So . . . How Was Your Sail Today ?

[BC Mike]

I have been out twice in the power boat to set marks for our race track. We have run two races so far. We will do three tune up races and then start the regular series. I managed to get paint on the keel and hull over the weekend, and today filled some divets. It is till minus 10 at night and warming to about plus 10 during the day, but it is dry so I can get stuff done. The primer paint drys overnight or when it is damp and chilly. If it stays dry I should have the bottom finished this comming weekend. Will need to lift the boat to get under the keel and under the cradle pads.
Michael

[Steve Rust]

Kai Nui
I live in Minneapolis, just do my sailing in the far north. It was 40 -50 all week, the snow was gone, now this. It will be back in the 40's later this week. When I see what happened further south with the tornados I guess the snow isn't such a bad thing. I will try and get a picture of the tri before I shovel the snow off. The tri is here in Minneapolis for the refit that's why I have been sailing my 22 ft monohull.

Aha! The mono is up north. We had family property up there. Lots of snow up north, but in the years I was up there, twin cities never had much on the ground. Colder than an Eskimo divorce, but only about a foot of snow at any given time. Of course, this was 20+ years ago. Can't wait to see the pics.
Michael, are you saying paint won't dry at 10 below?

[Jim H]

My brother and I had a "teaser" sail today. We took the Cal 20 out for the first sail of the season, and the weather was good all morning, but of course we didn't motor out until around 2 p.m. By that time, there was a huge squall on the horizon heading our way.

On the plus side, there was three or more one design fleets out and racing around the buoys for the Frostbite series. We carefully motored and then raised sail out of their way, watching their moves and marvelling how much faster they were than us.

Since the squall was almost upon us, we raised our old main and took down our newer jib and put it below. We were doing fine under main alone, and then it hit us. The water surface turned white as the heavy drops pounded down. It was only about 50 degrees, and we soon got soaked and a bit cold, but the 25 mph winds were fun to fly around in.

We packed it in after only 90 minutes as another heavy shower hit us. My brother took the wet main home to dry. We both felt a bit "gyped" as the sail was fun but too short, wet and cold.

I also worked on our C&C 27 today-- any suggestions for removing the temperature sender from the block? I have a new one, but he old one is frozen in. It's soft and brass, with a one inch nut, and I think I need to tap on a box end wrench and then hammer it loose...

So, who else sailed this week or weekend?

[Alan Wheeler]

It was one of those days
We headed out with a couple of young German tourists onboard, to show them some scenery. About 4hrs away (under power) is a lovely bay that we sometimes take supplies out to the person that lives there and we use there wonderful water to fill our tanks with. We phoned before we left, but got no reply. Nothing unusual, so headed that way anyway. The wind was reaching 40kts at times and sea ruff for such normally sheltered waters. We anchored in a small cove for the night, about a 1 1/2hr out from the marina. Next morning, I pulled up the anchor and it was a real mission. I have never had such a hard job and just figured the anchor must have really buried itself under the blow in the night. With it stowed, we were off early morning. A couple of hrs into the trip, I went forward to watch the waves under our bow. Just love that. And behold, here is a whole heap of rope trailing from the anchor I had come to mind about a month back, hearing over the VHF, a call for help with a stuck anchor in the cove. I wondered if they lost the anchor and we ended up bringing it up. I wondered if we had been trailing an anchor under our keel for a while, as there was a freshly frayed end to the line, but no chain or anchor. Oh well, no problem, so I hauled the rope onboard.
We managed to set the genoa and motor saileda bitand finally arrived at the bay. Furled in the Genoa and tied to the warf in gusts reaching 40kts. That took so doing, but with lines creaking, we grabed the water hose and found it wasn't flowing. It normal flows all the time. We went upto the house and no one was home. Oh darn. So back to the boat and untie the lines and head out of the bay nose into the wind. We had been motoring for about thrity minutes, when I head this thump thump thump and thought someone had just put some music on. But after a minute I thought, so when does the bass stop and the music start. I wondered if the CD was stuck and put my ear closer to the speaker to find no sound was coming from that at all. I start looking for the source of the sound and see the genoa had torn half way up and had slightly unfulred the top half. Oh darn. I got out in the wind and managed to furl the ssytem up enough to wrap it all up and under controll again. About an hr later, off go the engine warning alarms. Now what. The temp gauge was high. I thought, oh great, I have picked up a plastic bag or something over the cold water intake. the sea was ruff and wind howling and I was hoping plastic bag was the issue. It was going to be hard enough clearing the filter,let alone having to replace an impellor if that was the issue. I lifted the engine hatch to be greated with water water every where.It turned out the raw water hose had come off a fitting. A SST clip had fractured clean in half. On goes the hose and the engine temp starts to fall and the alarm goes off and I hunt around getting another spare clip and we are all back in business and on our way. Another half hr into the trip and then I hear the thump thump again but this time the top of the genoa unfurls, tears itself and shacks the entire rig so hard, I swear I thought that's it, we are about to lose the rig. Two of us are out there trying to get it untangled enough for me to drop that sail and Dawn is heading the boat to shelter behind a hill. We are basicallyrag dolls on the end of the big sail till we get enough shelter and I finally get it off the furler. Thinking that's the end of that drama, I get back into the pilot house a find Dawn in a panic because we are getting choked to death on engine fumes. Clouds of smoke are coming from the aft cabin. Oh great, the plastic exhaust/water mixer has been damaged due to no water flowing in the exhaust when we had the overheating problem. This plastic thing is under my bed. So we are just around a point form a jetty and water and so we open every hatch we can find and motor around to the jetty about 15min away. We tie up and shut down. The engine room bilge pump is at full flow and as it is a really big pump, usually runs for about 30secs. Well several minutes later it is still running. Hmmmm, I pull apart my bed and find nothing wrong with the water/exhaust mixer. I lift the engine room cover to find the pump had reduced the level to the bottome of the engine. So how high had it been I can't find any issue with the exhaust in there either. So I go to the aft Lazerrete and find the exhaust Goose neck had parted company. So all the cooling water was being poured straigt back into the bildge and it ends up in the engine room bildge. (note to self. Must put bildge pump aft)
Easily fixed and we have full tanks and we are once again off. We finally arrive out our destination two hrs later than we had intended. The trip home was normall and all in all, it was a fun filled and eventfull weekend.

[Talbot]

Bet thats put the german tourists off from ever going out in a yacht again!

[BC Mike]

Went out on a Laser 28. Wind in the mid twenties, number two headsail up, still too much power, put a big reef in the main, just a bit overpowered. First time out for the boat with new owner. Not enough purchase to pull the main reef flat. Missed the five minute warning but got the four minute, got an okay start. Round the windward mark, cleared a couple of boats, spinnaker was too slow getting to the top and then the guy came lose from the pole. Got that mess fixed and headed to the jibe mark. Messed up the jibe pretty good but made it safely down wind. Did I mention we ripped the main while pulling in the reef. Got an okay spinnaker drop, dropped the pole on the head of the pointy end crew, nice beat upwind, got a bit of slack out of the main, rounded up a few times, nice hoist with the chute and a nice jibe half way down. Went to douse the chute down below and broached big time and kind of just lay on our sides for a while until the chute came down, nice rounding and back up to the finish line. We had the lowest rating boat but got beat by about three others who were more in tune than us. All in all a good sail and a good tune up. The owner now has some idea for minor changes to the lines. I got my little finger stuck in a winch but just got a blister. Nice and sunny, a bit chilly but got to go sailing for the first time this year.
Michael

[Charlie]

Getting out on the water seems to be the key and everybody's definition is different.

Marina (my nine year old daughter) participated in Age of Sail on Thursday. (Age of sail is a living history course where kids are brought on to an old square rigger and emmulate the treatment that they would have had if they had shipped on the costal lumber schooners that plied the CA cost after the 1906 earthquake.) My thought was that we would anchor off the ship in Aquatic Park near by the kids on the ship. Beth (my wife ) had the idea of staying in a Marina with shore power we compromised on picking the kids and friends up in Aquatic Park in our new dinghy and then sailing around Alcatraz to the Marina.

I motored the boat over in the morning b/c there was no wind and dinghied my brother and his girlfriend and all the other guests on to the boat. Took three trips and everyone got wet on the first two trips.

The next day we travelled from the Marina to pick up Marina (my daughter.) After picking her up we stopped by Pier 39 to see the sea lions and then on to Berkley Marina where we keep the boat just ahead of a light rain squall. The kids loved it. So did my wife and I.

It turned out to be a great time for all. I would've preferred the hook but we stayed in Marina by Pac Bell Park and got to enjoy the City attractions as well.

On the drive home everyone said they had a good time. I realized that sailing or even getting out on the water was what it really is about. We have a J105 in charter as a business and are just not that excited about having "The Yellow Boat" as we would be a proper cruising boat.

After getting home and thinking about it I was so damn happy about just being on the water that it didn't matter that it was a J105 and not a HR 40 something cruising the islands.

I just need to change my attitude. I stopped my addiction to sailing in 1991 by moving to Montana so I could work and make $ to go cruising. That goal is accomplished I have a stable passive income where we could live comfortably forever on a 40ish foot boat. One more deal and I can have the house paid off. That time is approaching soon all I need to do is to get the kids and wife to buy into the trip. What better way to do that than to get them sailing and enjoying what we have going on now. This year we have a spot on the hard at the lake and I hope to get a little pram for the kids to take out on the lake by themselves. We'll take a trip down the coast to Half Moon Bay and Back. In the mean time I'll refine my plan to buy an Islander 36 to keep in Mexico cruising it there until the family says lets go further south. Throw in our upcoming Charter trip to FL and maybe I'll be throwing the docklines off for good. in the next couple of years.


Charlie

[Jim H]

Thanks for the sail reports. Wheels, sounds like I need more nerves before taking out a bigger boat.

It's spring break, and we had a great, windy sail today on our C&C 27. 60 degrees, 25-30 mph sustained winds, and we sailed under reefed main sail alone. Started process of teaching wife how to run the engine, and she did a good job.

Overall good parts: seven year-old daughter didn't get scared once. Wife did all the foredeck work, including stowing the unneeded jib underway. Learned to reef our main on this boat. Had no problems with tacking and jibing in significant wind. Next time, we'll take along "the blade" as our foresail, just to learn how to use it.

Tired when we got back it, but we're ready to go out again. Posted some pics from the sail at

http://www.photos.sailingvoyage.com/...ail/?g2_page=1

Anyone else get out on the water today?

[Jim H]

Since the last post, I've managed to go sailing four more times. That makes five sails in the past eight days-- three on our Cal 20, and two on our C&C 27. We hope to get in one more family sail on the C&C tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Of the five sails, the best was yesterday. My eight year-old son and I took out the Cal 20 on our own, and he did a great job of helping to prep the boat, launch, raise the sails, sail, drop sails, and pack up. I also let him raise and take down the jib on his own for the first time, even though we had quite a bit of wind and the Cal 20 has no lifelines or even a pulpit on the foredeck. The challenge didn't seem to phase him, but I had to hide my concern. He didn't slip an inch, and I could tell he was being careful.

Today's sail on the Cal 20 was with my brother, and we flew upriver on strong gusts. We used its storm jib for the first time, and more that once we headed up because the gusts were so strong. It was a blast to fly along and have some water over the foredeck.

A few days ago we had the C&C out for a four hour sail, and went for miles. The kids kicked back with a book on tape in the cabin for part of the trip, since mom and dad were enjoying the long cruise with solid winds. I'm glad we have a boat with a fully functional marine head...

The only bummer is that we had to cancel on a forty mile cruise we signed up for next weekend-- basically, after four tries, I could not get the brass temp sender out of the head of our Atomic Four. This morning we tried again with a torch and three different pipe wrenches, but it would not budge. We could drilll it out, but we've decided to opt to have a shop do it, since we don't necessarily want a bunch of brass shavings going inside of the block if we could help it. It's a fresh water cooled system, but... Anyway, it's a two-week wait to have the engine guys attack it, and I'm fine using it for day sails but not hour on hour of motoring with no temp guage.

So, who else sailed this week? Any other spring-breakers?

[Talbot]

I had a quick dash across to Cherbourg from Portsmouth in a friends mono. The majority of the trip was lovely with just the chill wind to spoil the sun. We just missed the tidal gate for the trip into Cherbourg so the last 10 miles took 4 hours, and blew up to a Force 9 on the nose. (Plus torrential rain) Really wished I had been in my wheelhouse! The trip back was always going to be windier than going over. It started with a Force 6 from stbd quarter and rapidly increased to a Force 7. seas grew up to abt 3 metres. then as we approached UK, the wind started to climb, and we started to increase reefs. By the time we got to Portsmouth, the wind had increased to Force 10 for a while, and then went back to Force 9.

Was I glad to secure alongside the marina!

[Jim H]

Good grief, Talbot, is the channel always so rough this time of year? Force 10 sounds rather severe...

BTW, do you see many Camper Nicholson 32s in your area? Two sold locally last year, and I thought about both for several months...

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by Jim H

Good grief, Talbot, is the channel always so rough this time of year? Force 10 sounds rather severe...
BTW, do you see many Camper Nicholson 32s in your area? Two sold locally last year, and I thought about both for several months...

Force 10 is a bit unusual! but we are very dependent on the position of the high from Azores. In the right place, and weather is good with nice winds from SW.

A little higher, and the lows get squashed and we have bad weather

A little too high, and temp goes up, but no wind

I was talking to a guy last week who had just sold his nic 32 and bought a Nic 38. They are not particularly prolific in South of England as the class have distributed themselves around the world!

[BC Mike]

Saturday I went out on the fizz boat to check my marks and replace one more that showed up missing. The log boom tow guys also replaced one that they hit a few weeks ago.
Sunday I was back on the Laser 28. Much less wind, full main biggest headsail, good start and we pulled away from the mob right away. 10 mile race, the wind came up a bit, enough to need a smaller headsail or reef but we survived. Crew work was better due to less wind, and second time out. We finished alongside the first boat in the fleet that started five minutes in front of us. First in our class. 25 more to go. We need the Hobie 33 out now. Owner is considering doing a big race at the coast. Swiftsure for those that know.
Michael

[Jim H]

Sometimes, it's better to give than receive.

Yesterday a friend from work drove out to the marina to join me about 3 p.m. The weather was pretty terrible-- rain most of the day, and not a lot of wind. Despite this, we went out in Aurora (our Cal 20) for a sail that included some wind and some rain, but overall it was better than just drinking beers in the cockpit at dock. It wasn't a great sail, but I was happy that he had tiller time during the best wind. He's wondering aloud about scoring an inexpensive Cal 20 for himself.

Today was the "you're not here" sail. My wife and son did everything on Aurora, launching and docking twice, and then a complete sail, we me just along as an observer. My son is becoming increasingly confident at the helm, and managing the jib sheets and raising and dropping the head sail. Today, they both gained a lot of confidence-- enough to know they can go sailing without me when my daughter doesn't feel like going out. My wife has also decided she's confident enough to teach an "on the water" class to two other beginning women in our Cal 20 in about three weeks. So, what we pass on is then passed on to others.

My big excitement this weekend was on Saturday morning, before both sails. It took me over two hours, but I drilled out, hacksawed, pipe wrenched and then chiseled my rotted brass temperature sender in the head of our Atomic 4 engine into oblivion. In the end, the threads were clean but a bit scored from the hacksaw, and the new sender went in without a hitch. The guage now seems perfectly accurate, and at least after 20 minutes of running there were no leaks.

I had given up on this and resigned myself to a couple hundred dollar bill for having it done, but everone was booked for weeks and a nice mechanic convinced me to do it myself. Now I feel great, because the C&C 27 is fully ready for longer cruises, and I feel more confident about tackling repairs on my own. Next up will be a new 110 wiring system, and rebedding just about everything on the decks, but I want to do some sailing on her first.

So, who else sailed this weekend? It's getting to be the season...