A couple of years ago this young guy I know had the sweetest wooden H28 on Sydney Harbour. SV Longevity. She had been built perfectly to the original plans and sailed out from America.
Thinking the Walker must be the same under the water as the original, it is worth giving the traditional Yankee and staysail rig a try. Points better upwind. Prefect even reaching in volitile conditions as it will spill wind easier than a small Genoa.
Much easier too to drop the Yankee than deal with a bigger sail when things turn to crap. With a smaller staysail and heavily reefed main, I have sailed into winds that drove me back on the iron horse.
Guitz
Glad to see that I am not the only one who thinks Fisherman anchors are not bad.
Pretty good in fact.
Gary
Ive done 3 trips across bass Strait now with a hefty fisherman and 50 meters of chain. Only once off Clarke Is in Kangaroo Bay did we drag anchor in a 40 knot westerly, and in that anchorage there is shallow sand over a rock bottom. We deployed our 2nd anchor using the anchor rope and that sorted it out. The other yachts with different anchors also dragged.
Lots of weed around the Furneaux group and ideally one should carry a fisherman, as seems to be the local custom. My Sarca Excel has held well in all other conditions, great in most conditions but dragged off East Kangaroo Island and in Kent Bay. You pull up your anchor in those places and you can barely find the damn thing in the huge ball of weed!