Tony:

I wish you all joy of your fine-looking treasure, and the prospect of watching your eager, young crew grow into it!  Very pretty.  The boat looks great, too.  <;-)

Two adults is about it for sailing, in my own experience.  One adult and two middling-sized children works, too.  Either way, best balance is achieved with the helmsman on the bottom aft (between the sternsheets and the midship thwart) and the other crew also on the bottom forward between the midship thwart and mast.  If the wind is light, sitting on opposite sides works.  Once the wind picks up, forward crew should be kept low and in the middle as much as possible whilst the helmsman shifts to windward as needed.  Once it really gets going, the crew will need to be ready to shift to windward as well.  Reefing early is a good idea if the crew are not experienced in this.

Sailing solo, you really need to get as far forward as you can to keep the boat trimmed.  Sitting on the midship thwart is awkward, as you need to get a leg over to shift when tacking, and the sheet comes down right there to invite you to get tangled up in it.  I made a couple of little "portable cockpit seats" to span between the sternsheets and the midship thwart on either side which can be shifted in and out or removed as needed.  Some of us may be getting too old to sit on the floor for very long without becoming attached to it.  <;-)  This can precipitate a capsize...ahem.

I use an extra pair of oarlocks to keep the oars out of the way when sailing, blades aft and grips forward, with little loops of small shock cord to hold things gently in place.

There ought to have been a little L-shaped piece meant to be installed on the outside of the transom above the upper rudder fittings, the purpose of which is to hold the rudder down when turned one way or to let it pass for removal when turned the other way.  Not the best way to do it (the screw keeps wanting to back out), but it works.  Did you not have this in your kit?

I can dredge up some photos if that would help.

I've had some success using a kayaker's drogue to keep the boat from drifting so much while I get the sail in play.  Anchoring is the best way to hold her off a lee shore reliably if there is much weight in the wind, and a good way to practice getting an anchor set so you'll have some confidence in your ground tackle and your ability to use it in a hard chance.

She's a lovely little boat.  You are going to have a blast!

.....Michael

This is me.  Login timed out while I was editing all that....

.....Michael

Hey Tony,

Great post!  Thanks for doing that.  I'm right behind you.  Just gotta do the last coat on the interior and bottom paint and I'm ready to splash.  Even have her all rigged up (I opted for gunter-sloop rig).  I'm planning on making a video of my build.

Also, great observations.  Maybe not for us that have already pulled the trigger, but certainly for anyone in the future pondering this boat.  For myself, I started with an EP and loved it, so the PM is going to feel like a luxury yacht in comparison.  I'm also a sailing instructor, so I'm looking forward to seeing how she sails.

As for your rudder issue, there are various kinds of rudder retainer clips, but they all look basically like this and work the same way.  This is an item that either should have come with your kit or is easily ordered online for about $15.

Oh, I forgot to mention that there's a very magical time in a boat builder's life.  That's when he/she has spent as many hours enjoying their boat as they spent building it.  I distinctly remember when I hit the 120 hour mark sailing my EP on Greenlake in Seattle and I'm already 200 hours into the build of my PM, so I've got a lot of sailing to do!  Now that I'm on Camano Island, it should be pretty easy...

Michael and CaptainSkully thank you so much for the great responses!!

Thanks to both of you for pointing out that little retainer clip... now that you mention it I do recall it in my parts bag and must have missed it in the instructions. I'll get that installed before my next sail for sure.  It beats the small line/jam cleat I was contemplating.  I will say that on my last sail of the week yesterday morning (solo) I managed to keep the rudder in place for the full hour without to much issue but I'd like to not have to worry about it and particularly if I hand the tiller off to my wife I'd like her not to have to worry about it.

Michael I really appreciate the details on your sailing positions w/ the PMD, exactly what I was looking for and I'm afraid a bit of confirmation that my family day sailer may require a bit more gymnastics in practice than I had hoped for.  

I like the drogue/anchor idea for buying more time to setup against a lee shore, I need to look at options for an anchor anyway.  How do you store your anchor when it's not deployed?

CaptainSkully I'm very much looking forward to seeing your completed project, definitely do a video!  I didn't keep close track of my build hours as I'm sure I was well north of the 100 hour CLC proscribed but my first 3-4 hours of use this week put a huge grin on my face and we're looking forward to getting out on the Potomac River here at home soon though we will be getting a sitter for my daughter till we get more confidant in our use.  As a rowboat I'm super excited to trail it up to Annapolis/Spa Creek for a picnic row around the harbor.  

Does anyone have any best practices for stowage of the lug rig on deck prior to hoisting the rig?  I was even considering some kind of lashing vertically to the mast in the event there was an extended rowing portion prior to sailing and you had a second crewman aboard... thoughts?

Tony

I've brailed my lug up on the mast of my skerry.  It's not so good in stiff breeze, because of the windage, but it does get the sail up and out of the way for rowing.

https://flic.kr/p/Z1i5p6

I just used the halyard and a bit of extra line to tie the boom and yard together with the halyard, and some bungees to collect the sail.  

https://flic.kr/p/YK73qW

As it happens I've learned to sail with the sail and yards bundled next to me, but the skerry is a bit longer than the PMD I think so don't know how that works for you.

Tony:

To your anchor question, I keep our PMD's anchor and its rode in a middling-sized cloth bag with a zipper.  It is lined with some sort of shiny material (meant to make it usable for keeping things cool, I think) which adds some stiffness so that the anchor won't mar the paint.  The bitter end of the rode is drawn out by the end of the closed zipper and is secured to one of the handles with a small bowline knot.  A carlibiner is used to clip that bowline to a jackline I've rigged athwartships under the lip of the forward seat so that it can't fall away and sink in a capsize or otherwise get loose and cause trouble.  (Other stuff gets similarly clipped onto this line.)  The zipper keeps it from getting any notions of self-deployment.  A good, stout canvas gym bag would do as well.

The anchor is a 3lb. folding grapnel which has proven adequate for ordinary wind in the ordinary mud bottoms of the lakes around here in which I've tried it.  I'm not sure it'd be adequate for weightier breezes or trickier bottoms--this will need further experimentation.  The rode is 150' of 1/4" three-strand nylon of good quality.  The grapnel seems to set okay without any chain so far.

As for the sail, when not hoisted, I keep the lug sail bundled with its yards.  It seems to lie well along one side or the other on top of the seats without interferring with the rowing at all.  I can even strike the mast and lay it down with the heel atop the sternsheets and back into the corner formed by the upper planks and the transom.  The head of the mast then lies off to the same side of the bow transom, and the mast will normally behave itself there, with a loop of line around it to keep it from jumping the forward oarlock riser and possibly tipping over to the side.  This also does not interfere with the rowing, at least from the midships thwart.

I also ought to mention that, when I said that I thought two adults for sailing was about it, I didn't mean to imply that one of those adults, if not overlarge, could be holding a small child forward.  Once you get comfortable sailing solo and with your wife, it should be no problem to bring your small daughter along in moderate conditions with you or your wife holding her on you lap as you sit on the floor, providing your daughter is good about sitting still.  She'll have a blast, and so will you.

Life jackets all round, of course.

.....Michael

Thanks Michael,

I like the jack line idea and will be mocking up something similar before my next sail for sure.  The anchor setup you describe sounds good, I'm used to anchoring but not on a boat this small.  I'll be looking for a similar sized hook and rode setup.

I think that some 'yard sailing' to figure out where things go and practice rigging for sailing while on the water will do wonders for my wife and I getting things smoothed out.  Mummichog your photo's are exactly what I was asking about, figured I wasn't the first to think of it thank you for sharing!  Keeping the sail and the mast un rigged and to the side in the boat would allow for the forward rowing position to be used which is much nicer balanced than rowing with 2 from the standard midships position.

It'll be fun working it out, I'm hoping to get a sitter for my daughter and back out on the water (Potomac this time) in the next week to continue shaking down the boat and the crew.  I'm hopefull we'll get confidant enough to take my daughter out later in the season.  Regardless we'll be going out for a family row and picnic, weather permitting in Annapolis on Sunday.

Tony

   Grr, I meant to say "I've learned to ROW with the sail bundled beside me...."

Hey guys, I'm still in the driveway sailing stage right now, but I've noticed a few things.  Also, I've got the gunter-sloop rig.  I think you guys might be lug rigged, but here goes anyway. 

First, there's almost no rhyme nor reason when raising the mainsail as to whether the throat or the peak goes up first.  Obviously things straighten out as the yard gets to the top.

Second, my mainsail doesn't store very conveniently with the battens installed.  I'd like to leave them installed if possible to keep from losing them under sail or when flogging.  They're parallel to each other, but not to either the yard or the boom.  I guess they'll sort of accordion-fold on the angle as the luff and leech collapse.  With such a new and crispy sail, it's a bit more difficult.  I guess things will calm down after the sail gets a little softer.