Sailing Weekend

Granthams Landing

In much of Canada,Victoria Day weekend is considered the start of summer and the unofficial start of the boating season.  For us the weather was not particularly summery but we did start our boating season!

Lisa and I enjoyed an extended long holiday weekend at our Gibsons Landing cottage and I was really happy to get Bluster into the water for the first time this year!

I launched at the always friendly Gibsons Marina ramp and at the same time booked Bluster a marina slip for the next two nights.  The weather was gusting with some dark clouds but I thrilled to be getting out!  I started out with a jib run north down Shoal Channel and when the wind moderated I raised the mizzen and main sails  for some fun dingy like sailing.

Down wind jib sail

 The southerly inflow winds are such that my starboard tack was pretty much straight across the channel towards Keats Island but the port tack was straight up the channel.  Great fun hitting five knots sitting on the coaming.

Racing a couple of cement trucks

Readout is still set for km/hr not knots!

Rain clouds were forming up so I tied up to the Granthams landing public dock and went below for lunch, book and a little nap.

Granthams Dock

Shelter from the rain

 Discovered a small leak in the companion way hatch - likely due to dried out sealant.
When the rain eased up later in the afternoon I motored back to the marina and my slip there.

Gibsons \Landing \Marina

The next day was pretty crumby weather so we did chores around the cottage.  Boating consisted only of relocating Bluster to another marina slip and then hanging out there in the evening when sun finally broke through.

Sunset

On Sunday Lisa joined me for a jaunt down Hopkins Landing then over to the north side of Keats Island.  Again we had some good winds and saw lots of other boats enjoying the day.  It was chilly and touque (Canadianese for knit cap) and gloves would have been nice.

First mate at the helm with Gambier Island in the background

Just before we wrapped it up I noticed the horn on the gaff crutch had broken off where I had made my repair last year.

The dangling bit is part of my gaff crutch

With the gaff no longer attached to the mast lowering sail consisted of more than the usual flapping and tugging but eventually things were furled and we motored back to the ramp.

Motoring home

Bluster was hauled out of the water and to her new temporary home in a local storage yard.  Before covering up with the tarp I epoxied the gaff horn into place and backed up the repair with some counter sunk screws.

New storage site

A great weekend with some nice sailing and a renewed enthusiasm for the season ahead!

Here is a link to short sailing movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltP0_f_5b9k&feature=youtu.be

Not Really Marine Equipment, But Useful On A Small Sailboat Post No. 5

Dual Eyewear - Bifocal Sport Sunglasses

Since my early twenties I have worn corrective lenses, glasses or contacts, to correct my near sighted vision.  All was good with this arrangement until I hit my fifties when my close vision started to go.  Progressive lenses solved the glasses issue but I like to wear contact lenses for outdoor activities and digging out 'cheater' glasses to read digital camera settings or GPS is a big pain.

I stumbled upon these bifocal sports sunglasses (non-corrective tinted lens with bifocal corrective inset) on the Internet and ordered up a pair.  I am very pleased with the coverage and the bifocal works well and is easy to get used to.  If you look closely in the above photo you may just make out the bifocal bit.   At less than $50 this is a good deal.

http://www.dualeyewear.com/

Now I can look cool while sailing or cycling or reading a menu.

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!

Shifting Gears

The shift lever for the Honda BF5 is located on the starboard side of the outboard motor.  This is not exactly conveniently located when the motor is mounted on the Chebacco considering the distance to the transom for the cockpit.  Add in the mizzen mast, main sheet traveller and boom gallows to make the reach even trickier. 

Cleverly (thought I) I could make a sort of poor man's remote control by attaching wooden control dowels to the shifter lever and the twist throttle (using a commercial throttle extender).  Holes were drilled into the cockpit bulkhead and the dowels extended slightly into the cockpit.  Thus, without so much as standing up I could control the shifting and speed from the cockpit.  This system worked great for general motoring but it fell short in that the motor was now locked into position on the centre line of the boat and could not longer be pivoted to manoeuvre in tight quarters.  This is a definite disadvantage considering the poor reversing and stopping characterists of this Chebacco/OB combination.

Remote shifter 1.0 one end...

...and the other

Back to the drawing board as they say.  Jamie Orr has the same motor on his boat, Wayward Lass.  He added a short extension to the shifter that allowed him to shift by reaching over the top of the motor to shift gears.  When motoring in tight quarters Jamie would perch on the port aft deck and be able to control shifter, throttle and tiller handily.  This arrangement allows the motor to still pivot when required for tight manoeuvring.  Clever chap that Jamie, so I copied him.  My lever extension was in fact the plastic extended socket wench thingy that came with  my new kitchen faucet and it fit perfectly.  Never throw anything out.

Remote shifter 2.0

A keen observer may notice in the top two photos the extension to the motor pull cord.  As with the shifter -the mizzen, rudder post, main sheet traveller and the distance to the transom from the cockpit make pulling the starter cord a challenge and a risk to back, elbows and fingernails.  Very considerately, when purchased, the Honda OB came with a back up starting cord to be used in the unlucky event of cord breakage or failure of the ratchet mechanism.  This cord is attached to the rubber hand grip of the built in starter cord and reaches easily to the cockpit.  Simple and slick.

Crash

I was really looking forward to this past August 19th.  The plan was to meet up with my brother Gary early at the Pitt River Marina where we would launch Bluster then motor up to the Pitt Lake ramp where we would meet up with my friend Curtis and his Siren 17.  We would then spend the whole day exploring the lake and adjacent waterways.  The next weekend was the Vancouver Wooden Boat that I was really excited about participating in for the first time.

I arrived at the marina early, about a half hour ahead of Gary, so I loaded up the provisions and gear then hooked on the trailer thinking that I may as well go ahead and launch while waiting. This is easier with two people but the ramp was quiet and  I have certainly done it alone many times so I wheeled out of the secured parking and over to the ramp.  I executed a ninety degree turn to begin changing direction from driving towards the ramp to backing down.  As I came to a stop I felt the car/trailer pull backwards slightly and thought it was just the weight of the trailer that was now on the downward slope.  Not quite in the right position I pulled forward again.  Bang!  My first thought was that for some reason the trailer hitch had popped off the ball so I stopped  the car and stepped out...I had caught an overhead cable!  Where did that come from and how had I launched here three times previously and never seen it?  Bluster's mast was angled back about twenty degrees and the bowsprit was angled up at forty five degrees taking a big section of the foredeck with it.  What a mess.    In a shock-like state I drove back to my parking spot.  Gary arrived shortly after, also looking forward to a day on the water, and we began to assess the damage.

Not a good way to start a cruise.

It appeared when I caught the mast on an overhead cable the mast flexed backwards pulling up on the bowsprit and snapping the 1/8" ss cable bobstay.  The sturdy bowsprit (really a bowplank) was undamaged and the six 3/8" ss bolts ensured that the foredeck it was attached to travelled with it.  The only damage to the mast was split on the foot where the locking bolt on the tabernacle is inserted.  Hull, sails and rigging all OK.  We spent some time lowering  the masts, removing the anchor and bowsprit.  This is a disappointing end of the sailing season for me, for now.

The next day I cancelled my monthly storage at the marina and towed my wounded Bluster to Gary's farm where he generously offered to store her whilst I was to undertake repairs.  I was getting over my grieving and starting to plan for the future - I still had a couple of pieces of the original marine plywood fiberglass cloth and some fresh epoxy.  Having built Bluster I am acutely aware of her intimate construction details. 

Maybe I won't be going to the Wooden Boat Festival next weekend but Sam and I had been talking about a backpacking trip to Garibaldi Park...

A very good plan B

Lock Down

This past weekend I intended to take Bluster out for a little sail but other things came up so instead I used a little of my free time to address some mods and maintenance issues.  I guess it is the boat builder in me but I really enjoy puttering and fussing on and around my boat.  Almost as much as sailing - a sentiment I have heard from other builders too.

A couple of years ago I purchased a lock set to enable me to secure the Bluster's cabin.  Today I finally got around to it.  Fairly straight forward jot that involved drilling a 3/4" hole in the top drop board, inserting and bolting up the lock set then attaching a cleat on the underside of the hatch.



Lock set 



Lock set intalled



Inside - unlocked

 

Inside - locked


The finished job looks good and works well.  It would not deter a determined thief but may reduce the chances of 'crimes of opportunity'. 

Now, where did I put the key?