Splashdown!
- Thread starter BobM
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Weather has been ridiculous
What a year!
Late getting the boat in because I was scrambling to get my roof done. It took some work with the roofer to figure out just how to do the job. The center third of the house is post and beam with insulation on the suface of that third. In 1964 that meant one inch! That explains our heating bills for sure. We finally decided to raise the whole surface of the roof with 2 x 4 sleepers and redeck with 1/2 plywood. That will allow us to put in 2.5 inches of high performance foam (about R18). Just got all the materials into the driveway two weeks ago and the rain hasn't stopped sinced. The day after the materials arrived the roofer told me he couldn't do the job until after the 4th because of the rain delaying other jobs. We still have over 500 board feet of fascia we are trying to paint before they nail it up (need it as we are raising the roof by 1.5 inches), but took a break to get the boat in.
I literally got to the point that I was watching the weather reports and taking days off mid-week. It was very satisfying to see her in the water Monday. I just love that poliglow. The topsides look great. I'll post a picture when I can get on the desktop computer. It is unplugged right now as a thunderstorm just blew through here dumping about a quarter of an inch of rain in fifteen minutes.
Thanks for you well-wishes. Hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable season.
Bob
What a year!
Late getting the boat in because I was scrambling to get my roof done. It took some work with the roofer to figure out just how to do the job. The center third of the house is post and beam with insulation on the suface of that third. In 1964 that meant one inch! That explains our heating bills for sure. We finally decided to raise the whole surface of the roof with 2 x 4 sleepers and redeck with 1/2 plywood. That will allow us to put in 2.5 inches of high performance foam (about R18). Just got all the materials into the driveway two weeks ago and the rain hasn't stopped sinced. The day after the materials arrived the roofer told me he couldn't do the job until after the 4th because of the rain delaying other jobs. We still have over 500 board feet of fascia we are trying to paint before they nail it up (need it as we are raising the roof by 1.5 inches), but took a break to get the boat in.
I literally got to the point that I was watching the weather reports and taking days off mid-week. It was very satisfying to see her in the water Monday. I just love that poliglow. The topsides look great. I'll post a picture when I can get on the desktop computer. It is unplugged right now as a thunderstorm just blew through here dumping about a quarter of an inch of rain in fifteen minutes.
Thanks for you well-wishes. Hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable season.
Bob
Better now than later still! I was hating to watch the season slide by too. I've only been in a little over a week due to that core repair around the chainplates. (And excess regular work). Tuned the rig last week and put it to the test on Saturday. 15-20 kt of wind and a reef in and romping close to 7 knots! Sailed all day and found a quiet anchorage. The only hint of a breeze today was right on my nose heading back up the bay, so it was a lazy motor back. Plugged in the tillerpilot and got too much sun. That's a good 4th weekend for me!
Sounds like a great time BobT
So happy you got the core repair done in time. If you took any photos of your hard work, or even if not, please add a description to the knowledgebase so others can benefit from your experience. I may have to do that job myself. It never ceases to amaze me that folks don't seal their chain plates, but I guess I am as guilty as anyone. I never did my last boat and know that TP needs it done and haven't done them yet either! However, I am keeping an eye out for leaks. The areas did meter out as damp, but not wet, during the survey though.
We too had a nice 4th. The sun was out (still is) after two weeks of clouds and rain. Strangely enough, we didn't get the backstay replaced because it was too windy. It was blowing 20-25 knots steady and the boat was sailing around quite a bit on her mooring (see my new post about my riding sail) so I decided it could wait to go to the top of the mast twice. Next weekend I hope.
So happy you got the core repair done in time. If you took any photos of your hard work, or even if not, please add a description to the knowledgebase so others can benefit from your experience. I may have to do that job myself. It never ceases to amaze me that folks don't seal their chain plates, but I guess I am as guilty as anyone. I never did my last boat and know that TP needs it done and haven't done them yet either! However, I am keeping an eye out for leaks. The areas did meter out as damp, but not wet, during the survey though.
We too had a nice 4th. The sun was out (still is) after two weeks of clouds and rain. Strangely enough, we didn't get the backstay replaced because it was too windy. It was blowing 20-25 knots steady and the boat was sailing around quite a bit on her mooring (see my new post about my riding sail) so I decided it could wait to go to the top of the mast twice. Next weekend I hope.
Hi Bob, I posted a link to your "projects" thread a week or so ago.
http://www.taylorsmill.com/boatweb/Core Patch.htm
http://www.taylorsmill.com/boatweb/Core Patch.htm
Anchor Riding Sail
We arrived at the club on the 4th to a gorgeous sunny day. Sadly, the wind was blowing like mad...steady at about 15-20 knots...and we had no sails bent on pending the planned replacement of the back stay. I had brought out all the necessary tools to do the job, but the wind was certainly a concern as the club's launch took us out to Triple Play.
Our neighbor has a 31 foot Beneteau, and as we approached in the launch we noticed that a Tartan 37 rafter to her had an enormous American flag, flying upside down and twisted around her stays and pennant halyard on the port side. As we boarded Triple Play, we noticed someone being hauled up in a bosun's chair to the spreaders to resolve the situation. Shortly thereafter I identified the rescuer as my friend Gregg, who owned my previous boat before me, someone I was hoping to press gang into aiding the back stay replacement effort.
He stopped by briefly to chat on his way back to his Hunter 37, Sabbatical (he is a Professor specializing in estuarine ecology). We discussed the pending back stay replacement, but decided with all the wind and the holiday that next week would perhaps be best. He had accepted an invitation to go for a sail on the Tartan 37, as his young son had just gone down for a nap.
Anyway, during the time Gregg was on the other boats I overheard a snippet of conversation involving local conditions. The wind was from a wintery quarter this weekend, blowing from the west down the channel towards my boat and a small number of boats situated in its path. All those boats were sawing back and forth on their moorings like mad. The worst being a Freedom 35 with significant windage, due to her very large covered main sail. Behind the Freedom sat Gregg's H37 cutter, which was also affected, and the conversation was the Beneteau owners opinion that he avoided that area of the mooring field, due to that known slot effect.
I had noted that it was bad in the winter, as the wind is typically more of a north wind in summer, then shifts west in Sept/Oct, but had never been aboard when it was this bad. It is really giving me second thoughts about the location, which has a beautiful view of the Boston skyline. My Wife likes that, and the fact that we are away from other boats and quite near Snake Island (which is fine after black fly season is over and we usually aren't in that early...we did have an incursion of bees once though).
A few years ago our fourth was ruined by wind and rain from the south. It sent a steady pounding chop through the mooring field. The rain started as soon as we were aboard and the chop, due to its height and frequency, had our little Lancer 25 bouncing like a hobby-horse. Gregg stopped by in his dinghy. His Wife Erin sent him on a mission to invite us over to their H37, to which the chop was barely a nusance. My Wife had enough, though, and insisted on calling it a day. She wouldn't even hand around at the club to watch the fireworks.
So, in the interest of 4th preservation, as we sat on Triple Play as she sawed back and forth on her mooring, I set about to make things more comfortable. I began tweaking the bungee cords I had in place to stop the rigging from slapping until they were as quiet as possible. Then, after a break ashore at the club for a BBQ and a few frozen mudslides my Wife wanted to go back on board for a nap. On the trip out in the launch I observed Triple Play's behavior again. Sawing back and forth as much as 15-25 feet and sometimes rocking wildly to one side at the end of the maneuver, like a willful dog on an unwanted leash. A light bulb went on in my head, as I recalled the odd thing I had found searching through the nooks and crannies of our new boat last spring upon taking ownership.
On a shallow shelf above the quarter berth I found old charts, a plastic case with a flare gun and flares, and way in the back there was a glimmer of white. I reached all the way to the back to no avail. I then grabbed a boat hook and fished out a very small sail wrapped in its lines. At first I thought it a storm jib, but it proved way too small for that. Unfolded it was a triangle about two feet by three feet with four brass hanks on one side. On the side with the hanks there are two cringles. One cringle had a three foot line attached with a brass clip on it, the other was bare. The third cringle on the opposite tip from the edge with the hanks on it, had a very long line on it. I sat puzzled for a minute, then realized I was staring at an anchor riding sail.
As many of you no doubt realize by now, although I have limited practical experience, I have a penchant for gleaning information from the internet, especially in the long wintery months up here after our 4-5 month sailing seasong has passed by in its usual flash. So I had read of this mythical beast before, somthing that most cruisers would instantly be aware of, but something those of us who daysail might not even have considered for our short list of "nice to haves." Kudos again, to past owners of my boat, who passed on a canvas breifcase full of receipts, manuals and sailing articles of interest. In it, I found an article on anchor riding sails. I read it, then carried my new found toy up on deck to figure out how to rig it. It hanks onto the either the back stay or, in my case, I hanked it onto the fixed wire topping lift. The main halyard is clipped to the empty cringle at the top and the short line with the clip is clipped onto the boom. It sets the position of the sail at about three feet above the boom. The long line goes forward to be secured to the mast. I just wound the line around the mast a couple of times and threw a few half-hitches in, but a clove hitch would likely work too.
It worked like a charm. Due to the strong winds, I had made an effort to set the sail quite taught. The result was that the sawing motion was reduced by about 50%. It was tamed. The boat would sail to port, the wind would catch the sail and push the boat to starboard, the wind would catch the sail and push it back to port. We went from sawing wildly back and forth every five minutes to just swaying gently back and forth every two to three minutes in a controlled fashion. This made us much more comfortable as it eliminated the sudden lurches that would literally cause us to stumble sometimes, perhaps risking a fall if one happened to be using the companionway without care to proper handholds.
The effect was confirmed the next day when I took the anchor riding sail down. I thought about leaving it up, as if anything it was even more windy (20-25 knots), but was uncertain of its impact if the wind piped up even more with me not aboard to take any actions. Also, it might be dacron and not suited to be left in the sun for extended periods. Given its impact, I am considering making a slightly smaller version out of something like sunbrella, for more permanent use. If I don't have my mooring shifted I know that the boat could see winds much greater than those I observed this weekend, and it would certainly reduce chafe and keep my boat safer. Perhaps I'll post a question to "Ask All Sailors" to get a broader opinion about whether or not someone would leave one up at a mooring for an extended period of time. If any of you have an opinion I'd appreciate it.
For those interested, Sailrite has a kit for only $82. If you have ever considered making your own sail, if only for the satisfaction of it. This is a great one to try, as it is only a few square feet. Actuallly, I read some of the info on the site, and I rigged it improperly. I should have led the forward line to one side to counteract the windage of the boat. That way it would have just sat to one side. Cool. I thought about experimenting with it, but did not. The way mine was set up, on the permanent topping lift, I could perhaps have affected this by merely shifting the traveler a little.
http://www.sailrite.com/Anchor-Riding-Sail-Kit-12-5-Sq-Feet
We arrived at the club on the 4th to a gorgeous sunny day. Sadly, the wind was blowing like mad...steady at about 15-20 knots...and we had no sails bent on pending the planned replacement of the back stay. I had brought out all the necessary tools to do the job, but the wind was certainly a concern as the club's launch took us out to Triple Play.
Our neighbor has a 31 foot Beneteau, and as we approached in the launch we noticed that a Tartan 37 rafter to her had an enormous American flag, flying upside down and twisted around her stays and pennant halyard on the port side. As we boarded Triple Play, we noticed someone being hauled up in a bosun's chair to the spreaders to resolve the situation. Shortly thereafter I identified the rescuer as my friend Gregg, who owned my previous boat before me, someone I was hoping to press gang into aiding the back stay replacement effort.
He stopped by briefly to chat on his way back to his Hunter 37, Sabbatical (he is a Professor specializing in estuarine ecology). We discussed the pending back stay replacement, but decided with all the wind and the holiday that next week would perhaps be best. He had accepted an invitation to go for a sail on the Tartan 37, as his young son had just gone down for a nap.
Anyway, during the time Gregg was on the other boats I overheard a snippet of conversation involving local conditions. The wind was from a wintery quarter this weekend, blowing from the west down the channel towards my boat and a small number of boats situated in its path. All those boats were sawing back and forth on their moorings like mad. The worst being a Freedom 35 with significant windage, due to her very large covered main sail. Behind the Freedom sat Gregg's H37 cutter, which was also affected, and the conversation was the Beneteau owners opinion that he avoided that area of the mooring field, due to that known slot effect.
I had noted that it was bad in the winter, as the wind is typically more of a north wind in summer, then shifts west in Sept/Oct, but had never been aboard when it was this bad. It is really giving me second thoughts about the location, which has a beautiful view of the Boston skyline. My Wife likes that, and the fact that we are away from other boats and quite near Snake Island (which is fine after black fly season is over and we usually aren't in that early...we did have an incursion of bees once though).
A few years ago our fourth was ruined by wind and rain from the south. It sent a steady pounding chop through the mooring field. The rain started as soon as we were aboard and the chop, due to its height and frequency, had our little Lancer 25 bouncing like a hobby-horse. Gregg stopped by in his dinghy. His Wife Erin sent him on a mission to invite us over to their H37, to which the chop was barely a nusance. My Wife had enough, though, and insisted on calling it a day. She wouldn't even hand around at the club to watch the fireworks.
So, in the interest of 4th preservation, as we sat on Triple Play as she sawed back and forth on her mooring, I set about to make things more comfortable. I began tweaking the bungee cords I had in place to stop the rigging from slapping until they were as quiet as possible. Then, after a break ashore at the club for a BBQ and a few frozen mudslides my Wife wanted to go back on board for a nap. On the trip out in the launch I observed Triple Play's behavior again. Sawing back and forth as much as 15-25 feet and sometimes rocking wildly to one side at the end of the maneuver, like a willful dog on an unwanted leash. A light bulb went on in my head, as I recalled the odd thing I had found searching through the nooks and crannies of our new boat last spring upon taking ownership.
On a shallow shelf above the quarter berth I found old charts, a plastic case with a flare gun and flares, and way in the back there was a glimmer of white. I reached all the way to the back to no avail. I then grabbed a boat hook and fished out a very small sail wrapped in its lines. At first I thought it a storm jib, but it proved way too small for that. Unfolded it was a triangle about two feet by three feet with four brass hanks on one side. On the side with the hanks there are two cringles. One cringle had a three foot line attached with a brass clip on it, the other was bare. The third cringle on the opposite tip from the edge with the hanks on it, had a very long line on it. I sat puzzled for a minute, then realized I was staring at an anchor riding sail.
As many of you no doubt realize by now, although I have limited practical experience, I have a penchant for gleaning information from the internet, especially in the long wintery months up here after our 4-5 month sailing seasong has passed by in its usual flash. So I had read of this mythical beast before, somthing that most cruisers would instantly be aware of, but something those of us who daysail might not even have considered for our short list of "nice to haves." Kudos again, to past owners of my boat, who passed on a canvas breifcase full of receipts, manuals and sailing articles of interest. In it, I found an article on anchor riding sails. I read it, then carried my new found toy up on deck to figure out how to rig it. It hanks onto the either the back stay or, in my case, I hanked it onto the fixed wire topping lift. The main halyard is clipped to the empty cringle at the top and the short line with the clip is clipped onto the boom. It sets the position of the sail at about three feet above the boom. The long line goes forward to be secured to the mast. I just wound the line around the mast a couple of times and threw a few half-hitches in, but a clove hitch would likely work too.
It worked like a charm. Due to the strong winds, I had made an effort to set the sail quite taught. The result was that the sawing motion was reduced by about 50%. It was tamed. The boat would sail to port, the wind would catch the sail and push the boat to starboard, the wind would catch the sail and push it back to port. We went from sawing wildly back and forth every five minutes to just swaying gently back and forth every two to three minutes in a controlled fashion. This made us much more comfortable as it eliminated the sudden lurches that would literally cause us to stumble sometimes, perhaps risking a fall if one happened to be using the companionway without care to proper handholds.
The effect was confirmed the next day when I took the anchor riding sail down. I thought about leaving it up, as if anything it was even more windy (20-25 knots), but was uncertain of its impact if the wind piped up even more with me not aboard to take any actions. Also, it might be dacron and not suited to be left in the sun for extended periods. Given its impact, I am considering making a slightly smaller version out of something like sunbrella, for more permanent use. If I don't have my mooring shifted I know that the boat could see winds much greater than those I observed this weekend, and it would certainly reduce chafe and keep my boat safer. Perhaps I'll post a question to "Ask All Sailors" to get a broader opinion about whether or not someone would leave one up at a mooring for an extended period of time. If any of you have an opinion I'd appreciate it.
For those interested, Sailrite has a kit for only $82. If you have ever considered making your own sail, if only for the satisfaction of it. This is a great one to try, as it is only a few square feet. Actuallly, I read some of the info on the site, and I rigged it improperly. I should have led the forward line to one side to counteract the windage of the boat. That way it would have just sat to one side. Cool. I thought about experimenting with it, but did not. The way mine was set up, on the permanent topping lift, I could perhaps have affected this by merely shifting the traveler a little.
http://www.sailrite.com/Anchor-Riding-Sail-Kit-12-5-Sq-Feet
Thanks! I forgot.
So, what to do with a 4 x 6 inch hole in the coaming? I opted to install a shower unit, to serve as a shower (cold water only on my boat) on hot days but also to give the cockpit a quick washdown. I found an SSI unit for about $90 in off white, which turned out to be a perfect match for my deck gelcoat. I used the dremel to open the hole up to match the new unit. It is installed and looks great. One goof on my part. I should have taken my time measuring while cutting, but no major impact.
So the hold in my coaming left by the GPS is cosmetically repaired. I dropped the guard off at a machine shop (after several abortive attempts at drilling the stainless) to have the holes drilled and tapped. So much for the $50 I spent on two tap and die sets (metric and standard). They were a great deal from summit at $20 plus S&H each. I know I'll use them some day, so no loss incurred. My tolerance for failure just isn't what it was. Now I wish that I have dropped the damn thing off at the maching shop six months ago when I bought it. The estimate is $45 to drill four 1/4 inch holes and tap them plus two beveled 1/2 inch hole for wire chases. The way I was going this could have taken me eigth hours AFTER I bought a $200 drill press.
I could have had the whole thing ready to go aboard in april. I swear that I should just change the name of my boat to "Procrastinator" and get it over with.
Bob
Thanks. Sorry, I was actually thinking about that link when I typed, but wasn't awake enough to recall it was you. Based upon your work I bought the Dremel version of that saw and used it to do one of my latest projects. I had to enlarge the hold the previous owner made to mount the SH-150C GPS chart plotter in the coaming. The coaming is a pretty useless place to mount such a thing, but I think he still relied mainly on a Garmin hand held he had mounted to the pedestal guard. He didn't include that with the boat, so I am moving the chart plotter to a navpod on a new guard.
So, what to do with a 4 x 6 inch hole in the coaming? I opted to install a shower unit, to serve as a shower (cold water only on my boat) on hot days but also to give the cockpit a quick washdown. I found an SSI unit for about $90 in off white, which turned out to be a perfect match for my deck gelcoat. I used the dremel to open the hole up to match the new unit. It is installed and looks great. One goof on my part. I should have taken my time measuring while cutting, but no major impact.
So the hold in my coaming left by the GPS is cosmetically repaired. I dropped the guard off at a machine shop (after several abortive attempts at drilling the stainless) to have the holes drilled and tapped. So much for the $50 I spent on two tap and die sets (metric and standard). They were a great deal from summit at $20 plus S&H each. I know I'll use them some day, so no loss incurred. My tolerance for failure just isn't what it was. Now I wish that I have dropped the damn thing off at the maching shop six months ago when I bought it. The estimate is $45 to drill four 1/4 inch holes and tap them plus two beveled 1/2 inch hole for wire chases. The way I was going this could have taken me eigth hours AFTER I bought a $200 drill press.
I could have had the whole thing ready to go aboard in april. I swear that I should just change the name of my boat to "Procrastinator" and get it over with.
Bob
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