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What's happenin'?

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dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/08/2013 : 11:00:55

There hasn't been any new items since 1/1/13. What's going on out there?

DavidP
1975 C-22 SK #5459 "Shadowfax" Fleet 52
PO of 1984 C-25 SK/TR #4142 "Recess"
Percy Priest Yacht Club, Hamilton Creek Marina, Nashville, TN

Edited by - on

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9080 Posts

Response Posted - 06/08/2013 : 12:11:09

We old-timers just talk on the General Forum. Besides, do you really want to hear my stories??

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GaryB
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4304 Posts

Response Posted - 06/08/2013 : 13:03:37

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Stinkpotter
 Besides, do you really want to hear my stories??

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Yes!!!

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Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9080 Posts

Response Posted - 06/08/2013 : 16:11:15

Well, nothing much yet except the mechanical problem$ that have $lowed my $tart this $ea$on... You don't wanna know.

But in a couple of weeks I start driving the 1917 Herreshoff launch Resolute for the Mystic Seaport--each Tuesday--area tours for up to six.

Longer tours on my boat are available to my friends here when I'm in town and not entertaining family, etc...

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 06/08/2013 20:15:33

dreddick
Navigator

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117 Posts

Response Posted - 06/11/2013 : 10:19:48

Well, our S2 is at least at our dock. Not much chance to sail yet, though.

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awetmore
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1144 Posts

Response Posted - 06/13/2013 : 08:15:56

I'm mostly done with my 2013 refits of my Pearson 28-2 "Elena". They've been pretty extensive (and expensive):
* new furler and genoa
* new running rigging, including adding a vang, backstay tensioner, and rigging for a spinnaker pole
* new asym and sym spinnakers
* new electronics and autopilot

I sail the boat at least once a week. I love how she sails and the extra space is really nice when cruising. I'll be taking her on a month long cruise soon and really look forward to it.

I also still sail on my old Catalina 25 about once a week. The new owners are good friends and we race her on Tuesday's in Seattle's Duck Dodge and have done a few weekend cruises together. She's a sweet boat and I'm glad that she's getting a lot of use. They've done a great job of keeping her running well and adding some nice improvements (like new bottom paint and a new genoa).

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dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 06/22/2013 : 13:43:06

I brought our C-22 home from the lake yesterday to work on it and the trailer. Cleaned the boat interior and replaced the 35 year old trailer jack. Temp in the 90's in the sun, so too hot for much else. When it's a bit cooler, I've got some deck hardware to re-bed.

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redeye
Master Marine Consultant

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3476 Posts

Response Posted - 07/22/2013 : 10:42:02

Well... the power boating was fun this weekend...

But the night swimming was a little unnerving...

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dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 07/24/2013 : 20:34:27

I'll pass on the night swim!

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Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5902 Posts

Response Posted - 07/25/2013 : 05:13:06

I just got back from a delivery. Wharf Rat, a 40' racer, won 3rd in the Annapolis to Newport race, but had a transmission failure on the way back to Baltimore, and had to pull into Point Judith, near Block Island, for repairs. The skipper is a friend, so I volunteered to help him bring it back, along with two other crew.

Only about a mile after we started, early Sunday morning, the engine overheated and the power to the starter panel did not work so we couldn't start the engine. Tow Boat US hauled us back and the marina called in a mechanic to help us. He found a small stick in the hose elbow to the water strainer blocking the water and he showed us how to start the engine from the starter by bypassing the helm panel.

We started out again, but everything electrical that could go wrong with Wharf Rat, went wrong. Gradually, everything electric stopped working. The batteries apparently weren't charging. We had no instruments, no autopilot, no depth sounder, we weren't even sure we could get the tri-color light on for night sailing. We had a handheld vhf radio and my handheld gps for navigation. We couldn't shut off the engine for fear we couldn't get it re-started. The one good thing is that the wind and seas were mostly favorable for motorsailing, and we made good speed.

Although the skipper thought we had enough fuel onboard to make the whole trip, we pulled into Atlantic City and refilled the tanks, in case we ran into conditions that would cause us to use more fuel than usual. He kept the engine running while we filled the tanks.

We entered Delaware Bay at night, and it was so foggy that visibility was down to about 100 feet. Wharf Rat has radar, but with a dead electrical system, we couldn't use it, so we started to look for some place to drop anchor until the fog lifted. If we shut down the engine, we were pretty sure we wouldn't be able to start it again without help from Tow Boat US again.

Finally, before we found an anchorage, the fog lifted enough to enable us to continue safely, so we motorsailed on into the night. Of course we raised a radar reflector. We were overtaken and passed by a big car carrier, and he hailed us by vhf radio. We identified ourselves by the handheld vhf, and told him that we were just passing within about 30' from the red lighted buoy marking the right side of the channel. That gave him ample room to pass us to port. A few minutes later, another big commercial vessel hailed us as "Wharf Rat," which told us that either the first ship asked other ships to look out for us, or perhaps the second ship overheard our communications. We continued to hug the right side of the channel, and had no problems with any of the dozen or more ships that passed us in the night.

By the next morning, we finally entered the C&D canal, From there on, the going was reasonably smooth, except for a brief thunderstorm shortly after we emerged from the canal.

Otherwise, it was a good trip. For my first attempt at long distance, bluewater sailing, I'm happy to report that I didn't have even a tinge of motion sickness. That was my bigget concern. I took a pill at the start, and, when it wore off, I tried a scopalomine patch and found that both worked well for me. The skipper, who is an experienced blue water sailor and professional delivery captain, used scopalomine, and two of the crew used either the patch or a pill. The only crew who didn't use a motion sickness preventative suffered until he finally accepted a scope patch offered by another crewman. Moral? If you sail blue water, don't be proud. Use a preventative.

The whole trip was about 375 miles, non-stop, and took about 46 hours, which was very quick, considering all the electrical problems. We worked in two two-man watches. The daylight watches were 6 hours each, and the nighttime watches were 4 hours each. Whenever we were off our watch, we slept.

Edited by - Steve Milby on 07/25/2013 05:30:01

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5902 Posts

Response Posted - 08/05/2013 : 09:09:12

So, yesterday afternoon we got back from the Governor's Cup race from Annapolis to St. Mary's.

At 6:00 pm, the skipper got us a nearly perfect start, with good position on the starting line, full speed and clear air, in good sailing winds of about 8 kts. Gradually, one of the faster boats overtook us and put us in it's wind shadow, so we tacked for clear air. We stayed on that tack for awhile, heading sort of southwest, while the main body of the fleet continued heading southeast. After the fleet tacked and crossed our tack, it appeared that our choice had been a good one, because we had improved our position within the fleet.

During the evening, as we repeatedly crossed tacks with the fleet, we found that we were keeping up with our competitors, all of whom owed us handicap time. (Although Wharf Rat is a very good sailing boat, she was the slowest rated boat in this particular fleet. She is most competitive in long distance ocean racing, but not as competitive in shorter, in-the-Bay racing. I don't understand why yet, because she sails very well, is light in weight for her size, has a deep (7') fin keel, and a powerful rig.) Early in the race, however, she was keeping up with some boats in other classes that were rated much faster than her.)

Usually I trim her jib, but in that race I trimmed her mainsail. I had wanted an opportunity to do so, because, on another boat (with a fractional rig), I learned how to play the mainsheet traveler for more speed, and I wanted to try it on a good masthead rig, like Wharf Rat. It worked very well, often increasing our boat speed by 1/4 - 1/2 kt for several minutes at a time, and, in a long race, that much extra speed can translate into a gain of considerable time and distance.

As the night wore on, and we sailed through the dark, we watched countless phosphorescent jellyfish burst into light as they were knocked rudely aside by our bow wave. During the night, it becomes difficult to gauge how well you are doing, because you can't see or identify other boats around you. Their red, green and white lights make them all look alike. But, our hopes were high, because we knew we were sailing her well, maximizing boat speed, and making fast, smooth tacks, and because we could see only one boat pass us during the night.

At about 2:00 am, I had the helm for two hours, and was able to generate our highest boat speed during the race, about 7 3/4 kts. The wind was oscillating back and forth, but, on average, it was veering about as far below our rhumb line as above our rhumb line, so I steered her to follow the shifts, maximizing her speed and pointing all the way, and, despite all the oscillations, we were still on our rhumb line when we reached Point No Point lighthouse.

At about 6:00 am, we made our way up the Potomac to St. Mary's River, and towards the finish line, but, before we got there, we had one more challenge. At about 3-4 miles from the finish line, the wind suddenly disappeared. I would estimated that the windspeed was a fraction less than 2 kts. We were behind a group of about 10-12 boats of various different classes and designs. We used every light air technique we could think of, and tweaked every wrinkle out of the sails, and moved our crew weight to leeward and forward, and, gradually we overtook the group of boats and sailed through them, finally crossing the finish line.

When we arrived ashore, we were devastated to hear that the race officials didn't "know" we had entered the race. They eventually explained that, because of a computer glitch, our entry into the race wasn't transmitted to the RC. I believe, however, that, when the RC saw us on the race course, and when we checked in with them before the start, they recorded our check-in, and our finish time was also recorded at the finish line, and, after they discovered their error, they were able to amend the scoring results. We finished 10th out of 22, and, considering that we were the slowest rated boat in the class, and had sailed her well above her handicap, we were proud of that result.

We enjoyed the after-race party ashore until 9:00 pm Saturday, and then raised anchor and sailed her back to Pasadena, Md., arriving yesterday afternoon. We started motorsailing, but, during the night, the engine coughed to a stop, and wouldn't re-start. We don't believe it was a recurrence of the previous electrical problem, but rather fuel starvation, perhaps as a result of dirt or water pumped in at a fuel stop.

Nevertheless, we sailed her back to her slip, and the skipper did the prettiest job of sailing her into her slip that I have ever seen. As he approached the slip, he ordered the jib lowered. Then he ordered the mainsail lowered halfway, with the bottom half lying on the deck. I grabbed the leech of the mainsail and pulled it aft along the boom, acting like the sail's temporary "outhaul." The upper half still drove the boat, but very, very slowly. As she neared the slip, the skipper ordered the mainsail lowered further, and finally, he ordered the sail lowered the rest of the way and steered her into the slip. She entered the slip without touching either piling, and, with only the slightest tug on the spring line, I was able to stop her two feet from the dock. The skipper had the right plan, and executed it perfectly.

Edited by - Steve Milby on 08/05/2013 09:15:56

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3321 Posts

Response Posted - 08/05/2013 : 10:40:29

Great job all around, Steve!

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dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 10/27/2013 : 10:57:03

Sounds like you guys had a great race. Too bad about all the motor problems. Docking a 40' sailboat under sail - I'm duly impressed!

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dreddick
Navigator

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117 Posts

Response Posted - 10/29/2013 : 07:58:39

The boat is on the hard now for the season. We did have some great sails and we're loving the S2.

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