Strange Weekend

This weekend saw another attempt thwarted to take me further than what is the usual, Totland. It started well, with everyone on board and be prepared in time to leave the Medina in order to catch the remainder of the ebb tide West.

Skipper wanted to run me on the jib only so he could see how much of a difference the new sail is compared to the old one.  Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that the wind was going to be fickle and light. So with the whites up what wind there was took us slowly along the Western Solent in lovely sunshine.  The wind was fickle and in the end, the engine came on and left at tick over, 5kts of boat speed and 7kts speed over ground (SOG), but the target of Studland or Swanage seemed too far to warrant winding the engine up and going for it, after all this was supposed to be another pleasant sail.  With the usual rapids ride past Hurst Castle the main was dropped and packed.  It was at this point the wind picked up, Totland Bay was busy the sun had brought everyone out including a sailing club from the mainland.  a flotilla of dinghy's had raced over in the morning, complete with a fleet of safety boats and the bar-b-q, food and drink brought over by a much smaller fleet of motorboats and yachts.

We opted to leave our usual anchorage as it was too close to too many and anchored further out, but with 10m more of chain than usual, a mistake rather than planned, as the chain marker was missed.  Skip opted to continue with his fish studies whilst the crew read her book, the wind didn't abate.  In fact during the night skip got up to turn off my wind generator as that always makes it sound worse than it actually is and with the anchor light and AIS on a measly 0.2amps of power was being used.  It is usual for the skip to remain awake as he listens to creaks and groans and tries to work out where they're coming from. This particular night there were none bar the wind generator and the anchor chain.  Despite the snubber being on, various noises came from the bow and skip made a mental note to check all the fittings to make sure nothing has been working itself loose after all this time.

Around 0700 Sunday morning, skip awake he gets up to locate his phone and turn off the anchor light, noticing out of the window after a quick sense check of where I was in relation to everything else, he noted a freighter coming in to go through the Needles channel.  He also noted the mist that was on the top of Tenneson Down and the Needles Lighthouse sounding its horn, automatically acted in poor visibility.  He went back to bed and checked the weather and tides, the plan was to leave later in the day and catch the flood tide back to Cowes.  The weather app suggested some 35kts of gusts in Cowes later and so the crew was woken and a swift retreat catching the last of this flood was made.

The fog had descended by then but whilst visibility was poor, grey objects could be made out a few miles around you.  The wind what little there was again, was by now from the South West and virtually from behind so back on went the engine and this time run at 2,200rpm to get back to Cowes to beat the strong winds.  By the time they had me sorted, washed up and back indoors, the sun came out and a lovely afternoon unfolded!

Pete Tong - (went wrong)

Skip had been talking to his friend Jeff (Escalon), who’d enquired why he always went West and not East, with Brighton being a similar distance to Weymouth.  He wasn’t wrong, from Cowes, it’s slightly less distance to Brighton than it is to Weymouth or even around the Island for that matter.  So with this in mind, he text his youngest, who tends to visit Brighton quite regularly with his girlfriend and suggest a meet up on the Sunday with a cabin to stay overnight so enabling them to drive back Monday, if they so wished.  He got the usual standoffish reply ‘I’ll check with AJ!’ meaning it wasn't likely to happen.

Anyway Brighton was the plan for the bank holiday and the wind was looking a tad light but from the SW, which isn't a bad thing and a possible option to put up Thor.

Skips crew, had a slight turn the last time we hoped to make Weymouth but this time all appeared good to go and so we set off, later than planned of course, but skip had been down to me the previous day to prepare, open the lazy Jack bag, connect the main halyard, put the log in and various other things to save time.  We left and even entered the small ships channel, skip having attended the CHC AGM the previous night to learn that it’s now dredged to 2.0m below chart datum, at low tide we had 1.3m below us.  He put the main up as he did the motoring cone, dialled in my autopilot and dobbed on the sun cream.  Jeff skips friend came on the phone and so by the forts, he spun me round till we pointed directly at him to locate him from the rest and then went to have a chat.

 

Having already decided by then to head to Shanklin instead, due to the lack of wind, anchor there before continuing up and close to the coastline on Sunday.  Enabling them to actually see the coastline and have a look at Freshwater Bay before stopping in Totland for the night and heading back home on Monday.  As soon as we left Jeff, the wind kicked in and we had 22kts of apparent wind and had a cracking sail up to the Nab Tower before tacking back to Sandown Bay.  Full main and we were pushing 8-9.0kts of boat speed and the tide pushing us back towards Portsmouth. So we tacked a couple more times to make the far end of the Bay and stopped near Shanklin Chine.

We always seem to take an age to get to where we want to anchor and we seem not to be as close to the cliffs as Skip would like and be out of the wind, but hey apart from one other yacht we had the whole Bay to ourselves.  Skip opted, as he often does, to send 5.0m of chain on the back of a leaded line over the back to slow our swinging and tied it to the Davits to keep it clear of my rudder. As the wind was pushing us Skip opted to secure the Davits to the small winch on the starboard side to provide support.  However, the tide changed which took me the other way and so the untied side then took the load and bent one of the Davits beyond repair, as the chain appeared to catch on a rock or something, which once the strain was removed seemed to disappear and be easily hauled in!

A box jelly fish passed me as skip continued with his fish survey (Non-successful fishing).

In the morning the forecast was for 5-6 occasionally 7 at first southwesterly and so a reef was put in my main and we set off.  However, I think the new jib and the power that it brings requires a re-think as we were so overpowered that we nearly broached twice trying to get beyond the headland.  In fact, a bit shell shocked, we turned back only to accidentally jibe and the lazy jack supports popped on the starboard side.  The jib was brought in and as the wind remained at 170° Skip gingerly headed back out to get passed the headlands the other side of Sandown, without jibing again, assisted this time with the tide pushing us out.  We got ourselves back into the Eastern Solent and nearer Lee on Solent before tacking back to port to put the main on the good side of the Lazy Jacks, where Skip jury-rigged something to get the other side of the Lazy Jacks back up and dropped the main into it. We motored home.

So not quite the weekend he’d hoped for and whilst he was expecting an expensive one, taking four out for a meal in Brighton Marina, plus marina fees, it turns out a new set of Davits instead at £350. And of course an inquiry as to why they couldn't sail to where they wanted to go.

Skip returned today (Monday) to wash down the white bits of my deck and also managed one side of my hull.  Force 4 has a set of Davits in stock so Skip will pick them up from Lymington on his return from Romsey on Wednesday.

Pete Tong is a Cockney rhyming slang language for gone wrong!

Slow Start

Well, let's start with some good news.

This weekend was the first of the May bank holidays and whilst again another trip planned had to be put aside, work leading up to the break had Skip discovering two minor issues that had lead to the rev counter and his new gauge from not working.  The rev counter comes with three terminals at the rear, well four actually but let's discount the one for the backlight as that's straightforward, that left ground or earth, again straightforward and two more.  Ignition and pulse, for some reason Skip, had lead two wires back to the intelligent regulator where he could take the pulse connection from and clearly had in his mind where the ignition feed could come from too. However, all he needed to do was to link up with the wire back to the alternator at the back of the ignition switch some 4" away.

Once he'd worked out which was the wire to the alternator and made a connection to it, bingo, the rev counter did exactly what it's supposed to do. The second was even more straightforward so more puzzling, in fitting the new gauge he had to extend all the leads to the sensors, as these are based on a car dashboard to the engine not cockpit to the engine.  However, the earth lead he made and heat treated clearly lost conductivity somewhere along the line and so no earth, once discovered, fortunately, before remaking all the other connections, the gauge too came to life.

It was Skip's intention at Easter to take me over to the Channel Islands and fill up with diesel and then spending a few days in St Malo, however, his workload suddenly took a turn for the better and so the trip was put on hold.  Also with the control panel not working as it should, he felt reluctant until he had it sorted.

Again this bank holiday, the plan was to sail to Weymouth on Saturday, chill out Sunday and return Monday.  Monday was looking rather light with the wind so much would've been under the engine for the return trip. However, his crew member didn't feel that great with lightheadedness and so Saturday was abandoned and instead on Sunday we pootled off to Totland for an overnighter.  Thoughts were for Studland or Swanage, with the former being a bit exposed to the Northerly winds and the volume of motorboats and jet ski's, the latter was considered.  Winds in the Solent were fickle, one minute the tide providing the only source of forward momentum the next 10.0 SOG (speed over ground).  Knowing that Monday's forecast was for little wind a decision was made at the 1m-Warden green starboard buoy, the point where we usually turn for the Bay and so in we went.

Sure enough, Monday was as forecast and at 1400 rpm we were middle of the Western Solent at a steady 5.0kts of boat speed with the autohelm struggling to keep me straight as the tide was occasionally nullifying the rudder.  The rudder needing water flowing over it to work.

So till next time, Skip still has to sort out the intelligent regulator the only thing that's not working that was before I came out of the water for winter!

2019 Season starts

Apart from Skipper spending a lot of time and effort on keeping my shell in the best condition he can, which happens to be one item on his A4 winter list of jobs, there are lots of other jobs on that list.  The list also contains a number that has been transferred over from last year and a number of new ones.  Some jobs are not necessarily urgent like moving the AIS aerials to the lower spreader to get better coverage and some are what he deems 'would likes'.

One job that was a must, was the replacement of my jib, torn to shreds by the wind when the sail tie used came undone.  This has been collected and is in position.

This year he's managed to get a few 'would likes' off his chest and more importantly off the list.  Take the photo above for instance, you can see that the Gel coat on the deck has had the Skipper treatment and the rain can be seen to be 'bubbled' due to the wax.  For those of you with a keen eye, you'll notice that you can also follow the lines all the way to where they turn 90 degrees to the mast, this is usually covered with a panel and when rafted people tend to walk on it.  Skip not keen on the dullness of the surface also spotted a number of star or spider cracks as seen below.

These cracks are stress cracks heavy objects or something being dropped usually causes them, so with the aid of the multi-tool, each crack is followed and filled. The panel at the top if from on side and the panel at the bottom the other, hence why the cracks don't line up!

Once filled rubbed back and repeated a couple of times, Skip then went and bought a G-100 spray gun specially made for spraying Flow Coats, which is Gel Coat but with a wax mixed in that evaporates.  This is not quite as easy and YouTube was correct when users suggested that the gun leaks as soon as it comes out of the box and he discovered that one of the rubber O rings had split.  Now the gun is not as sophisticated as some he has and even with new rings, it still hisses all the time.

So above is one of the line covers (panels), the other is underneath on the floor and it has had three coats and is being rubbed down.  To get the shine back he's used P600, 1000, 1500, 2000 & 3000 grade wet & dry, the last four are mini sanding disks that fit on his air-powered palm sander.  The secret apparently is to use water with washing up liquid in it to provide the lubricant.  Once a hazy shine has been produced it's then a case of turning to the much finer liquid cutting compounds.  Finally, a couple of coats of clear Flow Coat is applied and the polishing process is repeated, to give added protection and that deep glassy shine he's looking for.

Above you can see three stages during the state of polishing, the one furthest away liquid compounds have been used, the middle is going through the various stages of wet & dry and the nearest has has a P120 grade sanding. Skip has also chased out a number of stress cracks on my stern and dug out and filled some dings too.  These have all been rubbed smooth and he's likely to spray in the summer when the ambient temperature is better.

Another job that was part 'Would Like' and part replacement was the new control panel on the cockpit.  The old Yanmar rev counter had packed up towards the end of the season and the four LED lights had long since given up the ghost probably even before skip and crew had taken possession.  Also, the ignition key is a simple square key that other uses could be to bleed radiators, this is not very secure as a pair of pliers could be used instead.  Also, occasionally the key would fall out and turn the ignition off, being diesel the engine would still run but the bow thruster would not function and guess when this was more likely to happen - yep just when you're looking at coming alongside and not looking down at your ankles!  As you can see below he's fitted a split digital gauge too, the upper display is oil pressure and lower is water temperature.  When running within tolerances (set by the user), the display is green, when it exceeds the range it goes red and if allowed to stay in the red, then flashes.  On start up the display is purple till it reaches the desired tolerance. These colours can be different but that's how Skip's set it. It still has the protective plastic over the panel.

Another of the 'Would Likes', is something Skip saw on the Volvo Round the World racing yachts.  His engineering brain liked the tri-sail pattern which causes the wind to accelerate between the sails causing higher boat speeds.  Whilst Skip is not intending on racing, the light winds usually found when we cross Lyme Bay causes us to travel at or below 5.0kts making the crossing a long day, by adding a sail between the code 0 or even jib could reduce the crossing time by up to half.

Using a laser, Skip carefully cuts away at the ceiling and panels to fit the big steel bracket to transfer deck loads to the bulkhead.

Here the bracket is chemically bonded to the bulkhead and held in place with two screws until the bonding has fully taken place. The access door is to my retractable bow thruster and is usually hidden by the head board.

On the other side of the bulkhead is the anchor locker here the steel plate is lined up against the bolts and tightened as the chemical bonding takes place of the D ring on the foredeck. The photo above is prior to that stage as the halyard that is used for the Code 0 and Jenneker is attached plus no nuts on the bolts!  Below the 12.5mm thick marine ply is chemically bonded  to the bulkhead with the domed nuts tightened to squeeze tight the two sides.

Then the ply is made watertight by fibreglassing it and a Gel coat applied to seal any pinprick holes that might have been missed.

Inside the visual impact of the bracket is reduced by fitting a thin bit of veneered ply to the sides and the front.  The front has magnets so that it can be removed to expose the bolt heads for inspection.  Skip needs to find the correct stain, which he thinks is Chestnut and a darker for the lower portion so as to reduce the impact further.  All he needs to do now is to obtain an appropriate halyard and feed this up the mast and to the cockpit and of course take all the relevant dimensions and get a J3 made, having spent money on a jib replacement the budget for another new sail is work in progress.

So I'm now back in the water and back on my pontoon up the Medina.  The removal of the old ignition switch didn't go without a hitch and at first, neither the bow thruster nor the windlass would work.  However, Skip found the wire that needed to be reconnected to enable this to happen.

Easter is approaching and it's hoped that we will be able to see how the new jib fares and have a shakedown for a few days before setting out further afield.

Winter III

Well, here I am the starboard side all washed, cut & polished as only the skipper knows how.

It would appear that due to the fact that my Skipper has been busy since Christmas and also picked up a flu type thing followed by a stomach bug, I'm to remain here till April, giving him time to work through his usual winter list plus the additional 'would like' items he added to it this year.

With the Hull completed, he'll set to on the deck bringing two of my panels back to his garage to have the star-shaped stress fractures rubbed back and the panels re-sprayed with Flow & Clearcoat, to bring back the shine he so desires.

Items on the list are the new control panel in the Cockpit with new tachometer and a dual digital oil Pressure and water temperature gauge that changes colour as the limits are reached.  So, for example, purple when the below the desired range i.e. cold, then green when achieved the optimum levels and red for over, so a simple glimpse will tell you how my engine is doing.  This is a bit of a hangover from Skip's rally days.

Then there's the big item on Skip's 'would like' list, the fitting of the bracket, strengthening of the bulkhead and the D ring on the deck for the J3 staysail. Not to mention the D ring fitted up the mast to take the new halyard and mouse line.

Then there's the servicing of my engine with new oil and filters, not done for a few seasons as I'd not really travelled that far.

Winter List

Sorry for not keeping in touch a lot has been going on although time has seemed to pass very quickly.

A few major points to make, in that my jib managed to become unfurled during high winds whilst I was on the pontoon and it trashed it. The metal horseshoe snapped in half and tore the bottom third of the sail and leaving it looking more like dreadlocks than a sail.

I have been back on the hard at the Yacht Haven since the first week in December.

On returning from my last trip, the skipper decided to leave off the jib sheet, which he did to make the fore deck clearer and safer to work on and tied it up with a sail tie. Unusually he didn't pop down to me prior to the expectation of high winds and double up or even re-attach the jib sheet as I was going nowhere for a while.  If there is a, fortunately, then it is the fact that nothing else sustained any damage, the nearby stantions, the deck nor the bow, all appeared clear of the flailing sail and metal horseshoe.

Anyway following a call from the Harbour Master, skipper arrived and removed it from my cockpit where it had been taken down in the high winds and stored.  He folded it, bagged it and took it to the sail loft in the Yacht Haven to see what could be done.  Due to the age of the Dacron, a new to old joint wouldn't work and so it was written off and so he's been seeking quotes.  Today (4th January 2019), they've just returned from the sail loft in Lymington that made Thor Junior (Code 0) and have paid the deposit for a new jib made out of a slightly stronger material called Velcron.  Skip also discussed the top down furler system to Thor Junior and the J3 staysail that he's been planning.  He came across a local the other day who's a welder by trade and has finally had the bracket made.  This is on his winter list to fit and he's been looking at how to fit it to the underside of my deck whilst making the least disturbance to the ceiling of the master cabin as possible.

Meanwhile, it has been very mild to date and whilst skip is working away at the moment during the week, he's managed to rejuvenate the two lower blue stripes near the water line that suffers from oxidisation and clean and polish the whole of the port side already.  The anchor chain has been washed down and is stored on the floor enabling the chain locker to be cleaned out, items like an old broom head and sponge were found in there, together with other hard items of debris now removed.

Water that is occasionally found below the companionway in the bilge became more apparent and this turned out to be a fault with the outlet of the pump housing.  Turned out that the jubilee clip had been over-tightened, likely when first fitted and the plastic has gone brittle with age with the result that the outlet failed, allowing the water that is on the downstream side of the non-return valve to leak.  This has been removed and the whole assembly cleaned up including the bilge itself, enabling the plate the pump is secured to, to be re-glued down.  The glue also failing as the unit was being pulled about to unscrew.

Skip has also been cleaning up and filling and dings that have appeared in the bow and stern as well as cleaning out some stress cracks at the stern.  He's taken possession of a new spray gun and clear as well as a white flow coat to enable him to rejuvenate the panels that hide my sheets and halyards that run from the bottom of the mast to the cockpit.  This new gear will enable him to spray a Gelcoat, (flowcoat), a white hard shiny surface and finish it off with a clear coat to give a deep shine and add another protective layer.  Other areas of my bodywork could receive the same treatment if all goes well, such as the altercation with Poly Agatha's anchor, years ago.  Whilst that damage was repaired straight away, the surface needs to be finished off properly, also any 'tired' surfaces can be rubbed back and a new one applied to give me a new shine.

Winter list

I've not been sitting on my home pontoon since returning from our week away, but we've had several trips out making the most of the return of some warm weather, alas little wind the last time out but we're still honing our skills, trimming and tweaking my sails and rigging to get the best out of what we've got.

I think this is probably the biggest reason why trailing a lure just returns little reward.  If only my skipper would sit down and watch the world go by, but no that's not him, he's watching the wind in my sails, easing or hardening the Vang, adjusting the tack on the jib, playing with luff lines just to get the best shape and every ounce of wind to good use.

Not only that but he's also been down quite a lot other times, sorting out, measuring up and preparing himself for the next ideas he has in his head.

He's also been up the mast to replace the last of the normal bulbs with power saving LED, the fitting of the amp meter some time ago always raised eyebrows every time the anchor light was switched on.  To remind you the picture above is Skipper's view looking back down at me with the bucket of tools and spares tied to him; he's nearly 100 feet above the water.

The VHF speaker in the cockpit has been replaced, apparently, it was a hardware issue which comes down to circuit board failure as the speaker skipper fitted was still functional.  Unfortunately, Raymarine has forgotten to return the back plate, so it's currently taped to me, there's always something else.

He's been making a new control panel too, the original tachometer that indicates the revs of my engine had failed and he's decided to take the opportunity to add a combined water temperature and oil pressure digital gauge.  It's fancy so I hear, the figures are displayed in different colours, so for instance purple for when it's reaching working pressure/temperature; then go green for at working state and then red if it exceeds its working limits and flashing red should it be allowed to remain in that state.  This is from his past days when he built and drove rally cars, not that this type of instrument was available to him then, no this is on his sons' car now, but skipper likes to know what the engines doing so he can spot issues before they become problems.

New control panel

(hole top right is for push stop button)

He's also had the stainless steel cut so that the bracket can be made up that will provide the support to the foredeck fitting to take the J3 sail.  This needs to be welded and then when I'm out of the water on the hard, skipper will fit it ready for next season.