Easter & the British Weather

Well anyone that made plans will tell you Easter was early this year.

From the beginning of the week my skipper had been watching the weather develop and his plans to take me to Weymouth with a couple of friends diminish.  Friday was looking good, an excellent forecast would make for a beautiful inaugural sail wind to the north then switching to the south would keep his crew on its toes, the 0900 planned start would see the tide eddy around Egypt Point and then pick up the full 6 hours leaving the last few hours within Weymouth Bay and a lesser of an influence, making it in the old harbour before dark.

However, the weather after that appeared to deteriorate.  It wasn't just the fact that it appeared to rain for the following three days, but the winds strengths were to reach storm force 10 on the day of their return.  Despite my skipper having had a third reef sown in to my main, it wasn't his intention to use it as he would say my first reef.  So the plans were cancelled.

Sure enough Good Friday was glorious and my Lazy Jack bag was adjusted to ensure the complete cover of my clean laundered and serviced main.  This meant hoisting my main to remove the weight out of the bag, but in the light winds this wasn't difficult.  The outer deck was washed down and brushed lightly to remove the green algae that hates sea water;  the black caulking between the old and new repaired teak was carefully applied, sealing what is believed to be a source of a leak in to the stern locker.

With the weather only due to worsen as the day progressed it was decided to move me back to my pontoon, especially as the taxi now made available by the Harbour Commission was due to cease after 1800, a conversation my skipper had with HM1, the patrol boat.  Today there was a small old fashion speed boat moored directly behind me, on the opposite side was a yacht, the large rib at my starboard bow on the finger pontoon had gone but the pontoon would be what I'd hit first in any case.  Preventing a clear passage out in to the river was a pair of yachts rafted on the hammer head, this meant that once through the gap my skipper had to turn hard to starboard and watch my bow to make sure I missed everything.  |The wind as always on these occasions felt as though it had picked up, but my skipper didn't show any signs of nerves.  Both lines were cast at the same time and the wind blew me off but towards the finger pontoon, my skipper putting a few revs on the tacho soon felt the effect of the new prop which had plenty of water over the rudder giving him control and so guided me threw the gap and turned without fuss and I was soon in the river.  With the throttle pushed forward there seemed to be a larger than usual wash behind me.  This was difficult to assess as at these times my blades are usually clean and are the most efficient.  However with the tide pushing me out in to the Solent, my bow thruster down and with only 1500 rpm on the clock I was travelling at 4.5 knots SOG.  With sudden realisation, my skipper eased the throttle so as not to damage the lowered bow thruster and I ticked along heading back to my base.  With both tide & wind against me, the skipper brought me in gently to my berth around the sail school yacht that had been using the pontoon for practice.

First impression of the new prop was good, but obviously a season of data needs to be established before the jury can decide on whether it was money well spent.  Skipper quietly pleased.

Two things came to light on this small journey, the first was the confirmation that my electric winch didn't work, this is probably going to be a stuck solenoid my skipper discovered before.  The second was the noise Marley the wind generator was making having been released for the first time in months.  It would make sleeping in the rear port cabin unattainable.  My skipper on returning on Saturday checked the wiring as this had been the cause previously.  The terminals at the batteries were still cable tied tightly providing plenty of support to the wiring at this end and a terminal block was discovered to have partially melted at the other end, which was soon replaced.  The other thought is that with the batteries having been charging over the winter period by shore power, the batteries themselves are fully charged and therefore the intelligent regulator is slowing the blades down as power is not needed, causing an element of vibration.  Tine will tell, it could of course just be that the as it's been held in the same position for three months there's a build up of dirt.  With the wind building, the attempt to put the mast cover on was abandoned, but the washed cockpit table cover and the sprayhood frame covers where fitted. With the last of the water sponged out of the bilge, my skipper packed up and headed home before the rain came.

Heat & New Lazy Jack bag

My Skipper has been doing a lot of research regarding my Webasto hear Airtop5000 to be exact.  Previously it appeared to work ok, but in fact it delivered warm air to my rear cabins and sometimes the saloon, but no chance of getting any heat further forward.  Which is where to be honest the owners are likely to want it in the Master Cabin.  New models are fitted with two heaters one entirely serving the Master Cabin.

However, as I said my skipper has done his homework.  The Airtop5000 has an overheat cut off sensor and as the fan on the unit is not capable of moving the volume of hot air away from the unit fast enough it overheats, the sensor picks that up and the unit is shut down.  The increase in volume of air flow through a 90mm dia duct compared to a 60mm dia duct is more than 50% again.  So my skipper is going to replace the undersized duct work from beneath the chart table to the Master Cabin with the larger 90mm duct, at the point of change he's going to install an in line fan controlled by a variable speed switch enabling him to draw the air away from the heater unit, stopping it from overheating and deliver it where it's wanted to the front.  He's also got a number of thermal socks that go over the duct work, that is designed to keep the air hot within the duct work.

So this winter having serviced the unit and replaced the burner unit, I went back on.  Only to discover that an error code shown on the panel was leading to a new problem with the fan.  It was soon discovered that the plastic shrouds at the end had been put on the wrong way round preventing the fan from spinning.  Once switched and re-assembled, the unit fired up pumping hot air by the bucket load in to the stern locker.  This was a bit of a eureka moment for my skipper who was expecting to spend a few more hours getting it to fire up.

Now my skipper has to check that the ducting in the stern locker has become crushed preventing airflow from moving forward.  Then he'll add the thermal socks to the 60mm ducting that serves the rear cabins and the heads off the saloon.  From there he'll strip out the existing 60mm ducting to the Master Cabin and heads and replace it with 90mm and surround it in the thermal sock, and add the new inline fan.  Once this has been completed, warm or even hot air should reach the Master Cabin like the manufacturer had intended but failed to do and has never done before.

I'll keep you posted as how he gets on with the inline fan and the new duct work.

Allowing the unit to run, my skipper then turned his attention to fitting the new Lazy Jack bag he had made locally.  Now imagine strong winds, larger areas of cloth and one man trying to fit it to the boom and you can imagine the picture.  Still he's done this before and slid the bag down the boom and tied each of the hoops, then put sail ties around it to stop the wind from shaking it to pieces.  The bag like my jib are all looking crispy clean, so its just the main to go before my first trip at Easter.  I understand the plan is to head for Weymouth using the six hours of ebbing tide to assist, guests may be present, which is a good thing especially as its a colleague that my skipper & crew have done number of races with including the Fastnet.  Only hope the weather doesn't mar the plans.

Back in the Water

Having struck a deal with the Yacht Haven I'm back in the water and on a temporary mooring, my skipper happy that all the work to my hull and prop done and all the other work can be achieved afloat.  This is partly good will as the hard was chock-a and by moving me created much needed space for the marine manager.

Although the funny thing is that having been lowered in to the water once more, I was brought in to collision against a pile, only gently but enough to knock out the repair my skipper had done following my altercation with Polly Agatha.  So I've now had a professional to complete what had been a reasonable repair in the first place.

My laundered Jib is back on after the mix up with the sail loft, just waiting for the Lazy Jack bag to go on before my laundered main can be fitted complete with its new third reef, which will require yet another halyard to be fitted, to operate it.

So with me on the water my skipper has set about finishing off the repair to the damaged teak that was done at the same time.

Old teak removed

 



New Teak cut in

 





Finished job with my wind generator back and push pit

back on

 

Just need to allow Mother Nature to turn the red to a silvery grey to match the rest.  Now that the push pit is back on, the nuts need to be just tightened before the Webasto heater can go back on it's plinth and be plugged back in.  I understand that the skipper wants to run it without the duct work connected to make sure that it works as I should and at least be ready for the Easter trip.  The additional 90mm ducting and the insulation socks are all on board ready to go on.  He's going to replace the 60mm duct to the master cabin with 90mm which I understand will increase the air flow to the front by almost 50%.  With the variable speed inline fan and thermal socks hot air should reach the occupants of my master cabin in earnest for the first time.

 

For now his visions are on taking me out at Easter for a shake down to Weymouth.  When we return I go back to my usual mooring up the Medina River opposite UKSA's base.  I'll return there in a much better state than I left.