Getting Ready for SHTP 2021

[AlanH]

For anyone who happens to want to follow along next week, or possibly the week after that..

I'll be sharing the Wildcat's location at the MapShare website: https://share.garmin.com/WildcatfOfLochAwe

Password: Hanalei

[AlanH]

OK, this morning I bought the emergency mast tubing. The stuff comes in 20 foot lengths, so I had the guy at Alan Steel lay a 20 footer out on the floor and block one end with his foot. Then I pushed it up. Easy-Peasy. No problem at all, MUCH easier than pushing up my sheaf standards. So I got 3, 6' 4" sections of the tubing, and two 1' sections for sleeves. That will give me a 19 foot mast, which is plenty tall enough to make a headstay that will accommodate the Piper jib making that shroud angle at the top of the mast only slightly less than 10 deg. .

Have y'all seen the poly-tarp sails that some of the uber-cheap small boat guys make? I made one for the skerry, just to try it out and it actually worked OK. I mean, it's not as nice, and nowhere near as long-lived as a dacron sail, but the lugsail I made was good enough for me to get out sailing and try out the whole lugsail concept thing. Some pretty big sails have been made out of polyester tarps.

http://www.polysail.com/article.htm

Y'all think that polytarp won't work as a sail?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8x9ZdcxPnk

So in the interests of not spending much $$, but having some sort of semi-sturdy triangle of material that I can hoist behind the E-mast, using a spinnaker pole as a boom, I got an 8 x 10 medium weight tarp at OSH last night, a roll of carpet tape, and a roll of duct tape. I have an inexpensive grommet setter at home. This is NOT a proper sail for the boat. I'm not making a North 3-DL here.... I'm making an 8 x 15 triangle, with reinforced corners, and a folded-over luff and leech. It's held together with carpet tape, a once-around-the-edges (and the middle seam) with my sewing machine and then covered the exposed sticky carpet tape with white duct tape. Carpet tape is insanely strong and sticky . It sticks to the poly material incredibly tenaciously.

I forgot that it was double-sided. There's a paper backing that you peel off. If you leave the backing on, the carpet tape won't stick to itself. If you peel it off and then try to stick two layers together...well, let's say that you don't get second chances.

This is crude. However, it's "sail area", it cost me $20 for the tarp and $10 for the carpet tape, and $7 for the duct tape. Hopefully it will never get used.

[AlanH]

OK, step one...go to hardware store and buy a tarp. THINK ABOUT YOUR GEOMETRY before you buy it. Get a roll of carpet tape, and a roll of duct tape. You can get white tarps, but then why not make something unique and different? Carpet tape is SUPER sticky on both sides. It comes with a paper backing. Lay it down with the backing on, and when you're ready, peel it off. It will stick to the polytarp. In fact, if you tap it down with a rubber mallet and let it sit, you CAN'T pull it back up again. Once you stick a piece of carpet tape to another piece of carpet tape with the backing off, you are committed

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Anyway, lay out your tarp on some clean, more-or-less-flat surface. Get out your tape measure, and some string, and mark your corners and edges.

[AlanH]

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OK, cut your "hypotenuse"....aka "the leech". That will leave you with a "leftover" triangle, if you have thought carefully about your tarp size. You can also just buy a bigger tarp and not have to use the "back half" triangle. If you buy a bigger tarp, you can use the excess cut-off for corner patches, which you can sew down on your home sewing machine. Believe it or not, a home sewing machine with sailmakers thread will sew through 3 layers of 8 mil polytarp without batting an eye. You have to help pull it through the machine, as the stuff is slippery but aside from that it's a no=brainer. If you do that, then you don't have to set grommets in the corners, you can stitch in some long loops of webbing.

Anyway, I saved a few $$ buy thinking about the geometry of my triangle and buying a smaller tarp.

Now, line everything up and trim your leech so it's at least sort of nice and straight.

[AlanH]

CUT OFF the pre-grommetted sides and the reinforced corners. I know...I know. Just trust me. They will rip out in minutes. They WILL rip out, so just cut off those edges.

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Now you have your basic triangle laid out on your driveway. You're going to use carpet tape to reinforce the corners and the edges, and then fold over the tarp material to make strong edges. The polytarp is kind of stretchy, so it will curve into some sort of vague foil when it's set up on the mast, but if you want to get fancy and build in some luff round, and put a dart in, at the tack to give it some shape, feel free.

Make corner patches from carpet tape. Just cut a bunch of strips that look about right. Put down the first one. Then strip off the backing. Put down the next one. It'll stick like mad to the first piece. Peel the backing off the second piece and put down the third one, and so on until you have something that looks like a corner reinforcement. Do all three corners.

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[AlanH]

DO NOT put carpet tape all the way out to the edges of the "~sail~". Why? Because you're going to fold over the edges, at least once and twice (to make a three-thickness edge) is even better. So keep your carpet tape reinforced corners a couple of inches away from the edges.

Now, if you haven't peeled the backing off the piece of tape which is closest to the edge you can sort of dry-fit a fold, here. Binder clips can help keep 3-4 feet of the folds in place, while you decide if everything looks copasetic, or not.

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Get your corners looking some sort of neat and then work your way down each edge, folding over the edges and putting down a piece of carpet tape to hold the foldovers in place, every foot or two. When everything looks some sort of straight....and remember, you are making a CRUDE, GET HOME SAIL, not a race-winner, then strip the backing off of the little pieces of carpet tape. Lay on a full-length of carpet tape, and try, if you can, to get one length of tape to cover the whole edge, to lock down that edge.

[AlanH]

Do NOT...repeat do NOT peel the backing off of the tape you just put down on the edge, if you want to sew all the way around your "~sail~". If you are patient, you can actually run a line of zig-zag pretty much all the way around the sail, right through the carpet tape and the polytarp. My little home sewing machine did it. However, if you pull the backing off and reveal the super-sticky underside, you won't be sewing anything. IN FACT, it's probably fine without sewing, but hey...if you can, why not? You probably can call it good at this point with the carpet tape.

If you did what I did and put two pieces together, you'll need to tape both sides of that seam. Hey, why not sew it with a line of zig-zag, while you're at it? I did.

Me, I turned the "~sail~" over and ran a layer of carpet tape down the OTHER side of the luff and the leech. I didn't pull off the backing paper.

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I actually did this and THEN I sewed around the edges, and sewed that middle seam in the body of the sail. I had some carpet tape left over, so I laid on a "strap" just above the pre-grommetted edge on the foot of the sail, just for some reinforcement. I left the grommets on the foot because I'll fly this sail loose-footed, so those grommets won't pull out. However, a reinforcing strap along the foot can't be a bad thing, right?

[AlanH]

Now, go around your "~sail~" and pull off all the backing paper, from the carpet tape. That's going to leave you with a LOT of exposed, extremely sticky tape. It's so sticky that it will rip the color off of the polytarp...not kidding, so for heavens sake don't roll up your sail at this point. You have to cover that sticky stuff. The backing paper will come off after a couple of days, so you can't just leave that on.

Ta-Daaa!...You have a roll of duct tape! Just cover all the exposed carpet tape with duct tape. No more stickiness!

Pound in grommets in the corners .... Pound in a grommet every 2 - 2.5 feet on the leading edge for loops of line to go 'round the mast...or if you're making a headsail, you could maybe even put in some little quick-links, which are WAY less expensive than hanks...

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And you are done.

This is EXACTLY what I did last night. Well...I still have to pound in my grommets. My **cough**

"~sail~" ...is about 8' 6" on the foot and 14' 10" on the hoist. My spinnaker poles are 9' 6" so it's a bit short on the foot, but whatever. I'll have about 16 feet of "hoistable" length of mast from where the boom will be, to clear my cockpit cover, up to the top. So this triangle is about a foot short, but that's OK.

Hopefully I'll finish it, put it in a garbage bag and stuff it in the forepeak and it will never come out again. For sure, UV light breaks down polytarps. No question about it, so you're not going to be using a sail like this to go cruising in the Tropics. Also, Duct tape deteriorates. You bet. So this sail won't last ten years, even unused. But if it stays out of the sunlight, It's going to be plenty strong enough to hoist in an emergency next week, or next summer - God Forbid.

[AlanH]

YAY, my kitchen timer is here. I like to have a non-digital timer to wake myself up every 25 minutes for a look-see. Old Skool. The old one from 2008 has gone missing, so Joan got one that's supposed to have an 80 dB alarm when it goes off. It's ticking on my desk right now.

I'm stunned. I didn't have the emergency mast/rigging/sails in the original budget and I'm still within 10% of my estimate to do this sail, that I put together 4 1/2 months ago.
I estimated $2890 for Joan. I'm actually at about $3100, and the original estimate didn't include the whole "emergency mast" and rigging stuff, which adds up to about $200.

[Intermission]

[QUOTE=AlanH;27369]YAY, my kitchen timer is here. I like to have a non-digital timer to wake myself up every 25 minutes for a look-see. Old Skool. The old one from 2008 has gone missing, so Joan got one that's supposed to have an 80 dB alarm when it goes off. It's ticking on my desk right now.
QUOTE]

Maybe you should suggest that idea to Alex Thompson?

[AlanH]

[QUOTE=AlanH;27369]YAY, my kitchen timer is here. I like to have a non-digital timer to wake myself up every 25 minutes for a look-see. Old Skool. The old one from 2008 has gone missing, so Joan got one that's supposed to have an 80 dB alarm when it goes off. It's ticking on my desk right now.
QUOTE]

Maybe you should suggest that idea to Alex Thompson? Oh dear!!! :D

[AlanH]

The Uh, oh? Where'd the mast go? get-home "mainsail" is now done. All the exposed supersticky carpet tape is covered by white duct tape and the grommets are hammered in, in the corners and up the luff. It's rolled up in the car. It will go up in the forepeak and hopefully never get used!

I'm making progress on the Uh, oh? Where'd the mast go? Emergency Mast. As noted before, the mast is in three sections, 6' 4" long, each to make a 19 foot long stick.

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These wood plugs, that I hole-drilled out of a scrounged doug fir 2 x 4 last night, are now embedded in the ends of the top and bottom sections of the emergency mast. The plugs are two or three cylinders out of the 2 x 4, glued with PL Premium, and let to dry overnight. You can see the middle section in the back, with twine and a clamp holding the joining sleeve in place while the PL Premium ~Super Glue Stuff" locks it in place. The sleeves are 1 foot long, the same aluminum as the mast section. I cut longitudinal cuts down the sleeves with my table saw, and removed enough material so that I could Spanish windlass the tube closed and get it inside the mast tube. It's set in there with a lot of PL Premium.

The joining sleeves will get 6-8 rivets in them tomorrow, where they're already attached. Then the whole mast gets assembled and lined up for pre-drilled rivet holes to make assembly easy if I have to put the whole thing together at sea.

The wood plugs, in addition to the PL Premium, will get a couple of screws driven into them, to hold them in place. The "Top" one...at the masthead will get holes drilled in them, so I can through-bolt the forestay fitting to the backstay/main halyard sheave fitting. The side pad eyes will be screwed into the wood with 2.5 inch long screws. They'll be offset a little bit so the screws don't find each other inside the mast. They are NOT coming out!

[AlanH]

As an aside, two of the pieces assembled, instead of three, makes a tube 12' 8" long.... which is for all intents and purposes, exactly the length of my boom.

[AlanH]

The masthead fittings are in, in the upper section of the E-mast. The bottom is drilled and has two screws helping "anchor" that wood plug in the bottom, along with all that PL Premium. half the pop-rivets are in, so the upper sleeve, in the middle section is done. 8 more pop rivets in the bottom sleeve go on tomorrow morning. Then I assemble the whole thing and drill holes for the "hopefully never put in" pop rivets, that would keep the whole thing together if it ever gets deployed. Hopefully the thing will stay in three pieces in the foredeck until I get to Hanalei, and then...somehow....I'll get them home, where they'll become the mast for the Caravelle that AZsailor gave me the plans for.

This morning I sewed the foot tape on the Piper jib, which will be my "get home" jib, and I JUST put the twisty-hanks on the luff of that jib. It's now ready to go.

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Last night, I was so amped that I couldn't sleep, so I got up and shaved down the plastic tubing that I use for bushings for the main rudder. I'll put those on tomorrow, after I pick up the liferaft. Oh, and I'll re-install the radar reflector/strobe light pole.

Today I "practiced" sending messages with the InReach. I've managed to set up tracking a few times, and friends can follow my tracks so I think I've got the thing sussed out.

I'm watching the weather, if Tuesday looks good, I'm GOIN' !

[breezetrees]

I look forward to watching your voyage, I hope you'll share the tracker with us all.

I have been impressed by your belt-and-suspenders-and-a-spare-sailtie approach. I was wondering if you have a backup for the rudder pintles on the transom? My friend sheared his off on a return from HMB one year coming under the GG bridge and had an adventure in the dark.

Good luck on the prep,
-Mike

[AlanH]

I look forward to watching your voyage, I hope you'll share the tracker with us all.

I have been impressed by your belt-and-suspenders-and-a-spare-sailtie approach. I was wondering if you have a backup for the rudder pintles on the transom? My friend sheared his off on a return from HMB one year coming under the GG bridge and had an adventure in the dark.

Good luck on the prep,
-Mike

You can't imagine the amount of time I've spent worrying about exactly this scenario. If you look back in SHTP history, boats with transom-hung rudders have a dicey history, pintles and rudders have sheared off before. That's why I build a bombproof e-rudder. I do not have a backup to the lower pintle pin, or the lower pintle fitting. It's very tempting to get a piece of 5/8th rod and the appropriate piece of s.s. U-channel. My buddy Len could drill and weld that in about half an hour. Or I could get a 5/8 bolt and thread it onto a piece of heavy aluminum channel. I can do that in my driveway. Hmmm. I might do that, today.

After noticing a very little bit of movement in the cabron/fiberglass wrapping that helps anchor the lower cassette gudgeon to the box, last weekend....I sailed with the e-rudder for about 90 minutes in varying conditions..... I reinforced that area on the box. It's a bit crude and heavy but it's stronger; wood, screws and PL Premium polyurethane.

NOAA Weather, Central California, 10 - 60 miles out.

Sun
NW winds 10 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. NW swell 4 to 6 ft at 8 seconds.
Sun Night
NW winds 10 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. NW swell 5 to 6 ft at 9 seconds and S around 2 ft at 12 seconds.
Labor Day
NW winds 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. NW swell 5 to 7 ft and S around 2 ft.
Tue
NW winds 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. NW swell 5 to 6 ft and S around 2 ft.

================
Time to go!
I'll leave Coyote Point late Saturday afternoon and sail to Treasure Island. I'll overnight at TI, in Clipper Cove and then head out for 400 miles on Sunday.


https://share.garmin.com/WildcatfOfLochAwe

The password is: Hanalei

[Intermission]

My friend sheared his off on a return from HMB one year coming under the GG bridge and had an adventure in the dark.
-Mike

That sounds like a good story.

[breezetrees]

That sounds like a good story.

It is but I wasn't there so I wouldn't tell it right. I remember he proved that an outboard motor is not a good emergency rudder (by itself) and he got towed in by some friendly coast guard folks. Bryan do you read this forum?

[AlanH]

Well, Alan Steel is closed on Fridays, so I went by Home Depot and I have a very half-assed single "pintle" of sorts, that I will be able to deploy if I have to. IT's not much, I wouldn't trust it for long, but it's better than nothing. I'll get the real deal made up before Hawaii.

The Emergency mast is DONE. The liferaft is in the garage. The "away" message is set at work.
The final list is made.

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5799

I'm starting to get butterflies.

[DaveH]

oh, now I get it - you made an aluminum caber!

DH

[Intermission]

oh, now I get it - you made an aluminum caber!

DH

They toss farther than the wood ones.

[AlanH]

I’m back and the aluminum caber stayed in the forepeak!

[everydaysailor]

Well done. Congrats on the happy landing.

[AntsUiga]

I’m back and the aluminum caber stayed in the forepeak!

I would imagine you are grinning now, considering the windless, smoky purgatory of the last few days.

Excellent effort. Special kudos on the determination.

Ants

[Daydreamer]

Well done!
Welcome back.

[AlanH]

The sail past San Francisco, down the peninsula to Coyote Point was grim, today...and my bronchi feel like there's sand in there, even though I wore a surgical mask all day.

[Dazzler]

AH- Very well done. Your perseverance is admirable. No amount of preparation or weather forecasting could have foreseen the conditions. I’ve been following the NWS Forecast Discussions, and the forecasters have consistently had low confidence given the impact of all the smoke.

[AlanH]

AH- Very well done. Your perseverance is admirable. No amount of preparation or weather forecasting could have foreseen the conditions. I’ve been following the NWS Forecast Discussions, and the forecasters have consistently had low confidence given the impact of all the smoke.

Thanks! Yeah the last couple of days were "challenging"....

[AlanH]

QUALIFIER SUMMARY

Day 1. SUNDAY

It took forever to get out of the Bay. I’d tied up in Clipper Cove and it was totally windless when I left. I saw Steve Saul..LTNS! On the way out. After an hour and a half of trying to sail out of Clipper Cove, I gave up and motored around Treasure Island. I picked up wind right about Fort Mason so the first 4-5 miles of my InReach recorded trip don’t count. I sailed until full main and my very old high-clew dacron 150% in increasing wind up to Point Cavallo, where I snuck in under the bluffs, reefed the main and rolled up the genoa to a hankerchief. That got me through the Gate, where of course it moderated within a few hundred yards.

That day way pretty windy for a lot of the time, varying from about 6 knots to 18 but bright sun all day. I set the boat up to sail as far up to windward, heading SW, without really sticking it as high as we could go, about 240 Mag. Everything worked great. I dropped down to the working jib right before dark, and put in a reef right after dark. I didn’t really get out of the Gulf of the Farallones before dark, I could see the flash of the south entrance buoy right after dark.

That night had a close encounter with a fishing boat, as in within a couple hundred feet when I overslept my alarm. BAD….but no harm done. Aside from that, the evenings sail was uneventful.

Day 2. MONDAY

More of the same, in building wind but with good speed right down the track. I always opted for easing the main to take loads off the autopilot. By nightfall I was well out past 100 miles, more like 140-150 so that was great. I put a second reef in, just before sunset.

It was rough enough that I decided against going all the way to the LongPac Longitude, and turned around at 1:30 AM at about 175 miles out. That’s when I discovered that while the boat was fine going to windward, the autopilot was toast. It would respond to +/- 10 degree button pushes...the ram would move but it was super slow. I tried it a couple of times on the broad reach course and it just could not keep up and sometimes “went hunting”. So I disconnected it and drove the rest of the night. I had my headlamp on, and just drove by watching mainsail trim, and also the moon, at least for a few hours until the fog obscured it and it rose so high that it wasn’t useful any more.

Day 3. TUESDAY

I hove-to at about 5:00 AM and slept until 7:00. After eating a bit, hand-steered more north, which was a more manageable course. The wind and seas moderated during the day and by about noon were down to 10 knots of breeze. That’s when I tried setting up the sheet-to-tiller steering, which miraculously, worked after I shook out the reefs! After 2-3 hours the wind piped up to 17-20 for about an hour and a half, and the setup I’d made couldn’t handle it, so I wound up hand-steering for a while. The wind eased again, I re-engaged the sheet-to-tiller system, shook out the reef and it drove for the rest of the day and all that night.

Tuesday night I sailed through a 30-mile patch of REALLY bad smoke. I would estimate it to have been around 300 on the purpleair.com scale. Nasty. After getting through that, the fog set in and visibility was under 100 yards. When it’s that thick, there isn’t much point in getting up every 20 minutes, I can’t see anything so I slept in 1-hour stretches and just got up to check the course, which stayed steady all night. Speed was better than I thought it would be.

Day 4. WEDNESDAY

Woke up, had breakfast, started Open CPN on the Android tablet for the first time and hullo! I’m up at the latitude of Point Reyes! Enough! So I gybed and headed towards home. The wind was directly out of San Francisco, about 110 Mag. Emphatically NOT the usual NW breeze. I wound up trying to tack back and forth for most of the day, heading for Point Reyes, then heading for the Farallones, and made progress for most of the day, still using sheet-to-tiller.. In the evening, realizing that I wasn’t making nearly good enough time, I started hand-steering.

As I’d get a few miles south, the wind would veer to the east, and I’d get headed. So I’d tack, and head towards the coast. After a few miles, I’d get headed again. I did this, by hand all night….one of the low points of the trip. I finally decided that I would head for the coast until I could at least see it, but ran out of wind long before that, about an hour after a very grey sunrise. Checking the charts, I discovered I was becalmed right smack in the middle of the north shipping channel.

The rest of the day and all night was spent going nowhere, with visibility varying between about a mile and 50 feet.

Day 5. THURSDAY

No wind. None. All Day. I did get a few zephyrs in mid morning which allowed me to get out of the shipping channel. There were whales everywhere….birds, seals, dolphins. Incredible. But no wind. This was now the second day with no sunshine, and the monochrome gray was getting to me. I did have a humbling close encounter with two blue whales, which surfaced and blew about 50-60 feet from the boat. I could physically FEEL the concussion of that exhale….could smell it, too. Fog closed in after dark, and stayed dense all night. Again, if I can’t move and if I can’t see anything, no point in getting up every 20 minutes, so I just got up once an hour. I got 10 hours sleep that night, and recovered from the previous night of no sleep.

[AlanH]

Day 6. FRIDAY

Woke up at 8:00, had breakfast, stepped out into the cockpit and realized that I could hear the Pt. Reyes buoy a whole lot louder than when I went to bed. When I started hearing the low rumble of what must have been very low surf...there was essentially no swell running, it was time to get out of there. I got up some sail and so-happened to pick up a few zephyrs that bought me a mile or so in an hour.

The NW wind started showing up around 9:30, so finally started sailing again. Visibility opened up to 1-2 miles by noon, breeze was about 10 knots and I was broad reaching between 60 Mag and 120 Mag. That got me down to where I started finding the smoke.

By the time I got into the shipping channel the smoke was really bad. I sailed across it ...in retrospect, shouldn’t have done that, but it showed up a bit faster than I thought it would. Anyway, about 4:00 PM I was 200 yards south of the channel, in lessening wind, and traffic started coming out. Between 4:00 and 5:00 I saw.. An Evergreen container ship, a tug with a tow, the big Coast Guard cutter out of Alameda, and a Hapag-Lloyd container ship. It was disturbing that while I was only 200 yards south of the channel all of these vessels were blurry and indistinct in the smoke.
By the time I got to the innermost red channel marker the wind was essentially gone, and I could hear, and vaguely see yet another ship coming out. That’s when I decided that enough was enough, my trip log said 435 miles, and I was done. So I rolled up the working jib and motored in.

Since the wind came up something fierce about half a mile before Seal Rocks, I was motorsailing. I never saw the rocks, never saw Mile Rock or any of the San Francisco side cliffs. I just kept my eyes on the Samsung Tablet, running Open CPN and sailed in on that. I’ve never done that before! Note that when inside mile rock, I couldn’t see the South Tower. I was less than ¼ mile from it, before I saw it. From the South Tower I couldn’t see the North Tower because of the smoke. Anyway, so the last 4-5 miles of the InReach track “don’t count” as I was motorsailing.

Once I got in the Bay I just headed for the GGYC, where I tied up across the slipway from Tom Boussie, shut down the InReach and called it “Done”. Total sail-only mileage, 425 nautical miles.

[AlanH]

WHAT NEEDS FIXING OR CHANGING

1. The foredeck hatch leaks...either replace the hatch or remove and rebed.

2. I think the port chainplate seal needs rebedding. There was a pretty good drip right there but it might be from the toerail.

3. The tiny space between the sea hood and the companionway cover leaks like crazy. Gotta get a gasket in there.

4. Autopilot…..autopilot --sigh--

5. I need to figure out place to sleep. The saloon floor is not long enough for me to stretch out.

6. The S-2 7.9, stock is build with a tiny, almost useless head on the starboard side of the daggerboard case. Mine is really old, it stinks, and the space has a door on it, which makes the interior space so small that only an 8-year old can fit in there. It’s pointless for me and wastes valuable space in the middle of the boat. It has to go, and so does the door. I will probably put a little navigation table in there, add some drawers under the electrical panel, and use the increased floor space for my feet when I’m sleeping on the saloon floor.

[jamesmcn]

Regarding point (6): I just installed a Thetford 335 in my Olson 25 last week. Although it is a little bit more expensive than the 135, the 335 includes a capacity gauge, as well as the previously-sold-separately hold down kit.

Both West Marine and Whale Point will order them for you, I got mine from Whale Point.

[AntsUiga]

See PM regarding item 1 on your list.

Ants

[AlanH]

Finally.....e-rudder deployment videos! The gunk on my knees is slime rubbed off the primary rudder. This test left big smudges of bottom paint all over the cockpit, which I had to go back and clean off.


https://youtu.be/R5qogDX6_6M .

Between this and that, pulling the primary rudder and deploying the e-rudder, in the South Bay on a quiet day took me about 17 minutes. At least 5 of those minutes were spent A.) trying to find a pair of pliars, down below, and 2.) pulling the plastic rudder bushings off of the pintles. 3.) hammering the tiller into the very tight fit between the tiller plates.

[AlanH]

But I DID sail with it, at least for a while!


https://youtu.be/TGupc7wBHg0

I'll be trying it again, for longer, this winter.

[AlanH]

I popped lenses out of both of my new pairs of glasses on day two, so since I'm going to take them to For Eyes tomorrow and raise a fuss over their crummy frames, I went up to the boat to find one of the missing lenses. I didn't find the lens but what I DID find was that the wiring harnesses that hold the wires from the battery to the autopilot switch had all let go. The wiring splice was lying in bilge water...about 6 cups of it.

Short circuit, anybody? I'll save the cussing for later, but $%^&*(*&^%

Maybe the autopilot is just FINE.

[AlanH]

I finally got all the video assembled....here you go! (for those with nothing better to do....)

https://youtu.be/tUpu2J1NLbE

[AlanH]

I got some tubular nylon webbing and replaced the stuff on my "long" tether. That tether was about 12 years old, time to replace the stuff. I also made it about a foot shorter than the old one. So now I have two tethers...a long one, about 5 1/2 feet for "in the cockpit" and a short one, about 4 feet for going up to the mast or the foredeck. I bought 5 yards of webbing so I now have two single loop etriers to hang on the boat amidships, as well as the 3-step etrier on the port quarter and the stock boarding ladder on the starboard half of the transom. My sewing machine does not like the combination of tubular webbing, sailmaking thread and the needles I was using. It was a struggle.

Yesterday I cut out the part of the autopilot wiring splice that went underwater during my qualifier and made new splices and tested the autopilot. Yes, it's toast. So off to Raymarine it goes. I full expect that they will decline to fix or replace it, but we shall see.

This weekends project is replacing the OEM incandescent bow lights with LED. The green one died on the trip. I got both of them off yesterday, only one of the six cheapo steel screws torqued off in the hole and the new red LED one is in. The OEM green one was corroded to mush, the red one was better, but on it's last legs. Hopefully today I can get the green one installed.

Hopefully this week I can get up to Rogue Rigging with my lower lifelines and get new ones made up.

PIPER STUFF, not Transpac

I think I'll ask Ryan to make new shrouds for the Piper at the same time. The port shroud is the only one that's stranded, but all the rigging is probably circa 1972. I'll need to replace all of it, but I can at least put the stick up with the one new shroud, and if I replace one, I might as well replace it's counterpart. The only turnbuckle on the Piper that's frozen is the one on the stranded shroud, so that's rather convenient. Thanks to the generosity of some SSS'ers I have main and jib halyards, as well as a good main, and two jib sheets. Thank you again, friends!

I have a mainsail from a Pearson Ensign, which is a bit short but it more or less fits, and it was $100. I have two jibs that are about the size of the Piper genoa. What remains to get her sail-able is:

- replacing the shroud
- running new halyards
- sorting out the "control center", the area at the front of the cockpit and behind the mast where all the halyards and the kicking strap terminate
- make a tiller...or find the original one, which I sanded and refinished and then it promptly disappeared.
-remove the non-functional original winches and replace with the single-speed, self tailing winches I bought years ago for the Wildcat, but never installed.
- repair the chipped off spooge that covered/faired the lower bronze fitting that holds the rudder
- cut out ( have a pattern already) and 'glass in the piece of plywood that anchors the strap that transfers the mainsheet loads to the hill.

It's a significant list but really only about 4-5 LONG weekend days work. Maybe this winter I can get it done.

I'd really like to sand off all the old 70's vinyl bottom paint, all the way down to gel coat.

[AlanH]

I finally worked up all the numbers, now that the credit card statement is in. I actually managed to do the Qualifier within 7% of budget....I only went 7% over my estimate. That's...like...

You all know....we're talking a BOAT, here. The usual mantra is to make your estimate, then double the dollars and triple the time and that'll be close, but no. SEVEN percent.

[AlanH]

Back is seriously screwed up after the qualifier and coming home to....yeah, well...anyway. There may be some big changes ahead. Or not. Hell if I know.

I'm working on the windvane again, back to cables-in-housing as the geometry of the pushrod system I envisioned isn't going to work out. By running the bicycle cables through the teflon housing, instead of the monofilament, I've cut friction in half, easily. I've glued on and then cut off some bits of wood, which gets me more or less back to where I was for starters. I did deploy the other, large air blade the other day. Between more power from the blade and half the friction, maybe it'll work.

[AlanH]

Oversized wind blade....needs paint.
5866

Little changes can make big differences. I'd tried bicytcle brake cables in brake housing...too much friction. I tried thick monofilament through teflon tubing, too much friction. But I hadn't tried the brake cables through the teflon tubing, seeing as the brake cable housings are lined with teflon. Well...son of a gun. These rotating hangers mean that the wire pull is always a straight line, too....cuts friction.
5867

And finally, adding a little bit of material here and there to ensure the cables don't rub on anything, helps, too.

5868

[AlanH]

All right, I officially give up on the windvane. It hasn't been a money sink but it's been a time sink and I'm done throwing time into it.

[AlanH]

Raymarine/FLIR. replaced the fried motor in my ST2000 and mailed it back. I just had to pay postage TO them...about $20. I'll test it once my back recovers.

I've got a compression between C-6 and C-7 that was strongly irritated during the qualifier and by some nasty stress right when I got back. No sailing for me until it clears up and it hurts like hell. S leeping on the cabin floor, sliding down into a crushed-up fetal position on the way out didn't help things. I'm taking Gabapentin which helps with the pain. This has happened 3x in the past 12 years, more or less and I'm just getting older. If it follows the same pattern as the other times I have another 5-7 weeks of pain to get through before it clears up. Now, have to consider as to whether it's smart for me to be in the middle of the Pacific by myself....if this happens while I'm out there, it will be very unpleasant. ~Very!~

[AlanH]

I pitched the RHM part of the system, today. In the trash it went, after I removed a mess of the hardware. I will try to get the upper half to drive a trim tab on the main rudder. So this afternoon was spent digging the class rudder out of the leaves alongside the house, hosing it off, sanding the wood and getting 4 coats of polyrethane on it. The rudder has a pretty big crack up near the pivot. I ground it out, looks like it's only gel coat at a big of the underlying glass. I'll make an epoxy/glass mash and fair it and seal it.

The Class rudder will go on the boat while I diddle around with the rudder I made to get a trim tab on it.

[Wylieguy]

Raymarine/FLIR. replaced the fried motor in my ST2000 and mailed it back. I just had to pay postage TO them...about $20. I'll test it once my back recovers.

I've got a compression between C-6 and C-7 that was strongly irritated during the qualifier and by some nasty stress right when I got back. No sailing for me until it clears up and it hurts like hell. S leeping on the cabin floor, sliding down into a crushed-up fetal position on the way out didn't help things. I'm taking Gabapentin which helps with the pain. This has happened 3x in the past 12 years, more or less and I'm just getting older. If it follows the same pattern as the other times I have another 5-7 weeks of pain to get through before it clears up. Now, have to consider as to whether it's smart for me to be in the middle of the Pacific by myself....if this happens while I'm out there, it will be very unpleasant. ~Very!~

Amen for Gabapentin! 1 a day, every morning. And several in my pocket "pharmacy." Just a day on the Bay (yesterday's delayed CYC Fall Series Race for instance) and by the time I'm in the parking lot I gulp one for the drive home. Nothing about getting old gets any body part younger! Especially backs. How come there's so much bending over putting a boat to bed after a long day?

[AlanH]

Amen for Gabapentin! 1 a day, every morning. And several in my pocket "pharmacy." Just a day on the Bay (yesterday's delayed CYC Fall Series Race for instance) and by the time I'm in the parking lot I gulp one for the drive home. Nothing about getting old gets any body part younger! Especially backs. How come there's so much bending over putting a boat to bed after a long day?

I hope that the gabapentin will break the pain-tension-compression cycle and I'll get off of it pretty soon. I can still feel the effect in the tip of my middle finger of my right hand, so the compression/inflammation is not gone. However, I barely feel an effect...and no pain (which is probably due to the gabapentin) in my right armpit, so I think this is progress.

[AlanH]

OK so before I to to the trim-tab-on-the-main-rudder thing, I thought I would try to make a bigger and lighter vane and just try linking it directly to the tiller. I can't imagine this is gonna work, but what the hell...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9vxaUwYXd4

Now, because I'm using an "Upside Down" vane, I have limits on how tall/long I can make the vane itself. If it's too long, it will hit the pulpit or the solar panels. I could make the pole taller but I doubt this is going to work so I'm not willing to alter things TOO much....basically start over. So I'm putting together a blade sort of like that one in the video. It will be lightweight fabric...ripstop for now 'cause I have some of it..over a framework. I'm using what I've got around the garage...which is some pretty stiff 1/4 inch fiberglass rod....plywood...polyurethane glue PL Premium... and the ripstop.

Here's the new, lightweight and 20% bigger blade "frame" gluing up, next to a tiller I'm making for the Piper, from leftover mahogany, that came with the boat. I HAD a tiller, but hell if I can FIND it, now.

5895

5896

[AlanH]

Many thanks to Greg Nelson for the opportunity to scrounge through boxes and bales of leftovers from Nelson Composites, Inc. ! I now have some raw material for the trim tab, cleats, blocks and camcleats for the Piper, and even the Caragnone, when I get to that. The little leftovers of marine ply will get turned into breasthooks and quarter knees for at least two boats! AND....I have a ridiculously stout and very light 6 foot piece of c.f. tubing, which I will be turning into a sprit for the Wildcat.

Now I just need to find an asymmetrical spinnaker about 32-33 on the luff.

[Tchoupitoulas]

Nelsen. He's sensitive ;)

[AlanH]

HA!..."sensitive". Well. kinda!

OK! IN the haul from Nelsons Composites, Inc. were a couple stanchion sleeves, the kind that you attach your lower lifelines to, at the bow/stern pulpit. I'd been using a cobbled-together setup that would no way pass inspection for SHTP. Since they're like $15 each, the drive to Greg's just saved me $35 bucks! Thanks Greg!. The new lower lifelines are on, made up by Ryan at Rogue Rigging and a ton stronger than the DIY jobs I had before.

Ryan also made up new upper shrouds for the Piper. I need to replace one spreader, just some thick-ish walled aluminum tubing, and fabricate a spreader tip and I can put the mast up. At some point I'll need to replace the rest of the standing rigging...the headstay for sure... but patience. I can't launch the Piper at Bethel Island anyway, ther'es an overhead power line about 25 feet above the road/berm where the launch ramp is, so I'll have to wait anyhow. Getting the stick vertical will just be a milestone, a mental and spiritual HURRAH!

I'm putting together a new tiller from some leftover mahogany I got from the Piper. I think it's the former owners traveler support for his long-gone Flying Fifteen. Well, some sawing, epoxy and creative "filling in"...and I'll have a tiller soon. The epoxy is kicking off as I write this.

I have the rod and the bearings (Thanks McMaster-Carr) for the rudder trimtab. We'll see how a sintered, oil- bronze bearing does on a s.s. shaft in the marine air.

The One Design rudder had some suspicious looking cracks, which I ground out only to find they were just into the gel-coat. GOOD. They're patched up with glass/epoxy mash, which is kicking off right now. Once it goes off, I can sand it, get a coat of paint on it and swap rudders.

[AlanH]

OK, I'm just going ahead and making the main rudder trim tab. I bought some stainless steel, and my friend Len S. welded the bits together today. Then I glued up materials from Greg Nelson onto the shaft. This shows the little templates I made to hold the pieces in place while Len worked his TIG magic.

5945

A closeup of the welding. The washer is a "bearing surface". The last 3/4 inch of the s.s. shaft sits in a thin bushing on another piece of stainless at the bottom of the rudder. A couple of nylon washers will separate the foil of the tab, from the bushing area. So thestainless washer takes the very minimal weight of the trim tab. It will butt up next to those nylon washers.

I think this is ridiculous overkill in terms of strength but WTH, right?

Here, I've attached the lastafoam from Greg to the flat stock welded to the stainless rod. PFL Premium polyurethane glue is doing the work...LOVE this stuff.

5946

A bit of a close-up. Note the fiberglass rod I've PL-Premium'ed to the stainless steel shaft. that will form the leading edge of the foil. Once the PL solidifies I'll make some epoxy spooge and get it in there to even things out a big and then longboard sand the lastafoam into the foil shape.

5947

[AlanH]

I've been sanding and shaping the foil. Lastafoam is pretty easy to work with. This is only the second time I've used the stuff.

5982

The two slabs of lastafoam are glued to the stainless flange, which is welded to the rod. So they don't touch at the trailing edge because they're separated by the thickness of the flange. How to solve that? I mixed up some wood dough/epoxy spooge and mashed it into the space in between the two pieces and clamped the back ends together after I'd done what I estimated to be about half the sanding. The next day, well then there was more sanding, and shaping with a wood rasp.

5983

The final shape of the foil is awfully "fat" but I don't want one that's more than about 2.25 inches in chord. That will be roughly 15% of the area of the main rudder blade, which is about right. It's half an inch thick....the thickness of the s.s. rod. That's a THICK foil, but what'cha gonna do? The back of the foil, you can see here off to the right. You can't see the leading edge, because of the washer that's welded on. However, remember that I laid on a 3/8 fiberglass rod onto the s.s. rod over to the left. I filled the space between fiberglass rod and s.s. rod with wood dough epoxy spooge and sanded it to pretty smooth. That's now a round leading edge, not elliptical, but hey.....

5984

[AlanH]

Here's the layup. There are two layers of 4-inch glass tape laid on with TAP Plastics marine epoxy in medium hardener....my usual go-to. I wrote that it's 8 ounce tape on the picture, I guess it's actually 6 ounce.

5985

In some of my other foils I have had to do a LOT of trailing edge cleanup, so this time I clamped it as you see it here. There's wax paper keeping the epoxy from bonding the wood pieces to the trim tab.

It's been kicking off outside for about 6 1/2 hours. I'll take it down right before I go to bed....maybe. It's pretty cold.

EDIT: I don't know why I can't get rid of that "attached image" down below. I've run into this problem, before.

[AlanH]

Here's a first look at the trimtab geometry. I wish I'd made the tab about 2 inches longer. About an inch of the bottom of the rudder will come off to mount the either steel or oak support there on the bottom. The overall rod length is exactly right, I just need about 2 more inches of foil. Grrr. What's there is rock-solid, though.

5999

[AlanH]

Aaaand, I just won an Ebay auction for a relatively new J-70 assy. So now I'll be taking that beefcake carbon tube i bought from Greg and making a sprit for the Wildcat.

'cause you know, I don't have enough projects!

[solosailor]

I knew you'd put it to use.

[AlanH]

I knew you'd put it to use.

I'll have to make temporary mounts so I can put the pole on deck, somehow and try to suss out where everything should go. I've never actually sailed with an asymmetrical chute before, except for I think two Estuary races with Bob on his J-92 where I just pulled on strings and sort of did what I was told!

[AlanH]

OK, the credit card is smoking....the 34-pounds-of-buoyancy useless lifejacket is ordered.

Stearns I160 Ocean Mate Adult Life Jacket / PFD

Features:

Designed for Adults Over 90 lbs
Provides a minimum of 34 lbs of buoyancy
Color: International Orange
Includes reflective patches
Heavy-duty hardware with an attached SOLAS whistle
Light storage pocket
Lifting loop
Buddy line
U.S.C.G. Approved Type I Life Jacket
SOLAS Approved with Metal Buckle
Complies with LSA Code 2003 Ed, MSC. 200(80), and MED

6001

I guess it's not useless. If I actually have to jump in the water because the boat is sinking, I'll probably strip off the inflatable and grab that one.

The new handheld VHF with GPS and DSC is ordered. Wow, the price dropped almost $100 from when I priced them out, about 9 months ago. While my 10+ year old simple Uniden-made West Marine handheld still works fine, it will be nice to have the DSC on the Bay when I get back and I'm sailing the piper, or cruising the delta in a small boat.

New lower lifelines from Ryan and Rogue Rigging are now on the boat. A close reading of the rules says that the depth sounder must be "Permanently mounted", so I'll do a haulout in March and super-carefully ream out the inner glass and balsa core to make a place where I can install the transducer.

The sprit and the assy should pay off during the middle part of the SHTP, and I got that chute for $400 plus tax and shipping...$480. What a steal.

----and the screaming orange eenxy weenxy storm jib is ordered. May it never come out of it's bag.

[AntsUiga]

As requested-

I bought the canoe used from a neighbor in 1967. It was light and built with fiberglass cloth. It was not well suited for going over ledges on the Delaware River, so with fiberglass worn through on part of keel, it was mine. The repair was easily completed. At about 50 pounds, the canoe was a keeper.

Being influenced by Adirondack Guideboats, it seems rowing would be a good change.

Luckily, I ended up with a pair of light, 7 foot spoon blade oars and some suggestions for rowing dimensions. The oarlocks needed to be extended from the gunwale and the canoe stiffened.

6011

The first iteration looked like this.

The gunwales/inwales were needing replacement and the aluminum outriggers were crude - plate aluminum shaped after cardboard patterns were taped together. It was tested at Virginia Lakes at 10,000 foot elevation and seems OK, but a little crude.

6012

Serious modifications came next. New gunwales / inwales. Seats changed to webbing. Four foot decks on either end, as well as bracing for the hull at the rowing station. I also wanted the decks to have a high ridge at centerline so decks would curve downward. Trimming about 1 1/2 inches of shear helped get nicer deck shape.

The original deck plan was to use plywood, but fastening did not come up with easy solution. Being intrigued with skin-on-frame construction (but with no experience), I Opted for fabric decks.

6013

Some of the framing and deck supports.

For fishing use, a depth sounder fish finder was added. A small 1 pound lithium ion battery powered it.

6014

This was getting close to the end, but the rowing was fussy. It turns out the height from seat to oarlocks was 7-inches and most recommendations were 8-12 inches.

One last change is in the works (maybe). The rowing outrigger will raise oarlocks 1 1/2-inches and solve the problem of loosening screws on aluminum outrigger.6015

The photo also shows bracing from seat support to hull. The fiberglass was very flexible. A strip planked boat with fiberglass would be much stiffer.

Ants

[Tchoupitoulas]

Nice fleet Ants. But a place to keep them all? Super envious.

[AlanH]

Nice job on the canoe! Very nice!

And I'm right there with Stephen....totally jealous!

[AlanH]

It's time to build the brackets on the main rudder, for the trim tab. The stoutest example of this construction that I could find online actually is in bronze, which might be of interest to a few of us...

This incredibly complex document discusses in great detail, the design of a trim tab system...

http://www.svsarana.com/selfsteering%20gear/sarana%20trim%20tab.pdf

If you want even more from them, visit here: http://www.svsarana.com/selfsteering.php

Their blog, if I remember correctly, has photographs of their outrageously strong...and outrageously heavy trim tab system on their double-ender.

Anyway, so I've been back and forth, what to do, what to do about the brackets. Use stainless steel straps, which can be unbolted so the whole thing can come off, or epoxy sturdy oak brackets to the rudder to hold the trim tab? Stainless steel underwater really needs zincs on it to stay in one piece. Stainless is also heavy, and the rudder and trim tab itself are already pretty heavy. In the end, I'm opting for oak and epoxy, with some starboard UHMWP bolted in with stainless at the bottom for a bearing surface and an intermediate bracket near the waterline, also with some UHMWP around the shaft for support. The upper two brackets will also be oak, with the McMaster Carr pillow bearings bolted on. If those disintigrate, I'll replace them with UHMWP.

[AlanH]

Two things contrbuted to me deciding to 'glass the brackets to the rudder, rather than bolt them. 1.) I could make all the brackets-strut and so on out of $14 worth of 4 inch wide, 1" oak, rather than $30 worth of stainless steel. I'm facing some pushback at home over the SHTP ongoing expense.... and 2.) Alan Steel was closed on Wednesday, when I went over to get the stainless. Instead of getting nowhere all weekend, I opted to make the stuff out of wood and epoxy, UHMWPE and glass fiber.

First up, cutting out and gluing up the upper trim tab rod bracket, and also the strut at the bottom of the rudder that takes the weight of the trim tab.

6017

While I was at it, I trimmed down the tiller for the Piper to the appropriate thickness.
Here's the upper trim tab shaft bracket. It will get a strap of 1" glass tape all round the outside edge. That's probably overkill, but hey. It's a little clunky-looking, I might put it on the saw again and make it a touch more svelte. it will only take side-to-side loads of probably 40-60 pounds, at most.

6018

[AlanH]

After cutting everything out, smoothing down the epoxy/sawdust spooge with a wood rasp and a bunch of sanding, the bracket tapped nicely into place. Yet more sanding on the rudder will be needed to get a good bonding surface for the glass tape. There's a pillow bearing that goes above the hole that the trim tab shaft goes through. The shaft goes through that bearing, it's pretty low friction.

6019

Here's the lower strut, the piece that actually supports the weight of the trim-tab, which is probably about 10 pounds. It's oak, it will get wrapped in fiberglass. Where the trim tab shaft goes has now been cut back and the last thing I did today was make an UHMWPE "bearing" that goes right there, screwed to the oak with four s.s. wood screws. There's been some water intrusion into the rudder from cracks in the bottom fiberglass, so when I trimmed off the bottom inch, there was some drying-out to do. The doug fir core was fine, just needs a day or two or three to dry out. Three lag bolts attach the strut into the bottom of the rudder, as well as a bunch of fiberglass holding all this in place.

6020

[AlanH]

After much staring and debating...where to put the middle support bracket, I finally opted for a location which might get wet, but will more properly support the trim tab shaft....it's more in the middle. We'll see how the aluminum and bronze pillow bearing does, down there. I'll keep it oiled.

Anyway, the two upper brackets are glassed on, as of today. I sanded off the paint, down to bare glass and used epoxy/sawdust to make a fillet. 1.5-inch tape went over that. The top of the antifouling paint is well above the waterline. The waterline is actually right where the top of the trim tab is. You can still see a hint of the line, in what's left of the antifouling paint on the rudder.

6022

Looks like I got it pretty straight! The red thing is our patio umbrella, fresh out of the spin cycle on the washing machine.

6023

Now there's more sanding to do, and then paint. Then I mount the shaft bearings. THEN I slather epoxy all over the endgrain at the bottom of the rudder and take the strut off and wrap it with fiberglass. Once everything kicks off, I crank down on the bolts holding the strut to the bottom of the rudder. It needs to dry out for a few days. Then I make up epoxy and sawdust spooge and shape it....put a layer of 'glass over the whole thing...wait....apply antifouling and call it good.

Oh, I need to do some microballoons/epoxy and sanding to the trailing edge of the trimtab, itself.

6024

[AlanH]

The new-to-me J-70 asymmetric spinnaker has arrived, so I set up the end of the pole with some wood to distribute the load and an eye bolt. I hoisted the sail in my slip, today,as there was essentially no wind.

6031

I don't know much about assy's, but it seems to me like this is a little bit long on the luff/leech.

Views of the pole...

6032

There's no way to get the outboard end of the pole on the centerline. The bow pulpit won't let it happen.

6033

Pole is about 45% extended, 55% on deck.

[AlanH]

I'd sure like some comments from folks here who know about asymmetrical spinnakers! That's a J-70 spinnaker.

6036

forestay length is 27.8 feet
J = 7.7 feet

By doing a little math and measuring the pictures on my screen, I come up with a masthead-to-stem distance of 30.8 feet.
The S2 7.9 has a headstay length of 32 feet...so the S2 has a significantly taller hoist than the J-70 by a foot and a bit.

The J-70 has a J of 7.7 feet
The S2 7.9 has a J of 9.5 feet

Add in the extended length of the J-70's pole and that makes the "spinnaker J" of about 12.4 feet.

I'm guessing that the sprit I have on the Wildcat, as set up in the picture is about 16 inches past the stem...1.3 feet. So that makes the "spinnaker J" about 10.8 feet. Now, I have the sprit set up on that jury rig with the 2 x 4's. The permanent setup will pretty surely give me at least another 6 inches, maybe 8 inches of extension. So my "actual" working spinnaker J will be about 11.5 feet.

That's a 10 inch difference in J-length

So the S2 will have a shorter "spinnaker J", 11.5 feet vs. 12.4 feet ...about 10 inches shorter
but a slightly longer hoist 32 feet vs. 30.8 feet than the J-70.

Wind was VERY light in the marina when I set up the spinnaker for that shot...just barely enough to fill the chute. It was trimmed to a point pretty far back in the boat, probably close to where a J-70 trimming point would be. It was trimmed in to somewhere between close reaching and broad reaching for the picture.

So....dock talk at the marina was that the leech was tighter than the luff, and admittedly, when I pulled the leech down about a foot, the sail seemed to look better. However, I was doing the pulling, which didn't give me a very good view of the sail. QUESTION.

Does this sail need a recut to make the luff a bit shorter?

[BobJ]

You asked, so three comments:

A couple times I forgot to extend Ragtime!'s 5.5' sprit and the kite still flew okay, so exact measurements, angles etc. aren't essential. That said . . .

Most asymms work fine on a reach but to go downwind you need as much separation as possible between the main and spinnaker = a longer sprit. This can be expensive on your rating. I'd temporarily rig up a "sprit" so you can try it at different extensions. Maybe borrow a long spinnaker pole instead and strap it down on the foredeck, but so you can move it. Go sailing and see how much extension you'll need to keep the spinny full at 130 AWA in light-moderate wind and 140-150 in heavier air. Then see what that JSP will do to your boat's rating. This will cost some money, either for Jim Antrim to run the numbers or for a test submittal. (I think if you're a YRA member, rating changes are free.)

Based on the photo above, I would not shorten the luff - it looks good. In fact, to go downwind I estimate you'd need to ease the tack line at least 12-18" from where you have it tied to the sprit (the tack line needs to go through a block and back to the cockpit.) The long luff, when rotated to windward by easing the tack line and sheet, is what enables you to sail deeper downwind. Some early A2's would even drag in the water because their luffs were so long. Then the trend went to a boxier shape with rounder shoulders - remember that photo of Ragtime! with her newest A2, going into Half Moon Bay?
.

[AlanH]

6037

by doing a little measuring and math I come up with a "hounds to sprit" length of about 33 feet. for my S2 7.9.
Doing some measuring and calculations for the J-70 with the sprit extended also comes up with a "hounds to sprit" length of about 33 feet.

This has got to be awfully close.

[AlanH]

You asked, so three comments:

A couple times I forgot to extend Ragtime!'s 5.5' sprit and the kite still flew okay, so exact measurements, angles etc. aren't essential. That said . . .

Most asymms work fine on a reach but to go downwind you need as much separation as possible between the main and spinnaker = a longer sprit. This can be expensive on your rating. I'd temporarily rig up a "sprit" so you can try it at different extensions. Maybe borrow a long spinnaker pole instead and strap it down on the foredeck, but so you can move it. Go sailing and see how much extension you'll need to keep the spinny full at 130 AWA in light-moderate wind and 140-150 in heavier air. Then see what that JSP will do to your boat's rating. This will cost some money, either for Jim A. to run the numbers or for a test submittal. (I think if you're a YRA member, rating changes are free.)

Based on the photo above, I would not shorten the luff - it looks good. The long luff, when rotated to windward by easing the sheet, is what enables you to sail deeper downwind. Some early A2's would drag in the water because their luffs were so long. Then the trend went to a boxier shape with rounder shoulders.

Thanks, Bob!

My gut feeling was that this was pretty close, which is why I bought it. Good to know that a few inches here and there will not make a heee-uge difference. I have the carbon pole...that's what I have, so I'm limited by that. Since the pole is only 5' 9", sticking with the 55%/45% ratio, that gives me at most, 31 inches of extension past whatever bracing point I can rig up. Maybe I can get 2 feet out past the forestay? Hardly very racy.

I bought this for one reason....Days 5-10 of the SHTP. Well, that and the fact that Greg parted with the pole for a ridiculously bargain price, I've never actually played with an asym before, and I'm up for learning about something new.

OK, no cutting down of spinnakers without more testing! THANK YOU.

[BobJ]

You have that u-bolt through the stem where you can attach a bobstay. I'd do that to take most of the upward load, and attach the sprit as far out as you can, leaving as little on deck as you can get away with. Look at most Minis - they rely entirely on a bobstay and sidestays to support the sprit; in fact it hinges up at the headstay when not in use.

Then rig the tack line so you can ease it from the cockpit and go see how far off the wind you can sail. Get as much bang for the buck as you can.

[AlanH]

You have that u-bolt through the stem where you can attach a bobstay. I'd do that to take most of the upward load, and attach the sprit as far out as you can, leaving as little on deck as you can get away with. Look at most Minis - they rely entirely on a bobstay and sidestays to support the sprit; in fact it hinges up at the headstay when not in use.

Then rig the tack line so you can ease it from the cockpit and go see how far off the wind you can sail. Get as much bang for the buck as you can.

Yeah, I've been thinking about making a bobstay. I'd feel better about the loads on the deck with one set up, too!

[Philpott]

In case you all missed it: SHTP Update
Notice of Race for Singlehanded Transpacific Race 2021 is now available on jibeset,
https://www.jibeset.net/JACKY000.php?RG=T007588480

[Philpott]

In case you all missed it: SHTP Update
Notice of Race for Singlehanded Transpacific Race 2021 is now available on jibeset,
https://www.jibeset.net/JACKY000.php?RG=T007588480

Do I detect a change of format? Race to Hanalei - Race Back with just a bit of time to recover in between. This means you get two races for the price of one. The Singlehanded Sailing Society continues to offer the best deal on the water.

[AlanH]

Do I detect a change of format? Race to Hanalei - Race Back with just a bit of time to recover in between. This means you get two races for the price of one. The Singlehanded Sailing Society continues to offer the best deal on the water.

Once Upon a Time, Jackie.....

There was a Singlehanded Race to Hawaii, and at the Awards Dinner, the clever Race Committee, who had figured out how many spouses, friends, s.o.'s and hangers-on would be doublehanding back to California....distributed...

Singlehanded Sailing Society
Hanalei 1-2

t-shirts. I didn't do the race that year, but I was at the awards dinner and I remember a few people who got those t-shirts. I bet there are others on the forum who remember, too. If I remember rightly, the shirts were maroon. Gosh, maybe they were sweatshirts!

Terry McKelvey and Heli got a pair of them. Who else?

[AlanH]

In case you all missed it: SHTP Update
Notice of Race for Singlehanded Transpacific Race 2021 is now available on jibeset,
https://www.jibeset.net/JACKY000.php?RG=T007588480

Already downloaded it! AND....the date is written in my Old Skool paper calendar!

[Philpott]

Now that's what I call an aspirational wardrobe.

[AlanH]

After working the real job all day I dashed out and did some quick epoxy work on the trim tab and the asymmetrical spinny pole.

Here are microballoons in epoxy for fairing the trailing edge of the trim tab, and the piece of red oak I put into the inboard end of the spinnaker pole. The pole got to me with a slot cut out of it, so that will be filled with sliced-up bits of carbon in epoxy. The whole thing will get a sanding to remove the paint and then a wrap or two of carbon fiber tape. That will change the diameter of the tube, so I'll have to duplicate the wraps up where the support point will be. I could have cut that part out, but I want to retain all the length of the tube that I can!

6039


The oak will get tabbed in there, and I might sandwich it between some aluminum. It will get drilled for a fast pin.

I decided to do it this way 'cause this is pretty similar to how one of the Forte carbon poles have their ends done.

6040

6041

[AlanH]

Round one of microballoons-fairing/sanding is done and the trim tab is better. It's far from perfect. Should I do another round of fairing? I'll never get it perfect. --- Probably. ONE more round.

[tiger beetle]

Which NACA shape did you choose? A NACA 12% profile is fairly forgiving as regards stalling as it has a relatively blunt nose. It's not difficult to create a shape from by plotting a template onto some paper, spray-glue that to some masonite, cut out female profile with band saw or sabre saw, and keep shaping until the trim tab matches your template across the length of the tab.

http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=n0012-il

This assumes you have a fair bit of time available...

- rob

[AlanH]

Which NACA shape did you choose? A NACA 12% profile is fairly forgiving as regards stalling as it has a relatively blunt nose. It's not difficult to create a shape from by plotting a template onto some paper, spray-glue that to some masonite, cut out female profile with band saw or sabre saw, and keep shaping until the trim tab matches your template across the length of the tab.

http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=n0012-il

This assumes you have a fair bit of time available...

- rob

I used NACA 0015 for the rudder itself but the trim tab? I had a half inch s.s. rod for the backbone of it. I had a buddy weld a 1.5 inch s.s tang, edgewise to the rod to provide the resistance to torque, and glu'ed a 1/4 inch fiberglass rod opposite that, to form a rounded leading edge and give it at least a bit of balance. I glued some lastafoam to the tange on both sides and then when everything settled, went after it with 80 grit sandpaper and a wood rasp. Not very scientific! As foils go, it's pretty fat! It's a tich over half an inch thick and about 2 inches, maybe 2 1/4 inches in chord. It's got two layers of 6-inch glass tape in epoxy over it all. It's some sort of reasonably smooth, at least.

[AlanH]

Well, I got a nice surprise today. I was out front in the yard / workshop and my neighbor walks up to the end of the driveway. I see him walking by with his wife and little girl, pretty often. He says to me...

"Do you want some carbon fiber?"

HUH? So I drop the piece of starboard PTFE that I'm shaping and he puts a box of stuff down on the end of my driveway. OH MY GOD.

yards and yards of heavy 3-inch woven tape. A huge spool of linear roving. 30 feet of carbon tubing weave...and a bottle of epoxy and a bottle of catalyst!

I thanked him profusely...about 5 x and offered to give him something for it but he just brushed it off. Said that he used to make bamboo bicycle frames, but was out of it, now for years. This was the last of his stock that he'd bought off of ebay. So I just repaired the slit in the end of the carbon fiber assy pole, and made a reinforcing sleeve at the midpoint. I laid some 6-inch strips of the tape lengthwise, forward of the midpoint of the pole and then got two wraps of heavy carbon tape around the pole that overlapped those. Everything was wrapped with plastic wrap, and then blue painters tape went around all that for nice even pressure all 'round. That pole was already crazy strong, now it's insane.

Today, I also got a piece of shaped UHMWP under the shoulders of the eye bolt, at the end of the pole, which should limit the bending back-and-forth. I shaped a couple of pieces of starboard and PL-Premium'ed them to the side of the pole opposite the eye bolt that will hold the tack block for the assy. I'll put a small eye strap through it all, with a couple of machine screws and that will work for the bobstay. The difference between the load distribution of the eye bolt and the bobstay padeye is rather large, but I think it's all plenty strong enough. The eye bolt has a rated break strength of 1500 pounds, so a 600-700 pound load should be just fine. i can't see this kite pulling more than that in any wind I care to have it up in, so I think I'm good to go.

While I was at it, I also worked on the bottom of the rudder, fixing the lowermost trim tab bracket in place. It's now bolted down, now that I've let the wood in the rudder dry for over a week. Everything is sealed with epoxy, and there's some structural "fairing" ...if you can call it that, done with sawdust and epoxy. I'll be reinforcing the bracket with carbon fiber, since I now have oodles of it!

[AlanH]

I'm adding some structure to the bottom of the rudder, to the bracket that supports the weight of the trim tab. This is not doing the surface flow that exits the back of the rudder, any favors, but I'm paranoid about it breaking.

The assy spin pole is nearing completion! Today I'll probably wrap a few winds of 3-inch carbon tape around it for the bow bracket tube.

[AlanH]

I'm adding some structure to the bottom of the rudder, to the bracket that supports the weight of the trim tab. This is not doing the surface flow that exits the back of the rudder, any favors, but I'm paranoid about it breaking.

The assy spin pole is nearing completion! Today I'll probably wrap a few winds of 3-inch carbon tape around it for the bow bracket tube.

The bow bracket loop around the assy pole came off this morning. I could've done a better job, it took a lot of sanding on the inside to get it to fit, so I wrapped it 3x more. Once that sets up it'll be about 6 wraps thick of pretty heavy 3-inch tape. Should be bombproof.

[AlanH]

Progress continues.

the bracket at the bottom of the rudder that supports the trim tab is almost done.

6081

and the essentially completed assy pole got a couple coats of paint, today. Note the reinforcement in the middle.

6082

[AlanH]

Look what arrived in the mail, from The Sail Warehouse in Monterey. ...."find the Wildcat", taken from the ramp.

6089

and....

6090

6091

[AlanH]

I am getting tantalizing close to "done" with the trim tab! The whole thing is MUCH less friction that the last system. I have a good feeling about this!
6094

Some details... Here's the trimtab shaft bearing at the bottom. It's made out of two 1/4 inch pieces of starboard (the plastic product..)

6095

[AlanH]

More detail shots... Here's the "middle" bearing. I was going to use the aluminum and sintered bronze pillow bearing I got from McMaster-Carr, but in fact the wood bracket is not quite level, not quite perpendicular to the trim tab shaft. The pillow bearings are self adjusting, but I've been leery about having three dissimilar metals so close to the waterline, so I just used a spare piece of UHMWPE that I had not used, earlier. The shaft is still very low friction.

6096

Top detail, showing the nifty pillow bearing. Sitting on the rudder is a stainless steel shaft coupling. A Stainless tiller for the system is currently out of the picture, setting up with JB Weld - steel dust reinforced epoxy. I had some inspiration about how to make a tiller system from wood, and since I had the time and the scrap wood, I made what you see here. The set screws, which jam down on the s.s. trimtab shaft are just stainless machine screws that I put on the grinder wheel, and flattened the tips, somewhat. They look a little funky, but the system works!

6097

I just took this one to show the s.s. shaft collar, which prevents the whole system from bouncing up and the lower shaft "jumping" out of the lower bearing. $5.25 at the hardware store, totally worth it.

6098

[AlanH]

The s.s. "tiller' is made, now. It's JB-Welded together. It should, at most see 25-30 pounds of load. I can't see it getting more than that, the windvane simply can't generate that much force, so JB Weld should be plenty strong enough. And if it's not, I can just put on the wood one! It's a backup!

[AlanH]

DONE!.... time to put it on the boat and test it. It's heavy, but the One Design class rudder is even heavier. Some of the stuff at the top is a little on the crude side, but whatever!

6109

6110

6111

[AlanH]

I'm working on the assy pole mount, today. The carbon fiber ring is done. I took a good look at the front of the boat the other day and I've cut the basic mount shape out of a high quality fir 2 x 4. The sides are getting two layers of 6 ounce glass in epoxy right now. It's sitting under a 25 pound lead brick, with plastic between the sticky side and the cement...and the upper sticky side, and the brick, to keep it all from becoming One with the Driveway..

[AlanH]

I'm working on the assy pole mount, today. The carbon fiber ring is done. I took a good look at the front of the boat the other day and I've cut the basic mount shape out of a high quality fir 2 x 4. The sides are getting two layers of 6 ounce glass in epoxy right now. It's sitting under a 25 pound lead brick, with plastic between the sticky side and the cement...and the upper sticky side, and the brick, to keep it all from becoming One with the Driveway..

Here's a first look at the assy pole bracket. It's not assembled yet, it's just the two pieces sitting on each other. I'm 99% sure that one of the hold down bolts will have to be buried inside the body of the bracket. There isn't room to have one on each end. The little "ledge" on the left is for one bolt. I'm betting that the other one will be at the bottom of the curve in the wood.

6113

AND...it's Windvane Installation Day!

[AZ Sailor]

. . . first look at the assy pole bracket.

That looks great. Did you prepare line drawings or schematics of what the system will look like installed on the Wildcat? If you posted them previously on this thread I missed it.

[AlanH]

That looks great. Did you prepare line drawings or schematics of what the system will look like installed on the Wildcat? If you posted them previously on this thread I missed it.

See my next post!

[AlanH]

I spent the day on the boat, fussing. I really need to clean up down below! Anyway, I laid out the assy pole with the bracket taped together and just eyeballed everything. I can't get the pole right on centerline, so I'm going to have it on the starboard side, seeing as I'll be flying off to port, most of the way to Hawaii!

6114

With a deck-mounted pole, you have to figure out ways around "things"...like not blocking the navigation lights and retaining access to the cleats.. Ah, if only the lights were up on the bow pulpit, like the Catalina 275 Sport that's on my dock. In the end, though, I'm going to get about 6 inches more extension than the Catalina gets with it's stock Selden system, for what looks like the same length pole. I had the carbon fiber ring in backwards, so in fact that picture shows about 4 more inches extension that I'll actually have.

6115

[AlanH]

The Windvane Is Installed!

6116

6117

The bits of wood it's mounted to need some paint! If it all works the way it should, I'll take the upper part off, take it home and paint it. The point where the red control lines go through the little blocks and then out to the "spreaders" on the rudder, is almost exactly right over the axis of rotation of the rudder. It's maybe half an inch in front, which is right about where I wanted it. That half-inch will provide a little bit of damping.

[AlanH]

There's still a bit more friction in the system than I would wish but it's MUCH better than the pre-trim-tab setup I put together.


https://youtu.be/kg3WrfD3b_k

[AlanH]

It's "reckoning" time. ...today is the day I tot up everything I've spent on the SHTP during the year. I kept a tally through the Qualifier, and was shocked to see that I was only 2% over budget. I did one update in mid-November, but $$ have been going out the door for every little thing for the windvane this month. I just finished the spreadsheet. It's a lot but not budget-busting.

[BobJ]

I'm only into it 150 bucks.

It's all about choosing when to start counting, and I keep saying "I would have done <that> anyway."

Rationalization - it works for me.

[AlanH]

I'm only into it 150 bucks.

It's all about choosing when to start counting, and I keep saying "I would have done <that> anyway."

Rationalization - it works for me.

This post needs a "LIKE" button!:D

[AlanH]

There was some wind today, so I took the opportunity to do some testing. The heavy weather jib looks good. I might have made the clew a bit too high, but no big deal.

6127

6128

So that's good.

The bad news is that the windvane is pretty much a fail. The good stuff...the trim tab controls the rudder with practically no effort at all on the trimtab tiller. I can steer the boat by gently tweaking the trimtab tiller with my fingertips, so the option is there to steer the boat with an autopilot moving the vane tiller. However, above about 3 knots, there's some significant shaking - vibration, probably from the trimtab operating in turbulent water off the back of the main rudder. I don't know if that vibration will get worse at higher speeds, I have to assume that it will. The vibration was noticeable at 2 knots, significant at 3 knots and destructive-over-the-long-term at 4 knots. Also, having the area of the trim tab so far back from the rotational axis of the rudder, well...it makes the rudder harder to turn by hand and it aggravates the issue of the tiller wanting to slam over instantly when I let go of it.

The killer is that the windvane itself will respond to wind direction when it's not tied into the trimtab. However, to get enough "slop" out of the sytem, I have to pull the lines fairly tight. That induces masses of friction inside the PTFE tubing, and the whole windvane system just locks up. The whole "wires inside PTFE tubing" is just a huge FAIL.

So now I have to decide if I want to re-engineer the whole thing, build an entirely new windvane and mast and hard-linked system to control the trimtab tiller....or figure that it's time to cut my losses. Even if I manage to make a hard-linked system in a couple weeks, there's still the vibration issue to consider.

It's hard to turn my back on so many months of work, so I'm doing nothing for a couple of days while I think it over. However, my gut is telling me that it's time to accept that this just isn't going to work, and get on with everything else that needs doing. I have two winches to rebuild/replace... hatch board slides to replace, a hatch to replace and so on.

[Intermission]

The Hobie 16 rudders would hum out of the box, and we would sharpen the last half inch of their trailing edges with a sureform rasp.
In the New Boat 4 Tchoup thread, sharpening one side at a 30 degree angle on one side is probably better.
You might want to take a look at both the rudder and the trim tab's trailing edges no matter what you end up doing for control?

[AlanH]

The Hobie 16 rudders would hum out of the box, and we would sharpen the last half inch of their trailing edges with a sureform rasp.
In the New Boat 4 Tchoup thread, sharpening one side at a 30 degree angle on one side is probably better.
You might want to take a look at both the rudder and the trim tab's trailing edges no matter what you end up doing for control?

I know that the trailing edge of the main rudder is rather too thick, about 3/16ths of an inch. I don't notice anything until I get up to about 5 1/2- 6 knots, though. I may slip a thin fiberglass or plastic batten into the trailing edge and fair it in. The trailing edge of the trimtab is much finer.

What has me stumped is the apparent high success rate of incredibly crude trimtab systems, as seen on YouTube and a couple of websites that provided inspiration....and I mean CRUDE..

The thing is, I'm nearing the end of the single biggest chunk of "time off" I will have before June. I don't have time any more to make a whole new vane system....or at least I think not. I can throw $900 at Scanmar for a Pelagic autopilot, spend two weekends getting it installed, and have my ST2000 for a backup. But today is not a good day, lets see how I feel about it tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

[breezetrees]

The Hobie 16 rudders would hum out of the box, and we would sharpen the last half inch of their trailing edges with a sureform rasp.
In the New Boat 4 Tchoup thread, sharpening one side at a 30 degree angle on one side is probably better.
You might want to take a look at both the rudder and the trim tab's trailing edges no matter what you end up doing for control?

Is it a hum like a hobie rudder or laser daggerboard, or is it a lower-frequency shake?

I wonder if it could be control-surface flutter like airplanes sometimes have? The fix for this is usually to move the CG of the trim tab forward, you could try adding weight to the trim tab's tiller. Lookie here (https://www.eaa.org/eaa/aircraft-building/builderresources/while-youre-building/building-articles/control-systems/control-surface-balancing-in-homebuilts)

6129

Just a wild guess that could be totally wrong. I did a lot of work on flutter in graduate school but it didn't pay the bills so have moved on.

[AlanH]

Is it a hum like a hobie rudder or laser daggerboard, or is it a lower-frequency shake?

I wonder if it could be control-surface flutter like airplanes sometimes have? The fix for this is usually to move the CG of the trim tab forward, you could try adding weight to the trim tab's tiller. Lookie here (https://www.eaa.org/eaa/aircraft-building/builderresources/while-youre-building/building-articles/control-systems/control-surface-balancing-in-homebuilts)

6129

Just a wild guess that could be totally wrong. I did a lot of work on flutter in graduate school but it didn't pay the bills so have moved on.

It's not hum. I get some relatively high frequency hum off of the trailing edge of the main rudder when the boat is really moving. This is a lower frequency shaking.

The trim tab is pretty fair and pretty smooth. It's not a pro job, but it's not bad.
I mean, compared to this: http://www.girlinagale.com/2010/11/cvane-self-made-wind-vane-steering.html

6130

6131

Which is flat slabs, no foil shape at all, but that steered her boat. Mine is light years ahead of that.

Or this, which is a completely slab-sided rudder, with a trimtab which is nothing but flat stock welded to rod.

6132

In the Sayes rig, the trimtab is moved 'way aft, out of the turbulence of the rudder. in the crude versions above, as well at the Autohelm windvane, the trimtab is immediately behind the trailing edge of the rudder.

OK, so this trimtab turns the main rudder with practically zero effort. I put the tab 4-5 inches behind the main rudder for the mechanical advantage, I wanted to make sure that the trimtab had the power to turn the main rudder. However, I might try moving the axis of rotation of the trimtab to right behind the main rudder...just move it up 4 inches. That's a "job" but not a difficult one....one afternoon and done.

[AlanH]

While I nurse my wounded ego and try to decide what to do, I attached the assy bracket to the base, today.

6133

6134
Because of how the bracket and pole set up on the foredeck, I have a stout bolt embedded in the wood and epoxied in there with sawdust. It's not going anywhere, though I won't be able to crank down on the nut with umpty-ump pounds of torque The bolt is essentially straight up-and down, and located at the bottom of the arc cut into the wood, where the pole bracket goes.

[AlanH]

I opened up and greased two winches today...good stuff. However, I also discovered that ...I think.... the electrical panel is shot. The batteries are full-up. The autopilot is on it's own circuit and it gets juice. I can turn on the cabin lights, though they're dim. However, neither the running lights nor the radio/cigarette lighter/USB charging ports power up. I checked the fuses, replaced one, it didn't help. I need to test some more but I'm pretty sure that the electrical panel work just jumped to the head of the list.

[Dazzler]

I opened up and greased two winches today...good stuff. However, I also discovered that ...I think.... the electrical panel is shot. The batteries are full-up. The autopilot is on it's own circuit and it gets juice. I can turn on the cabin lights, though they're dim. However, neither the running lights nor the radio/cigarette lighter/USB charging ports power up. I checked the fuses, replaced one, it didn't help. I need to test some more but I'm pretty sure that the electrical panel work just jumped to the head of the list.

Sounds more like bad ground(s), especially since the lights are dim. Dim = resistance. Look for loose and/or poorly crimped connections. Tug on wires.

Unlikely that the panel is the problem, but if you decide to replace it, I can offer some lightly used fuse panels.

[AlanH]

Sounds more like bad ground(s), especially since the lights are dim. Dim = resistance. Look for loose and/or poorly crimped connections. Tug on wires.

Unlikely that the panel is the problem, but if you decide to replace it, I can offer some lightly used fuse panels.

That's a good thought. A couple of wires wound up in the bilge, sitting in salt water during my qualifier, I should look over all those connections.

[Intermission]

Just changing out the terminals on my battery cables from clamp on to crimped lugs, killed a half volt of loss, and
despite lock washers, the nuts on my main switch occasionally loosen up, causing all sorts of problems.
I encourage you to start from the batteries, and main switch and work your way out to those connections in the bilge.

Salt water and electricity is a marriage made in hell. :mad:

[Wylieguy]

Before our 2010 PacCup I went thru and replaced all NANCY's inside-the-hull wiring. A Wyliecat with an outboard is a fairly simple wiring job. I found several wires that were "spliced" together and dangled in what passes for a bilge under the forward bed platform. I replaced all with continuous wires. The old switch panel didn't have enough circuits so several had been clobbered together as accessories were added so I wired in a 2nd panel. Needed amps for the SSB radio, chart plotter, masthead lights, and several other items which were not present when the boat was originally wired. Halfway to Hawaii is not the time to be checking circuits! Working on cabin wiring is an inside job; good for when it's raining outside.

Yes on checking battery connections, cleaning and tightening -- really tight! Yes on getting wires out of the bilge. Yes on checking connections everywhere. Yes on checking the backside of the electric panel for corrosion or loose connections. Yes for clearly labeling wiring. Yes on LED lights; much lower draw and smaller wires. Yes on a clearly labeled wiring diagram just in case. Spares? A roll of duplex can create a circuit directly from battery to whatever in an emergency (like auto helm circuit). Toss in an inline fuse holder.

During a sunny break a good idea to check everything having to do with solar panels, too. They're out in the salt environment 24/7.

[AlanH]

Before our 2010 PacCup I went thru and replaced all NANCY's inside-the-hull wiring. A Wyliecat with an outboard is a fairly simple wiring job. I found several wires that were "spliced" together and dangled in what passes for a bilge under the forward bed platform. I replaced all with continuous wires. The old switch panel didn't have enough circuits so several had been clobbered together as accessories were added so I wired in a 2nd panel. Needed amps for the SSB radio, chart plotter, masthead lights, and several other items which were not present when the boat was originally wired. Halfway to Hawaii is not the time to be checking circuits! Working on cabin wiring is an inside job; good for when it's raining outside.

Yes on checking battery connections, cleaning and tightening -- really tight! Yes on getting wires out of the bilge. Yes on checking connections everywhere. Yes on checking the backside of the electric panel for corrosion or loose connections. Yes for clearly labeling wiring. Yes on LED lights; much lower draw and smaller wires. Yes on a clearly labeled wiring diagram just in case. Spares? A roll of duplex can create a circuit directly from battery to whatever in an emergency (like auto helm circuit). Toss in an inline fuse holder.

During a sunny break a good idea to check everything having to do with solar panels, too. They're out in the salt environment 24/7.

All of that is on my "to-do" list! It's just that now it's front and center on my "to do" list! I'm going to add a depth sounder at the April haulout, and that of course will be another circuit. Right now I don't have a steaming light, as it's corroded and ruined. I velcro a little LED garden light into the spinnaker pole ring when I'm motoring. I suppose I could use that circuit for the depth sounder. But you know, a new panel with circuit breakers is not that much $$. EDIT: I just bought one, circuit breakers, 8-gang "waterproof". riiight.

Carrying a couple of in-line fuses and 20 feet of wire is a good idea.

The autopilot soon to be autopilotS, as Joan and I had a talk last night and I'm going to buy another Pelagic, is on it's own circuit, with it's own switch with an inline fuse, straight to the batteries and the wiring is not in the bilge. The wiring is pretty new, all the connections are crimped. I feel pretty good about that, though I could make a fancier switch box. So that should be fine. Hopefully this windvane will work out so even if the entire electrical system fails, I can still point the boat in the right direction. Even if the windvane doesn't work out, I might close my eyes...wince... and buy a Windpilot Pacific Light, or a Mister Vee windvane.

The nav lights are now, all LED. The one interior light that I sometimes turn on, is incandescent, and there are three of them, but I hardly ever use them, so....

I have a couple of overhead LED lights in the cabin powered by AA batteries, so I can light up the cabin even if the electrical system goes down. I have two AAA-battery powered headlights. I have a strobe light on a pole, with wiring and alligator clips and I can run that for days on a 12v lantern battery. I also have some red and green LED strips, which also can run off of a lantern battery, glued to bits of plywood. They can get duct-taped to the hard-dodger, and run off of a lantern battery so I can even have nav lights.

I have one Magellan GPS that is terribly old school and runs on AA batteries. So I'll know where I am, and I might just buy an old Garmin etrex off of ebay for a AA-battery powered backup to the backup. I have two old cell phones now, and an android tablet all of which have GPS's in them, but they need a USB connection to charge. So being able to juice them up would be very nice. Anyway, For getting a position twice a day, 6:00 AM and 6:00PM, I think I'm good.

The Garmin tracker needs a working USB connection to charge, so that's a concern, but the reality is that's a rules issue, and a "peace of mind for the folks at home" issue, not a "will I get there?" issue. The solar charge controller seems to be working fine, but if I HAD to I could just wire one panel to each of the batteries and it would work...badly, but it would work. Also a spare low-tech charge controller is cheap, probably worth it to have a backup on the boat.

Anyway, my idea is to set things up so that even if the batteries die, I can get to Hawaii. I can see what I'm doing, the boat can steer itself, people can see me, and I know where I am....all with no functioning electrical system.

All that said, it would sure be easier to have a functioning electrical system, seeing as I bought the battery and the solar panels and the charge controller.

[AlanH]

OK, today was spent moving the trim tab. That wasn't so bad, I cut off part of the bottom bracket, drilled new holes in the upper brackets and cut off the excess.

6136

6137

This brings the trim tab tiller significantly further forward..

6138

This is a more usual location for the trimtab. They're usually tucked in right behind the trailing edge of the rudder There's about 3/8 inch clearance, here.

EDIT: there's now a sacrificial zinc, connected to the trimtab rod by a bit of s.s. rigging wire on the rudder. It's screwed into a nut that I epoxied into the wood in an obvious place.

[AlanH]

The thing that kept me from ever putting together a hard-linkage system, and kept me so focused on the "wires-in-cable-housing' idea was that I just could not figure out a way to put the illustrations of linkages I see online, into functional reality. Well, today a little miracle happened. You'll laugh, because it's SO NOT sophisticated, but this was a ~Huge~ AHA! moment for me. I was holding the little slapped-together wood trimtab tiller that I made out of wood, and I just wondered....out of the blue....if it would fit on some half-inch fiberglass rod that I got from Greg Nelson. I tried it. It fit.

I looked at that for about a minute and the light turned on! So I sat myself right down and made another arm.

6139

This is a tich crude, the sheet metal screws are functioning as set screws, but the connection is actually pretty firm. I'll trim the fiberglass rod to length, and hang that assembly below the platform that will hold the vane mast. A piece of 1/4 inch fiberglass rod from TAP plastics, is, like eight bucks, and that will make a dandy connecting rod.
Hey now! I'm onto something, here!.

[AlanH]

Aaaand.... the asymmetrical pole bracket is done! ...painted, ready to go.

[AlanH]

6144

Look what just arrived. i got it online from a place called Marine Parts Depot in Rancho Santa Margarita. I've never seen a DOUBLE fold down padeye before wandering through Google image search, looking for "folding padeye".



This is not a Wichard-quality casting, but it's plenty good enough and it was about $15.. It will be the aft-end hold-down for the assy pole.

[AlanH]

The new windvane linkage is done. It took me about a day and a half to make it essentially from wood scraps I had...an assortment of wood screws, some starboard I had lying around and epoxy. s.s. machine screws with the points ground off are functioning as set screws. There won't be a huge load on this, just the force of the wind on the vane, maybe 20 pounds....30 if it's honking.


https://youtu.be/fCfqWH9PWJQ

If this works a treat, I might...MIGHT rebuild some of it in aluminum. I honestly think this is plenty strong enough, crude or not. It'll get paint on it in another day or two, when the epoxy stops being sticky.

Thanks again for the half-inch fiberglass rod, Greg!

[Mountain]

Anyone know when registrations will open for SHTP 2021? The jibeset site is not updated yet.
Thanks!

[AlanH]

Anyone know when registrations will open for SHTP 2021? The jibeset site is not updated yet.
Thanks!

That's hard to say. The new Board has only been online for a couple of weeks now, I'm sure they'll get to it when they can. The Three Bridge Fiasco is coming up in 3 weeks and it's a HUGE event. I wouldn't expect anything to go up until after that, at least. Also, the Board might be concerned about taking registrations and collecting fees when Hawaii/Kauai hasn't opened up from COVID, yet.

It would be good if the 2020 SHTP Site were either taken down or changed over to be 2021, though.

[AlanH]

I'm starting to think about cooking onboard. OK, that's not true, I've been "thinking" about it, rarely for a while. There's really no good place to mount a stove down below. I could maybe put a bracket over the totally non-functional sink, but then if there's spillage it's going to go all over the liferaft. I don't want to have a swinging stove flailing around in the middle of the already-tight cabin space. Also, the wood trim that you see at the back edge of the daggerboard trunk is just held onto the trunk with about a dozen wood screws. I don't think I want to depend on that thing to stay up with half a quart of boiling water flailing around inside it.

And so, I think I'll be mounting a swinging stove on the temporary seat I've made which I set up much like a bridgedeck. It's immediately behind the companionway, and is just a plywood platform that has some inserts glued and screwed to it, to keep it from sliding around. I can ooch that back 8-10 inches and clamp a swinging/gimbaled stover to that. It's behind the hard dodger so it's reasonably protected from splash.

Along those lines, I just bought a 1.5 quart Bain Marie pot from the "Webstaurant Store". What's a bain-marie pot? You've seen them in steam tables, or cold tables at restaurants before, like at the salad bar.

https://www.equippers.com/images/360200_l.jpg

They're tall....meaning deep, so even if food sloshes around, it's unlikely to come out. They're stainless steel so they don't corrode. You can get the lids as well. I'll have to drill and rivet a small handle to the pot, no big deal.

[AlanH]

Here's some random windvane "stuff" setting up after an afternoon of improvisation. The green and yellow blade was repurposed from the "cables in housing" experiment. I'm sure I can use the counterweight, too. A lot of what I'm putting together now owes it's inspiration to the late Walt Murray and his "DIY Windvane" website, such as using ABS pipe for the windvane mast. The Mister Vee site archived a lot of Walts Stuff.

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[AlanH]

More fiddly bits today, including this little masterpiece of plywood, ABS plastic, sawdust and epoxy. It needs some "filling in", which will be done after I cement the ABS pipe in there that will function as the mast.

6166

All the pieces are cut out for the vane carrier, so progress is happening. Dare I say..."test" next weekend???

[AlanH]

I thought I was ready to test, but ....no.

6181

Everything looked good, I'd eyeballed all the geometry, it all should be fine....but it wasn't. I'm kind of frustrated.

6182

The control rod hits the inside of the ABS plastic mast, when the vane tips over to one side. On the other side, it's fine. I used 2-inch ABS pipe. When I was at Home Depot, I stared at the 2 inch and stared at the 3 inch and decided 2 inches was plenty big enough. Grrrr...it's only about another $12 for the parts, but it's the TIME at this point. I really wanted to test this, tomorrow. There's supposed to be plenty of wind.

OH, well. I'll install the assy pole, instead. I really need to check SOMETHING off my list after the preposterous amount of work I've been doing.

[AlanH]

However, the system is ~very~ sensitive.....that's good.


https://www.facebook.com/100060710409719/videos/113086144058399/

[Daydreamer]

Just move the whole paddle assembly 1/4-1/2 inch toward the mast tube.
Looks like where the vane (white) is attached to the base (natural) could be re-drilled.
Shouldn't take too long.

[AlanH]

I realized why the whole thing wasn't working AFTER I made a new mast, etc. from 3-inch ABS pipe. It's because the lever arm at the windvane end is quite a bit off of the axis of rotation. If I'd attached the lever arm to the vane carrier, an inch lower than where it is now, instead of the base of the vane, I wouldn't have had this problem. Ah, well! Anyway, today was spent making all sorts of bits and bobs, and finally gluing and bolting everything together.

6188

I'll toss the 2-inch vane mast into the rafters along with the cloth-and-fiberglass-rod air blade I made and if I ever get a small boat again that could use a windvane, I have a little head-start.

[AlanH]

Setback...

Today I bumped the vane while it was sitting just like in the picture above and the counterweight arm bonked me on the head. My head is totally fine, it was just a tap but the plywood of the carrier split off the surface layer, and the counterweight arm fell off. Seriously? REALLY???? My epoxy fillet and bond was fine, what failed was the manufacturers internal glue in the plywood. So that's reassembled, with epoxy and a couple of screws. Since I had to rebuild it, I just cut off the control arm that's on the vane base and epoxied/screwed one to the carrier. That should completely solve the "leaning" in and out issue that forced me to build a new "mast" from 3 inch ABS. This change will also change the length of the control rod so I'll have to trim it. Between that and the fiddly bits I'm making to mount the platform to the boat, there went the day.

Better to have that happen in the garage than a day out into the Pacific....

[AlanH]

All right, the carrier is glued 'n screwed back together. I took the opportunity to make a couple of changes. Today before work I dashed down to Alan Steel and bought a 1-foot piece of stainless flat stock and had them punch 3 holes in it. That will bolt to the wood counterweight arm, add a little weight and be what I add the necessary counterweight to.

The other day I tried to make a tube out of aluminum flashing...haha! FAIL. So when I was at Alan Steel I bought 18 inches of aluminum tubing that just fits inside the vane mast tube. It's a tich tight, but a little bit of sanding of the top part, on the inside, and some grease will take care of that. The bottom half of this tube is inserted into the main ABS mast tube, the top is what the 10-inches of ABS that has the carrier will rotate around. 8 inches of aluminum stick of, for the upper ABS and carrier to rotate around. The bottom 10 inches is epoxied inside the main ABS tube.

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I've made the angled bits that go on the top crossbar bar, that the whole assembly will be bolted to, and then U-bolted to the stern pushpit posts. That was an overnight epoxy job. It needs some sanding and painting, but seems strong. I've set up my outboard motor stand in the front yard and will assemble everything on that before I take it to the boat, to make sure everything fits.

[AlanH]

It’s mounted on the boat�� yay!

There was no wind to test with today, and I see some things I will change if it works, but at least it’s on the boat.

[AlanH]

Assy pole installed. There's supposed to be a breeze tomorrow! Time to test!

6243

That's just a piece of light nylon line as a spritstay. I'll swage up a s.s. wire one, here shortly. Despite how it looks, the pole doesn't block the nav light and there's just enough room under it to get a Dock line in there. If I wind up having oodles of spare time, I might replace the two bow cleats with a centerline cleat and two chocks, one on each side. I already have 'em in the spares box.

[solosailor]

I'd lose the block and go with an inexpensive Ferrule or just a line through the metal eye.

[AlanH]

I could get one of those ferrules-in-the-dyneema loop things. I'd rather have the block installed on a spare jib track slider, as a backup. I've got one, and I've got the slider for the second one.

Anyway, finally today about 2:00 the wind kicked in. I had about an hour and a half of 10 knots of breeze and flat water to test the windvane. Fail. Utter fail. Not even close.

Six-plus month, hundreds of hours of work and a couple hundred bucks down the tubes. The windvane doesn't work. The inherent instability of the rudder/tiller is too much for the vane to handle. If the tiller ever goes more than about 15-20 degees off center, the load skyrockets and the tiller heads for the leeward side of the boat much harder than any vane/trimbtab can control. Maybe I could build another rudder or something but it's time to cut my losses and just throw money into autopilots. Not untll after March 15th, though.

[BobJ]

So sorry to hear, Alan.

While driving home from Grass Valley yesterday, we listened to a podcast about Iver Norman Lawson, the chemist who invented WD-40. The 40 represents the number of times it took him until he got the right combination of ingredients. I suppose wind vane steering devices are like that.

[AlanH]

So sorry to hear, Alan.

While driving home from Grass Valley yesterday, we listened to a podcast about Iver Norman Lawson, the chemist who invented WD-40. The 40 represents the number of times it took him until he got the right combination of ingredients. I suppose wind vane steering devices are like that.

I know why it doesn't work. I just didn't think it would be that much of a problem.

I tallied it up. Total amount of money wasted on the windvane, $530.35. The HOURS spent, easily 150+. At $15 an hour that's $2,250 worth of my time. So $2800 and my entire Winter vacation...Wasted. All right, then. So be it. Move on.

[AlanH]

New sheets for the assy are here. Should I put shackles on them or tie them on? Hmm.

[Intermission]

Soft shackles.

https://l-36.com/soft_shackles.php?menu=4

[BobJ]

On Ragtime! I tied them on. BTW, 12' of each sheet at the sail end was stripped to slide more easily around the rolled jib (I did inside gybes).

For Surprise! I had the sheets made with small eye splices in the sail ends (still stripped for 12-14') and I attach them with soft shackles. Heavier boat = more load so knots would be harder to untie. It takes just as long to fiddle with the soft shackles as to tie bowlines (plus the need for eye splices and the shackles, plus a spare or two), so on your boat I'd just tie on the sheets.

[BobJ]

Added PSA: Look at your spinny halyard and sheave with an eye towards it being hoisted for hours on end. I replaced the sheave and smoothed up the sheave box, and had a low-friction cover put on the halyard end. Then once in the trades, ease/trim the halyard a few inches every few hours to move the wear points.

[AlanH]

Added PSA: Look at your spinny halyard and sheave with an eye towards it being hoisted for hours on end. I replaced the sheave and smoothed up the sheave box, and had a low-friction cover put on the halyard end. Then once in the trades, ease/trim the halyard a few inches every few hours to move the wear points.

Yes, the mast comes down in April, assuming that we get a "GO!" on march 15th and new sheaves get installed, as well as a new main halyard.

[AlanH]

Soft shackles.

https://l-36.com/soft_shackles.php?menu=4

I really need to learn how to splice dyneema.

[Intermission]

I really need to learn how to splice dyneema.

Not so!

Soft shackles are more of a knot than a splice. I tied one at a Brion Toss workshop half a dozen years ago.
The videos in that link show several ways to tie them, and what's really cool is that the soft shackles exceed the tensile strength of the material they were tied with!
Brion told me his favorite use for them was attaching sheets to clews.

Disclaimer: [Only a one or two soft shackles exceed the tensile strength of their material depending on how they are tied]

If time is an issue, and money isn't, already tied versions used to be available at Blue Pelican in a few different sizes.

[AlanH]

I fixed the electrical problem on the boat. YAAY, me! it was two butt-joint fittings in the main power and ground wires going from the main switch to the electrical panel. Those wires are in the bilge. The joints weren't sealed and they corroded. So I cut them out, stripped the wire back to "good stuff" and put in new joiners....and sealed them both with silicon tape. I need to make a couple of "hooks" to get them out of the bilge, though, by suspending them up a few inches.

I still need to install the new panel for SHTP but now I have lights and an autopilot for the Corinthian race.

[AlanH]

Wow. I'm sort of shocked at how expensive those low-friction ferrules are.

EDIT...oops, the Antal ones are half the price of the Tylaskas. What the heck is the difference?

[Daydreamer]

The Ronstan ones are even better priced.

Brummell splices in single braid dynema are very easy!

[AlanH]

I made a spinnaker turtle today. All the materials except for the aluminum bar that will get bent to keep the mouth open was stuff I just had lying around.

I still need to buy that bar from OSH, curve it, and rivet it together, but aside from that, it's done.

EDIT: turtle is done. Now I have a bag to launch from. I might have made it a scooch bigger than it really needs to be.

[AlanH]

Finally, a major success, today. For starters, the NOAA wind report was so wrong it's almost comical. This morning it was blowing 27-30 with gusts to 37+. Whoops! Coyote Point Marina has installed a DAVIS weather station, and it's way out on the breakwater, out from behind the effect of the hill. So it's a pretty accurate report on conditions in RealTime. By the time I got there at noon-ish it had died down to 6 knots. By the time I actually got OUT there, it was back up to more like 15-18.

Well, OK, fine, says I to myself. I don't really want to practice setting the asymmetrcical the first time in that, but you know what? I haven't been SAILING in weeks. I went out in <5 knots for 2 hours to test the windvane, but I haven't been sailing in a decent breeze since my qualifier! So I decided to just stay out for 4-5 hours and SAIL. I needed it. All work and no sail is a dumb way to have a boat. So I tucked in a reef and headed up the bay.

Well, as we proceeded towards San Francisco, it got lighter, like it usually does. I thought...."I'll sail up the the usual wind hole behind San Bruno Mountain and see how it is." Well, when I got there, the water was flat at it was blowing about 5 knots. Cool! So I mentally reviewed everything I was planning, rolled up the jib, gybed the boat, tied my bowlines in clew and tack and set the asymmetrical spinnaker. OK, it went up with a twist in it. I've never packed an asymmetrical chute before. I'll do it differently next time. This time, I just went up to the mast and gave it a few tugs and all the twists unrolled. NICE.

I wound up sailing "pretty deep downwind" and reaching up pretty high just to see what I could do for about 45-50 minutes with no problems. The boat moved well, the spinnaker looks good to me, what do I know? I mean, I can't really see it behind the main, but in the wind I had, the autopilot could have driven, easily. I sailed back down into the heavier air down by Coyote Point and doused the chute with no issues in about 15 knots of breeze and the usual South Bay 2 -foot wind chop.

WIN

Everything worked, the pole works great (Thanks again Greg!) , I ran all the lines right (first time ever) and just...WIN, all 'round! YAY.

[AlanH]

OK, we're looking tidier for the Corinthian race. I've taken off the windvane. I haven't swapped out the rudders, maybe I'll get around to that before Friday, but the boat steers just fine with the offshore rudder, with the trimtab on it, as long as the trimtab is lashed on the centerline. Should I take the solar panels off for the race? Hmmm. Maybe. Windage, you know?

I got all the wiring into the little clip-thingies that I made to keep all of it out of the bilge, so we're good, there. I'll make a few more to tidy up the autopilot wires. Measurements have been taken for the new electrical panel plywood. The boat got a bath, so now I won't get filthy by sailing it all next weekend. Finally, a mess of the wiring in the battery compartment is now labelled.

I sure hope the PHRF committee gets to my application. It's been in the YRA office for over 3 weeks, now.

========

I am considering what to do if SHTP 2021 doesn't happen. An October one-way trip to Mexico might be an option. I'm thinking about taking a month to sail to La Paz and maybe leaving the boat down there for a year or two. ~Thinking~..about it. Maybe. Or maybe I should take a week and do a Jackie Trip and sail the boat down to Catalina. Then pop over to Long Beach, pick up a couple of nephews and take them down to Ensenada. Then sail the boat back to San Diego and put her up for sale. I dunno. We'll see.

[solosailor]

Congrats on the maiden flight. I'd recommend leaving the jib up when setting/dousing the spinnaker.

[JimQuanci]

If the race doesn't happen... after crying in my beer (maybe a few beers), guess a week or two in the Delta will be the order of the day (and more beer). But I hope not...

[Philpott]

If the race doesn't happen... after crying in my beer (maybe a few beers), guess a week or two in the Delta will be the order of the day (and more beer). But I hope not...

There are definitely worse places to drown your sorrows

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[solosailor]

How about an SSS cruise out to Catalina !

[Philpott]

How about an SSS cruise out to Catalina !

You tease. Maybe the CBC.

[AlanH]

You tease. Maybe the CBC.

I know...well, I'm 97% sure....that if Hawaii 2021 doesn't happen, I'm not waiting for 2022 or 2023. However, after all this work, I'm taking the boat SOMEWHERE. Catalina and then to Long Beach is sort of a minimum, though I ~suppose~ I might putz out and do two weeks in the Delta. After all these decades of sailing I STILL have never taken any boat I own up the Delta.

But really...someplace at least a few hundred miles away on the ocean is more likely. Or maybe I'm ~Done~ with fog and worrying about fishing boats.

[tiger beetle]

The weather has been fairly pleasant here in Oxnad to Catalina area, somewhat chilly in the morning with good sun, either not much wind or the Santa Ana winds are blowing hard. Wednesday night/Thursday was a Santa Ana event and I clocked 53 knots on the anemometer on Beetle with 30-40 knots fairly stable - it was blowing very hard and did so for about 14 hours. The sea state quickly goes into a big nasty chop and makes the 6 foot chop generated by the Sea of Cortes northerlies look tame. In those conditions the Catalina Harbor Patrol will move boats off the east-facing moorings and send them around to the back side of Catalina or (if there's sufficient advance warning) suggest boats head over to Long Beach.

I'm told that normally the Santa Ana winds run October and November, sometimes December - so the local folks have commented that such winds happening this late in February are unusual, they should be all finished by now.

- rob

[Tchoupitoulas]

Starbuck might be better staged for sale in So Cal!

[AlanH]

I took the racing main in for a second reef point, today. The second reef will reduce the hoist by about 10 feet, out of a P of 29' 5". I'll have to get a trisail to satisfy the rules, but two reefs and my heavy weather jib, which is about 60% of the foretriangle should handle most nasty weather.

Waiting....and trying to be chill and patient.... for whatever the announcement will be on March 15th.

[brianb]

I took the racing main in for a second reef point, today. The second reef will reduce the hoist by about 10 feet, out of a P of 29' 5". I'll have to get a trisail to satisfy the rules, but two reefs and my heavy weather jib, which is about 60% of the foretriangle should handle most nasty weather.

Waiting....and trying to be chill and patient.... for whatever the announcement will be on March 15th.

I delivered my boat home a couple of times from Hawaii. I always managed to end up in a Force 7 gale , as described by passing ships. My old J24 main that I had Synthia (maybe SYlvia ? ) cut down to a storm jib with heavy webbing emanating from all the corners , and a triple reefed main were just the ticket.

[AlanH]

Deleted. I think that this is the end of this thread. ADMIN request...can you lock it or delete it? I'd prefer a delete but other people have contributed to it, so if "locking" it is better, then that's fine.
.

[JimQuanci]

I have never seen over 30k on the way home ( times... maybe its due to good karma? knock on wood...). And that was just for a few hours... a day of 25k a few times... but a few trips home never saw more then 20k... bigger problem was no wind the last 150 nm with zero wind and barely having enough fuel to motor in (this happened a few times). Buffalo has a very short rig... double reef in the smallish heavy delivery main and the "handkerchief" size storm jib should be good to 40k (though I hope to never find out... why the weather routing for the return is more important then the race over). :-)

[sleddog]

I have never seen over 30k on the way home ( times... maybe its due to good karma? knock on wood...). And that was just for a few hours... a day of 25k a few times... but a few trips home never saw more then 20k... bigger problem was no wind the last 150 nm with zero wind and barely having enough fuel to motor in (this happened a few times). Buffalo has a very short rig... double reef in the smallish heavy delivery main and the "handkerchief" size storm jib should be good to 40k (though I hope to never find out... why the weather routing for the return is more important then the race over). :-)

BUFFALO is a lucky boat! JimQ doubtlessly remembers Cal-40 CALIFORNIA GIRL got rolled flat while reaching under reduced sail on delivery home from Pac Cup. CG's lee side cabin window broke inwards and boat filled with considerable H2O.

I'd sailed WILDFLOWER home 5x from Hawaii. In 2008 I ran into this for 72 hours. It had been forecast, and I'd jogged in place for several days waiting before sticking my nose into "Gale Alley", believing I could reach off for S. CAL under storm jib if needed.

6349

With the wind moaning in the rigging, storm jib alone proved too fast., Reduced sail to storm staysail of 18 square feet. Still too fast with danger of being rolled....

It's the accompanying waves, not so much the wind, that can cause harm on a return delivery from Hawaii, especially on smaller craft. Being a professional delivery skipper I was well aware of this uncomfortable fact. In the conditions I was encountering solo, August 30-Sept. 1, 2008, we would probably have been fine with a complement of 5 experienced crew delivering a Santa Cruz 70. But on 27' WILDFLOWER, the windvane and tillerpilot couldn't anticipate what waves might be dangerous. Nor could I handsteering at night.

"Why not heave to, skip?" This was not a passing storm, but a stationary feature of "Windy Lane" that was forecast to continue at least several more days with 15-20 foot significant seas.. Closing the coast, south and east, was the goal, not being a sitting duck.

6350

[brianb]

In 2012 gale alley was in full operation as I approached from north of the Oregon border. I hung out for a day then opted to put a storm jib up and triple reef in the main, thinking like Sleddog that I would foot off. Just as conditions started getting brisk a passing ship out of LA reported to me that conditions were force 7/8 heading south. I had a pretty uncomfortable 24 hours with indicated apparent winds in the mid 30's at times. I pointed towards Santa Barbara and hid beneath the birth in a fetal position. At about 200 miles offshore it all lightened up, the boat once again was pointing at SF, and the ride into the Farallon was pleasant. As I recall the Buffalo was ahead of me three or four days and glided into the Bay area unmolested.

[BobJ]

Funny story: I soloed Ragtime! back in 2006 and was a few hours behind Tiger Beetle (N/M 45) and Alchera (J/120) as we approached the coast. Gnarly it was. Rob and Mark were talking to each other on the SSB and they didn't know I was listening. One said "I sure wouldn't want to be on a little boat like Bob's in crap like this."

Some tabbing cracked where the forward bulkhead joined the hull, and the tillerpilot crapped out at some point, but otherwise all was well. What Skip got in 2008 was way worse.
.

[solosailor]

George "the Jockey" and I were doublehanding Hecla, the Hammerhead 54' trimaran that year for the SHTP return. We got a couple of days of the harsh conditions that were to set in. I remember thinking long and hard about how to handle the predicted gale alley weather ahead. We kept the pace up as we were approaching the nasty forecast since we didn't want to be out there long enough for the real bad sea state to set in. Hecla is fast, wind speed on any point of sail but closed hauled or DDW. I remember the night of 30-35k steady trying to keep her speed down to 10k so the leeward float wouldn't plow underwater to deep as we reaching toward the coast. So I was on night watch with George sleeping in the aft cabin and Hecla did a full hip check...... that's were you burry the nose of the float deep enough as the wave lifts the stern and you pivot on the tip, hip checking the stern into the water after it's airborne flight. It basically threw George against the starboard cabin wall. 12 day, 1 hour hour elapsed.

[AlanH]

Since the word isn't getting out...I've withdrawn from the SHTP. I requested a withdrawal on Jibeset. That request is supposed to send a message to the race chair, but I'm still listed as a competitor.

I withdrew because my blood pressure shot to dangerous levels and stayed there for a couple of weeks, and what with SHTP 2021 being so wildly different from what I had anticipated being able to do, it didn't make sense to continue. Knowingly risking an aneurysm or something, "out there" is the height of irresponsibility. Fortunately, with the stress off, my blood pressure is slowly returning to normal.

Anyway, I fielded a couple of comments this weekend from people who didn't know I'd withdrawn.

I've withdrawn from SHTP 2021. Fair winds to those who still elect to go.