Boating Adventures

I’ve documented the system here in an earlier post. Today I filled the tanks at the dock. That required getting the pump working. I still have a small leak in the pump but it’s an easy fix. No other leaks that I can see. I’m planning to replace/lube the gate valves as well before I leave. That requires a lift, but it’s an easy job.

I filled both tanks first. The transom was a good 3″ lower.

A couple of hours later I checked for leaks, then drained the port tank. Whoa. I almost lost my tool box off the deck.

This boat has a lot of stability. I guess I was prepared to see the heel induced by the full tank but it was still dramatic.

With the tanks empty the waterline is just below the transom

Note the radar. Got that finally installed today.

I’m really looking forward to sailing in a breeze. Looks like it’s light through to early next week.

Weather here in Chicago has been consistently weird. It was sunny and warm all afternoon. Now it’s foggy everywhere.

I spent part of the day studying the rig more closely. Ran the main up with a good dosing of mcLube on the bolt rope. That made a big difference.

I haven’t yet sailed in anything over 10 knots, but playing with the rig at the dock it didn’t feel like I could get enough mast bend. That led to some minor adjustment of the checkstays, but the rig still looked way too straight. So I loosened the rig, kicked the butt of the mast aft, and retuned. That put about two inches of prebend in and a very sloppy headstay with slack backstays. That seems like a better starting point, though it still doesn’t seem bendy enough. I was getting maybe 8″ max, and pretty even.

I was ready to go for a sail and had invited a few of the CYY folks, but no takers.

I took a pass around the yard and ran into Taylor and Pam. They’re a lovely couple who live in Iowa and have a Shannon 43 that they’re working on making perfect. I applaud the effort. Classic very well put together boat. I met them in the fall and we got reacquainted again this spring. Such is the boatyard rhythm.

Happily they took me up on an offer of a quick sail, and off we went. We motored through the bridge, raised sails, and went for a sail. Taylor and Pam steered and I did all the work. I think they enjoyed it.

Things went reasonably smoothly. The last few feet of the main raise is difficult. Going to try easing the outhaul next time. I still have a few lines to finalize, but I’m feeling pretty comfortable with the layout. I’m reminded all the time that this is a racing boat. While I’ve been lamenting the bare bones steel coffin interior it’s just about perfect on the outside and moving around is easy and secure. Lines, stoppers and winches are well placed.

We had the small jib up going out and the small spinnaker up coming back. Spinnaker is in good shape. I think it’s the newest sail. It’s got quite a different shape. I can see using it lots.

The boat powers up nicely in the light wind, even with the working headsails. I’m excited by the performance potential. But it’s also a big rig with not much in the way of sail handling conveniences. I think I can do it, and I’m willing to experiment and evolve as I learn more.

We sailed back through the bridge and into our berth. I left all the sails on deck and packed up myself later. I rolled the main and put the boom cover on. That works OK.

Looking forward to getting out in more wind. In the meantime it’s electronics install time. As usual I’ve suffered some further scope creep, and I’m replacing all the current electronics. But that’s for a different post.

I’ve been writing this post from a seat looking at the rig. The jumper strut sort of turns it into a masthead rig in some respects. I think I shouldn’t impose my 80s based thinking on this boat too much. It also occurs to me that I haven’t spent much time trimming composite mains. It makes sense that less bend is needed. I’ve done enough thinking on this. Time to get some sailing time in.

I was in Guelph last weekend. There was a memorial celebration for Molly Saturday night at the sailing club, and excellent Snipe racing Saturday and Sunday. About 15 boats racing.

I like the Snipe a lot. Very tunable, not too athletic. I’ve always liked short course lake racing. And there are some very good sailors racing there. My friend Harri in particular is a great sailor, and has spent a lot of time building the fleet there. I think everyone was happy to see him out again, and he won the regatta sailing with Inessa.

Saturday was a bit of a write off for us as we hit some snags getting the boat ready after a winter in the shop. But Sarah and I were ready Sunday, and had several pretty good races, with 7-5-4 finishes. We’ve only sailed the boat a few times, and each time we’re getting a bit faster and smoother and learning how to set up the boat. The breeze was gradually building from a patchy 5-10 knots at the start.

A few minutes before the 4th race Sarah lost her hat and prescription sports glasses overboard after tangling with the vang during a gybe.

We’d had three good starts. The fourth didn’t work out. I was being indecisive, and decided at the last minute to abandon my pin end strategy and get closer to the committee boat in order to be able to get right after the start. So we reached across the line on port tack against the wall of starboard tackers. We ducked the first clump of 3-4 boats. And there was a nice hole above and behind them with about ten seconds left.

We were probably two boat lengths behind the line, and I hardened up on port to try to get closer to the line.

That was a mistake, as it was Harri’s hole. He responded immediately by heading up sharply to block me. Smart move, and one I should have predicted, but anybody else would have let me in and I wasn’t identifying the boats.

Probably in hindsight I should have crash tacked and taken my lumps. But I bore off instead to take Harri’s stern. We were almost on opposite courses, with him sailing close hauled to the line and us reaching away.

Just as we were passing Harri’s transom another boat on starboard tack was bearing off to avoid his stern, and probably didn’t see us coming. I didn’t see them until just before the collision. They hit us about as squarely as possible just behind our port chainplate. Sarah had no warning.

The bow of their boat stuck about 3″ into out boat. After pulling the boats apart and having a quick look at their boat – it was fine – I waved them off to go racing, and we sailed in to assess the damage.

After the other boat came in we confirmed that they hadn’t suffered any material damage. I assured the other crew that I felt that it was my fault – I was on port and they were on starboard.

The boat is repairable, and we’ll leave it in Harri’s capable hands. But it smarts. I’ve been thinking about my accident history, and that’s actually the first time ever I’ve damaged a sailboat in a collision. I’ve broken a few spars, and have crunched Mazurka twice. But my record sailing is no longer unblemished

What went wrong? Coming across on port is pretty aggressive and potentially dangerous, but I’ve done it lots on big lines in the Laser fleet.

I’m not sure why the boat that hit us was bearing off to duck Harri rather than heading up inside him. Maybe they didn’t respond quickly enough to his sudden course change and were more concerned with keeping clear than anything else, or maybe the committee boat was blocking them. Doesn’t matter. I was taking a risk and got nailed when I didn’t properly assess the situation.

Nice day out on the lake. Wind 5-8 knots. We had the original genoa up. Like the main it’s quite serviceable. I think I’ll put the newer sails in storage for the time being.

We sailed upwind for a while then put up the big spinnaker for the trip back.

Rigging with the sprit seems straightforward. About the only major change I’m thinking about is having slugs put on the main. I don’t think I’ll install furling.

Boat handles very well, and feels fast. I’m really pleased and excited. It was nice having Samantha and Sarah here for the maiden sail. They like the boat.

Next on the to-do list is installation of electronics. I brought the radar and MFD from Mazurka, and have a new autopilot and VHF. Ockam system is working, but I need to invest some time in understanding and calibration. Not sure about integration of wind and autopilot, but not fussed if it doesn’t happen.

The cockpit is quite comfortable for lying in athwartships, kind of where Sarah and Samantha are in this pic. I can imagine napping there.

The committee met, and offered a rating of 48 that includes the use of the water ballast. The rating without is 78. The declaration is for the season.

I took the 48. It was harder than I thought. It’s going to be hard sailing to that rating. But looking at the fleet maybe I can be first to finish. I’m in the Superior division with the big guys. That’d be fun. It’s better that sailing slower to ‘optimize’ the rating.

Samantha and Sarah arrived around noon, and after helping me with a few things like getting the rudder seal installed we went sailing.

Sarah tried to smash a bottle of bubbly wine on the bow, but it just dented the boat :-).

We sailed off the dock under main, noodled around in the turning basin waiting for the bridge to open, then out to the lake. Nice day, west wind around 10 knots.

We put up the older main. Looks fine, think that’ll be the one I use this summer.

On the lake we reached north for a while, turned around and sailed back into the river and to the dock. Didn’t put up any headsails.

Boat sails very well. Lots of stability, and no fuss going through the water.

Tomorrow we’ll do more.

Mazurka is ashore in Kingston until I go back in late August to bring the boat up to Lake Ontario to complete my loop.

The Hudson is beautiful. I left anchorage right across from the nuclear power plant early to catch a favourable current and had a nice cruise up to Kingston.

I caught an Amtrak train to Toronto, had a visit with family, then a couple of days in NYC with Samantha and Sarah, then loaded up the car with boat stuff and headed for Chicago.

I haven’t talked much about some of the nuts and bolts activity and tools.

I was anchored in this nice little inlet on the Hudson River near Peekskill. Pretty snug in a lagoon about 250 ft wide, well protected except for a small part of the NW quadrant.

I stopped in the evening and spent the next day hunkered down in the rain and SE winds.

The next evening I knew the front was coming through, but I was very protected on three sides. I was reading on the couch about 11 pm when the wind came roaring in from the NW, my vulnerable quadrant. I was swinging around in this little lagoon within about 100 ft of shore. I watched my plot for a while. Anchor was holding firm, as expected. I was using a 20 kg claw on an all rope rode. In 5 ft of water I had about 60 feet out.

I checked radar and forecasts and it didn’t look dire, but as time went by the waves started building. It’s about a mile to the other side of the river there, so enough fetch to send a chop directly into my bay. And it started pouring rain again. Wind was about 25 knots and very gusty.

I almost always sit in my cockpit when it’s raining. There’s a big overhang and at anchor there’s a dry area. I was sitting there watching the little lagoon get more and more angry. The walls were vertical man made, and it was turning into a washing machine. And the wall wasn’t more than 120 feet away. Not much time to respond if I were to start dragging. So I started the motor, sat monitoring the situation, and about 20 minutes later when the rain stopped I decided to get underway.

I knew I could follow my GPS path out of the inlet, and there was a decent looking anchorage on the opposite shore.

This is where I miss having a windlass. It often takes a couple of trips back and forths between the bow and the helm, and I didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver as the shore was maybe 3 boatlengths to leeward. And in a breeze the bow falls off fast. There wasn’t a lot of room for error or mishap.

I did it. Got the adrenaline going 🙂

I anchored in an area on the other side where I had lots of room to swing. Good thing, as the wind shifted through 180 degrees with some major gusts through the night. Here’s my path at anchor.

Whenever I anchor I set both an alarm and tracking on my phone. I generally sleep soundly as long as I have lots of room to swing. But I didn’t sleep well, and was up not long after dawn to head north.

Tin Lizzie is named and afloat.

Today was a flurry of activity. I polished the topsides, then went to get a new valve for the water ballast system. Should have done that earlier. When I got back Phil had the graphics done, and after some fussing around I got them on.

I think it’s perfect.

The yard crew snatched the boat the moment I was done, and gave me an opportunity to touch up the bottom

And splash!

I didn’t get time to swap the valve. Might have to hang the boat to do that. I’ll get to it. But now I can prep for sailing. Samantha and Sarah are coming for a quick visit and a christening sail.

A few more dock shots. Good looking boat.

I unpacked the mast, fixed the broken B&G wind sender, installed a masthead VHF antenna, and got the rig up today.

I’ve been helping out the rigging crew this week. It’s probably the busiest week of the year. Great bunch. One of them I knew 30 years ago as an expert on racing electronics systems. He brought in his test bench and a replacement connector – these are very specialized OEM parts – and fixed the wind indicator on his lunch break. Thanks Mark! I did a fiberglass wrap over the cracked carbon fiber and relocated the wire, and we were done.

I’m constantly shocked at how much money is spent on this sport. A replacement unit is US$1,600 and I’m sure most people would just pop for a replacement. But that’s not the Tin Lizzie way!

Boat will hit the water tomorrow or Friday. Still lots to do, but the path is clear so far. I hope to get the new name on first. If not we’ll pop it out to apply the name later.

The rig is very well done and in good shape. Lots of good lines and hardware. I’m very pleased with the whole package. Nobody has anything good to say about running backs, but I’ve never minded them. I’m not a big fan of swept back spreaders. The setup on TL is very nice, with a checkstay deflector control next to the mainsheet.

I think I’m going to try to build a furling headstay. Will decide next week after doing some sailing. I suspect that the genoa would have to be modified. Maybe the jib too.

Lots of compliments on the boat. I’ve got more cleaning to do but it looks really nice all round. Looking forward to sailing this weekend, maybe with my boat partners if they can make it. We could probably easily smash a bottle on the tin bow 🙂