After our handover sail, we began a week of filling up the boat with our gear, and fitting all the little bits and pieces that make everything run smoothly, and all the little bits of necessities that we had forgotten. And completing the small list of snag items and missing bits. Among the snag items to be resolved this week was a wheel.
The eagle eyed among you may have noticed (more quickly than we did) that once we had two wheels, William’s wheel is smaller than Karen’s wheel! This has been the cause of much amusement at the factory, and they swear this has never happened before.
On Wednesday, we were told it had been changed. But it was still the same – they had changed a big wheel to a big wheel. Further embarrassed hilarity followed, and by Thursday a small wheel arrived in a bag. We all had a last giggle as the engineer tried to fit the big wheel into the little bag to take it away.
And we are giggling too at the way you write this!
This is because William is stronger and requires less mechanical advantage. A bigger wheel with lower gearing is an admission of weakness – wimp out!