clip of one in action following last year’s Jester Challenge.

“Crossing Lyme Bay after returning from 2 months away on Jester Challenge to Azores. Big following sea and wind around F5.”

I’m sorry, I don’t know who made the clip – perhaps somebody could let me know so I can thank them personally.

Any further comments would be welcome.

And Calstock looks the perfect place to find a Folksong!


3 thoughts on “On sailing a Folksong – Mischief

  1. My Kaiser 26 was very similar to the Folksong and had a Navik self steering wind vane on her pretty wine-glass transom. It worked like a charm and I never had a moment’s problem with it. Unfortunately they aren’t made anymore but if you could find a used one I’d say jump on it.

  2. We had a Clearway Autosteer on a Van De Stadt 34, sailed 10,000NM with it across the Atlantic, it was light weight, coped with everything including light airs and the big plus you could take it completely to bits with a couple of spanners and a screwdriver – a very Big Plus point.

    On our Endurance 35 (much heavier boat) we had an Aries, but frankly I never really got on with it. All the spares were available from Helen Franklin in cornwall.

    I would guess both would cope easilly with a Folksong

    max

  3. Pingback: On sailing a Folksong – Self-steering gear « bill's boatblog

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