Wolfe Island, and high water on Lake Ontario

There's a good reason why Kingston is considered the freshwater sailing capital of North America. The weather is generally good, navigation is relatively straightforward, and there are several dozen nice anchorages and tourist destinations within day-trip distance.

Wolfe Island has quite a few nice little spots, of which the Big Sandy Bay nature area is likely one of the most popular.

Boarding ladders for small boats

Getting into a boat from the water is HARD. The drag of the water makes it difficult to jump, and there's often no bottom to stand on. Even if you're in good physical condition, it's quite difficult to heave yourself more than about 15 to 30 cm (6" to 12") vertically out of the water. Take a look at a swimming pool: the copings are rarely more than 15 cm above the surface; in the best modern pools, they're level with it. Most people just can't jump any higher out of the water.

Let's look at Sunset Chaser for a moment:

Hostas, marigolds and zinnias

I haven't had much to say lately, so here are a few of the flowers from our front garden. Just because they're there. And they're beautiful. Enjoy!

(As usual, photos are clickable for higher resolution / fewer compression artefacts.)

Model testing the Almaguin, part 5: Detailed behaviour

In the last few entries, I've covered the construction of the framework and hull for the Almaguin 400 test model, the towing rig, and some videos of the boat's behaviour. In this final episode of the series, we'll take a detailed look at what we've learned about this boat's behaviour from the model tests.

Model testing the Almaguin, part 4: She hits the water, and man does she fly!

After all this talk about building test models and towing rigs, the three people still reading this are probably wondering just how it all turned out.

Matthew's blog