Yaviza and Friends Cruise Howe Sound

Cal Cran is a Chebacco builder/sailor from Alberta who got together with legendary Chebacco builder/sailor Jamie Orr with Wayward Lass from for a fall cruise in Howe Sound.  They were joined by Curtis Patzer sailing his Siren 17, Nautilus.  The following is Cal's report of the cruise with some photos  courtesy of Jamie.  Thank you both for sharing!

Yaviza my Chebacco cat yawl had not been away from Mabel Lake for 2 years so during the last week of September I checked the weather forecast for Howe Sound, found the conditions were to be excellent and hatched a plan to drive out and sail for 4 or 5 days.

Emails were sent out to Jamie Orr, Curtis Patzer and Randy Wheating. All replied and agreed to try and meet up, except for Randy as he was in France.

I arrived in North Van. At Sunset Marina Wednesday afternoon and rigged the boat for a morning departure. Cooked supper at the marina in the parking lot and slept in the boat.

Thursday morning was pure blue skies and calm winds so after a leisurely breakfast motored out of the marina towards Gibsons which I estimated as 4 to 5 hours away, where I was to met Jamie near Plumpers Cove marine park. Jamie was crossing the Georgia Strait from Crofton, Vancouver Island. The meeting went perfectly to plan, as I arrived at the same time as Jamie! I motored for about 3 hours before the wind came up and allowed sailing. This motoring time gave me time to play with my new 5 watt solar panel and charge the 18amh battery I had just installed. This system powers a LED cabin and anchor light that I just bought from Bebi Electronics in Fiji, it has enough power to power the lights, GPS and handheld VHS for at least 3 days without the sun.

Plumpers Cove was not collecting fees as it was the end of the season so we tied up to the dock for the night.

Next morning a light breeze was blowing so we played around in Shoal Channel before going into Gibsons for a second Breakfast at Mollies Reach. After breakfast it started to rain lightly so donned the rain gear and set sail for a trip around Bowen Island through Collingwood Channel , the rain turned to real rain and the wind was 10 knots from the NW which made for a nice reach into the channel!, once in Collingwood the run was made pleasant by a return to sunny conditions. Once to Hutt Island the wind became light and as it was getting near dark we motored over to Snug Cove for the night and tied to the dock, cooked supper and slept like a baby.

 

We were to meet Curtis today some where in English Bay so we set out into Queen Charlotte Channel towards  Pt. Atkinson with a following outflow from the Sound.

Around noon we approached Pt. Atkinson in waves as big as my house! At one point I looked over at Jamie and ¾’s of his bottom was showing as he climbed a wave and crashed down, later he told me on one wave he saw my center board!! During this learning experience I looked up and saw Curtis motoring right beside me saying lets get out of here and into Howe Sound, I quickly agreed. We then sailed on the afternoon inflow slowly towards Halkett Bay Marine Park. Arrived in the late afternoon and anchored out in about 30ft of water. Jamie inflated his tender and took us to shore for a hike. Cooked supper and after dark we met on Yaviza for wine and dark chocolate.

Wayward Lass (front) and Yaviza at anchor

 

My new Bebi 15 LED anchor light was the brightest in the cove, I hoist it on the topping lift.

Morning arrived and it was time for everyone to start for home, Curtis to Port Moody, Jamie back across the Strait and myself to Sunset and eventually Mabel Lake. Winds were calm and I motored back to Sunset where I prepared the boat for trailering  and started home by about 1400 arriving home at 2100.

All in all a most enjoyable trip and I plan to explore Howe sound more next year. Hoping to have Randy in Bluster along for the fun.

Repairs and Reflection

A few days after my disastrous mast versus overhead cable event I started to review the damage and formulate my approach to making it right again.

 

 

My brother generously offered to store Bluster at his farm that is conveniently located between my work and my home. 

The first step was to remove all the hardware and bow plank from the damaged area.
   

Next was to 'clean up the wound' as it were by trimming the ripped plywood in to a straight sided hole to facilitate the patch.  Two things were definitely in my favour - the hull was undamaged (foredeck and front bit of the cabin took the brunt of the damage) and the fact that I was intimately familiar with Bluster's construction details even though it had been over ten years since finishing the build. 

A cardboard template was then taken for the deck piece and the radius bit for the cabin front.

The templates were then used to cut the shapes from marine plywood - even had a big enough scrap piece left over from the original build! 

These pieces were then fitted and attached used epoxy and screws.

  Flush cut and 1/2" round over router bits plus some coarse sand paper tidied up the edges. 

Epoxy and fibreglass cloth (also a left over from original build) followed by several sessions of filling and sanding that preceded the final epoxy sealing.

Brushed the entire repair with Intra Lux Topside white (because that was what I had) and ...

 

...then spray painted a beige  that was as close to the original colour as I could find off the shelf.

 

 

 Epoxyed and clamped the split in the mast that occurred when the it was forced back against the locking bolt in the tabernacle.

 

Final steps remaining are to re-attach the bow plank and hardware.

 

Overall I am pleased with the repairs although the quality of the finish does not match the original due to this being an outdoors 'rush' job whereas the original build was indoors with controlled conditions, access to air tools, etc.  The mismatched paint is strictly cosmetic and my thinking is that the whole boat could use a complete paint job in the couple of years anyways.

 

It was a bummer to miss out on the late summer and fall sailing season but the stretch of awesome weather we experience on the BC coast was very conducive to working outdoors.   Who knows, still have fresh fuel and valid trailer licence I have been sailing in November and February in past years...we are back in business!