Rare bird - A Beneteau First 260 resource

Keeping the boat in the mid-south allowed us to sail all winter. This was however not without its challenges. Little Rock is 900 miles from Minneapolis, and while the weather is warm enough so the lake never freezes, it does get rather cold on occasion. In addition, we had done this before on a 35 footer, but what would it be like on a 25 footer? We were going to find out. The first thing we did is get the kites ready. BlueJ loves going downwind, and who are we to get in her way? Because we sail on Lake Superior, we have good ideas on how to stay warm and dry while sailing in cold weather. We bring our offshore gear and layer ski underwear below.  That works when it it cool, and when it would warm up, we would swap the jackets for something lighter. Worked out well. We did have some teething pains, as expected with a boat under new ownership. The previous owner had rolled the very nice Doyle triradial jib up BACKWARDS, exposing sailcloth to several years o...

After we signed the papers and handed over the check, it was time for a sail. But not so fast. There was work to do. The PO used her (when he did) more like a pontoon boat then a sailboat. He had outfitted her with a Bimini, moved the traveler to the cabintop, and lost the spin halyard. All these things needed to be sorted before we headed out. So first, up the mast I went. Notice how far the beam of the boat goes aft. It makes the boat VERY stable downwind. The swim platform on the transom will be gone the next day, shedding BlueJ of the last of her 'cruiser gear'. Next up is moving the mainsheet back to where God intended it, at the boom end. The PO had rigged a traveler over the cabintop to allow the bimini. It was a nice install but thats very ineffective and hard to use when racing. So I moved the sheet back to the factory mounting pin. The traveler (which was optional of the boat) would have to wait until next spring. We ditched the bimini and hea...

Jackdaw was the name of my beloved Beneteau First 235, and when we bought the 260 I had every intention of renaming her Jackdaw. The name Jackdaw is just so cool, and it fits into my theme of naming boats after birds. In case you missed Jackdaw, here she is going to weather. But something happened over time. The name Blue J grew on me. It WAS a bird, the boat WAS blue, and it WAS her original name. All of the original documentation had Blue J all over it. It has great provenience.  That the name was painted on the hull was a factor too.  So the name Jackdaw is retired to cherished memory, and Blue J lives on. And as Blue J is a documented vessel, the name would end up on the transom as well.

One would not expect to find great sailing in Arkansas...  but there is. We were blown away by the beauty and sail-ability of Lake DeGray. After sailing in Dallas on another dammed up river (Lewisville), we were not expecting much. We could have not been more wrong. In the foothills of the Ozarks, DeDray is deep, clear, and surrounded by pine forests. A short video on the formation of the lake and dam is here. Several times we remarked that it looked like the 'little apostles'. From this video, if not for the houseboats you could be fooling into thinking this was some bay on Lake Superior. On top of this, the people were amazing; warm hearted and friendly to us 'yanks'. To all of our 'rebel' friends, we can't wait to sail with you again. Blue J at the Lodge

It is unlikely that you would find a rare high performance French sailboat on a lake in Arkansas, but I did. And she waited patiently for a year for us to buy her. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Blue J (RYA GBR-5443T) came to the USA with her original owner, who bought her in the UK in 1996. He sailed her on the Solent for several years, once taking a very impressive 24th (corrected time) in the Around The Island race at Cowes. Upon coming back to the states,  he had a custom trailer made and brought her with him, and sailed her in Boston. But he longed for one-design sailing, so he sold her to a man in Louisiana who never sailed her and kept her on a lake in the Ozark Mountains. I found her, advertised in the Little Rock craigslist pages. But then some things came up, and I had a different focus. So into the back of my mind went BlueJ, put aside but not forgotten. A year later, when I figured that a bigger boat than my First 235 Jackda...