Launch 2011

Since I am writing this I must have survived the launch. There were a few glitches that came up that I will explain as the story unfolds but ultimately it was a successful launch.

I continued the prep on Wednesday when I installed the anchor and rode.

That is two rodes of 300 feet and 30 feet of chain each. While cruising in Maine I really loved my 90 feet of chain but its totally unneccesary for daysailing in the local sandy bottomed waters around me. Its still a bit of overkill but I like a little overkill.

As a temporary thing, I used the original V-berth filler and my old V-berth cushions from my 'four hour interior' from the 2005 cruise.

I am reallly not fond of the filler but I didn't want to take the time to cut the cushions and sew the sheets to fit the cutout. Climbing in and out of the filled in V-berth is a pain in my humble opinion. Good for spending the night with an attractive mate but not so good for anything else.

I loaded up a locker with food for the first time instead of tools and materials. Oddly, it was very satisfying to see the locker used for its intended purpose.

I re-used the saloon cushions wrapped in cheap bed sheets from the 2005 cruise as well. Its definitely not a permanent look but it makes it incrementally better inside I think.

Sails and various bits of gear were loaded into the V-berth. I remembered to install the garboard drain. I have only installed the drain once before but the pipe threads are all worn out. The plug does not tighten but instead continues to screw right through the fitting and into the bilge. With the launch the next day I installed the plug with 3M 4200 which I had on hand. I have no idea how much trouble I am going to have getting the plug out in the Fall out but its better than having it come out sooner.

Boat cleaning and checking over everything and cleaning up the mess around the boat consumed the remainder of the day. It was a long day but the boat was ready.

Thursday morning the yard crew were running late so I installed my compass and a ring to attach my safety line too. When sailing alone I like to either be tied to the boat or have a lifejacket on because I have seen the boat self steer before and I know she won't come back to me if I were to go over the side.

The launch happened fast with my helping the launch crew and another person taking pictures. I don't have those pictures so I can' show the boat actually getting wet yet.

And this brings me to my first discovered glitch. The camera was left in the car so no more pictures were taken :-( There is no place for a dinghy in Salem harbor so I left mine behind. Once I launched I was committed to Salem and there was no going back.

The launch occurred around 8:30 Thursday morning from Cashman park, Newburyport MA on the Merrimac river. I couldn't stay on the public dock so I motored out 200 yards and set the anchor to adjust the rigging, bend on the sails and get everything sorted out. The current was running strong and perpendicular to the dock which made boat handling interesting. The current grabbed the keel and it took a few of us to reel Jenny in to the dock. Gotta love full keels.

So the sails were bent on which is where I discovered my second glitch. The mainsail is fully battened but I was missing some little pieces to lock the battens in place. Its been so long that I forgot I needed them. I haven't found them anywhere and I think they were lost at the sailmakers two year ago when he was checking over all my sails and adding an insignia to the main.

I was ready to go around 12:30 but had to wait for the bridge opening at 1:00 which gave me time to sit down and enjoy lunch and 'settle in'. I was already feeling pretty rusty and I didn't have my sea legs at all. I was stumbling all over the place.

1:00 and I was under the bridge and motored out of the Merrimac river. Conditions at the mouth can be frightening at times but on Thursday at slack time they were quite tame. Clearing the outer marker I raised the sails in light winds and close reached while motor sailing. Sadly, there wasn't enough wind to truly sail but motoring for the whole afternoon helped restore my confidence in a motor that hadn't been run much in the past six years. The Atomic Four ran flawlessly the whole trip.

After about an hour I found myself pinching too much for the genoa so I started to roll it in when I discovered my third glitch. The furler kept jamming. Turns out, the top swivel was two feet below the halyard pulley which made a very small angle between the halyard and forestay. The instructions for the furler say to avoid this as it will cause the halyard to wrap and jam the furler. And that was exactly what was happening. The sails slides up the tracks as easily as a hanked on sail slides up the stay so it was easy enough to drop the genoa and tie it off to the lifelines.

I continued for three more hours until off of Cape Ann. I was wishing that I had not set up the reefing lines as the unbattened full roached main was flogging incesantly and the loose reefing lines were making it ten times worse. After rounding Cape Ann, the wind was directly on the nose and the flogging was becoming unbearable so I just took the main down and motored the remaining way into Southeast harbor in Gloucester. I don't have a fathometer installed and had to rely on the old fashioned leadline. I anchored around 7:00 at dead low tide in 9 feet of water.

I ate a simple dinner, cleaned up a bit, sat on my lovely Sporta-seat(a great gift from a friend - you gotta get one of these) and watched the sun set over the harbor. It was an interesting evening with me recalling my last sail/cruise in Jenny. So many memories (good ones) came back from my last three month cruise in the most patched up ugly looking boat with cheap temporary plywood interior panels that you could imagine.

Oh. The Lavac toilet worked beautifully and was a HUGE improvement over the previous system (a bucket). I found more loose fittings that needed tightening but the system just worked right away. Oddly, the toilet squeals when pumping and until the vaccuum is disapainted. In addition, when the boat rolls the toilet squeals. I will have to investigate that. Closing the seacocks makes the squeal go away.

With no lights other than a single kerosene lantern, I was in bed when the sun went down.

I was up again at 5:00 when the sun came up. A beautiful morning and I spent a bit of it sitting on the sporta seat watching the world go by. I missed my tea which was next to the camera back at the car and had to drink cold water for breakfast instead.

I tightened the lower shrouds again. While sailing the day before it was clear they were too loose. I also observed that, once again, I hadn't tightened the upper jumper stays enough. They are better than last time but I still don't have them right. I also rigged up a loop from some spare Sta-set line and attached it to the bottom of the genoa. This raised the genoa closer to the halyard pulley and now the genoa roller furls just fine. I will have to get a more permanent connection but I was relieved to see it work out. The new Harken Code 0 furler is awesome and I love it. The furler is on an extension that raises the drum a foot off the deck. My loop adds another 2 feet to the clearance between the sail and deck so now I have wonderul visibility under the genoa. More than I should have perhaps but its working.

I only needed a few hours to get to Salem so I was taking my time until I checked the weather and found out it was raining not far away and the thunderstorms moving in ahead of schedule. I quickly got cleaned up and underway around 9:00.

With the short sail and the wind once again close on the nose I didn't raise the main but instead motored all the way into Salem harbor. I did unfurl the genoa for awhile while I could and enjoyed the new furler a bit more. The boat will do 3 knots with the engine running at 1000 rpm and about 4 knots at 1600 rpm. The genoa gave me the five knot hull speed.

Half way into Salem the skies got really dark and the rain started to fall. I was a bit nervous coming into a strange rock strewn harbor in dark weather, with no GPS (incoveniently loaned to a friend and not returned in time) and rusty chart and compass skills. With the wind on the nose I was bashing into the small chop and getting soaked. I was really missing my dodger...

At some point my glasses were all covered with salt spray and when I flipped them up to clean them I realized it wasn't half as dark as I thought it was. It was just a pleasant light rain with some spray on an overcast day. Funny how a dark pair of sunglasses can can make everything look different.

The rain ended as I was in the final section of the approach and I motored into the inner harbor. When I called, they were not ready for me and didn't know where my mooring was and didn't have a pendant on it. I only called three times in the past week to make sure they were ready. Oh well. I set the engine at 400 rpm and soundlessly cruised around through the packed parking lot that is Salem harbor until they got everything sorted out. In general the people at Salem Water Taxi are great to work with. I am just surprised that with all the efforts I took to make sure things were ready, they were not. I did more than I needed to and enough to start to become a pain to them and still things weren't ready.

Once on the mooring I relaxed and had a nice celebratory lunch of cheese and crackers. Then I found my last glitch. I thought I had packed my sailcover but instead I had a cover for the dodger that was sold last year (wrong color, wrong shape). I have looked everywhere since then and I have a sneaky suspicion I saw the cover, thought it was the dodger cover, thought 'don't need that anymore' and dropped it into the trash. I hope I am wrong but I can't find the cover anywhere.

With thunderstorms predicted for the weekend I decided to just take the mainsail off. I wasn't too happy about that but I have spent every free day for the past few months on Jenny and I really wanted to be able to walk away and not think about her for a bit. Taking the sail off meant I could put her out of my mind (which hasn't really happened but oh well...)

So, Jenny is safely in her new home harbor of Salem MA and is looking quite nice, if overwhelmed, in the large parking lot mooring field. Sadly, you can't see her from the shoreline from any place I could find.

For the weekend, this blog is as close as I was going to get to the boat and I am enjoying some free time dealing with mundane household stuff and just nothing at all. Next week I expect to be back out at the boat.

And just an FYI, I don't really like reading blogs that go on about how 'we sailed the boat north around nameless island then had a pleasant reach across unknown bay before running home wing on wing through the such and such channel'. I will probably post a few times this summer and add some photos but I don't expect a lot of content to be added. I am just giving fair warning. Come Fall, I have more rebuilding plans for Jenny; mostly with the rigging but probably some galley work and maybe V-berth as well.

Have a good one Mates ;-)

Me wet. Keel dry

Saturday was a total bust; poured buckets all day long. Everytime I thought it might be lightening up a bit, the downpours came right back like they were reading my mind. I spend the day sorting through my racks of old boat stuff trying to figure out what needs to go back on Jenny and what needs to go to the dump.

Sunday was a rainy day too but a lighter, drier rain and time is running short so I was out at the boatyard prepping for a launch this Thursday.

It was too wet for the camera and there wasn't much to show anyway. I did take a photo of my new Garhauer genoa sheet cars.

...

These are the ones that came with the boat. I think I see some improvement.

The rope loops was for hooking the bungie cord to. The other end of the bungie was connected to the lifelines which kept the snatch block upright and off the deck ... yech.


And I found my old mainsheet blocking. I am pretty happy with the Harken gear I have already replaced it with.

I still have a bunch of old phenolic blocks and stuff if anyone wants them for that 'retro' look. The stuff looks ancient. It might function but it won't be functioning on Jenny. Next year's number one project priority is to finish up all the little bits and pieces that make up the sail control systems. What I inherited was a cobbled together mess. Some of the big stuff has been sorted but what remains is too horrible to live beyond one more season.

So with everying a cobbling mess, I spent a good part of Sunday doing a 'dry run' of the rigging, making sure I had all the little bits and pieces that make the sails fly. I physically hooked all the sails up and ran the controls to make sure I wasn't going to be surprised at the launch. I am sure I will find a surprise or too but I am doing what I can...

In case the sails don't go I have a good running motor too. Just to make sure I ran it for half an hour. Everything seemed happy so that's encouraging. Oil pressure seems lower than I remember but its in the acceptable range; which for the Atomic Four is a pretty wide range.

After satisfying my fear of forgetting some critical piece I continued with the transformation of workshop to sailboat and hauled more stuff home and cleaned up. The closer I look the more sanding dirt I find. Its going to be a long time before Jenny is truly 'clean'. I had fleeting hopes of completing another project or two but the weather seems to have put the kabosh on that idea. I have the materials but I don't have the time. Oh well, there is always next year...

There are a million little things to do that aren't worth mentioning. I can only hope that someday launching won't be this big a production. I wonder how far away that 'someday' really is

Almost wet.

The launch is getting close and I think I am on schedule for it.

Saturday began with a thorough scrubbing; the first real wash in nearly two years. Then I gave the bottom a fresh coat of paint. That's when the picture was taken.

I spent the rest of the weekend doing minor little things that got the boat closer to being ready. Not much exciting.

My shortened tangs on the jumper struts worked out well. I installed the upper jumper stays and tensioned them.

I serviced the engine and it started right up. (after changing fuel filter, pumping fresh gasoline through the lines, pulling spark plugs and squirting some WD40 into the cylinders, changing the oil, replenishing the coolant, blah blah)

I will admit I spent a lot of time driving home for tools, hardware store for materials and back to the boatyard. Major projects in the boatyard away from my supplies and tools is a bad idea. Have I mentioned that before?

I moved the jackstands and blocking and painted a second coat of bottom paint to get the areas covered by the stands/blocking and just to fill in a few light spots.

Lots and lots of little details, nothing worth talking about or taking pictures of. Still waiting for good varnish weather.

Launch date is set for June 16 (Thursday) around 8:00. The plan will be to launch and then hang off the anchor (can't stay on the docks for more than a few minutes) while I rig the sailing gear. Then I will head out the Merrimac river and south around Cape Ann. Most likely I will stop somewhere around Cape Ann (Rockport/Gloucester) for the night and then have an easy morning run to Salem harbor Friday morning.

Then I might take the rest of the weekend off. I am super excited to sail the boat but I am also ready to take a break from the 7 day work schedule. Someone mentioned to me that it has been nearly 6 years since I last sailed Jenny. That was the end of a three month down east cruise to the Canadian border. Seems like yesterday but when I look at the old photos I don't recognize the boat at all. Back then Jenny was more than a bit rough- a bit hideous is more like it - but I still had a blast that year. Someday I hope to repeat a cruise of that length or longer. Just give me a few more years to get ready.

Next weekend will be more small detail work. Cleaning, packing, fussing over small details. Worrying and making my hair gray(er). That sort of thing.

Em tasol wantoks

The long weekend

I was really looking forward to the extra day of boatwork on the holiday weekend. Unfortunately, my lawnmower was thinking the same thing and wanted to spend some quality time with me. I hate lawns. I hate mowing lawns. I spent half of Saturday trying to get the lawnmower to work (its my own fault, I never do any maintenance on it) before I gave up and went to the boatyard only to be interrupted by other stuff. Sunday, I again spent the morning working on the mower before giving the neighbor $20 to mow my lawn. Parts are on order. I would let the lawn go how it wants except the neighbors (and my landlord) would probably give me the boot. I hate lawns.

Anyway, someone might remember this scuff mark when I hauled the boat out a year and a half ago.

I managed to get that spot painted Sunday. I still haven't cleaned the hull this year. That is on next week's list.

I found this disposable paint sprayer to be quite useful. Its not a real paint gun but its like a good rattle can sprayer.

The weather was humid and windy and not very ideal for painting but Monday was supposed to be worse (and it was) so I went ahead and shot it. I am happy with it until I can get the whole hull repainted.

After painting, I went back to the head for the last 10 percent. I measured and checked and measured again and in the end just closed my eyes and drilled a hole for the waste tank vent. The toerail and the uneven hull/deck joint had me a bit worried as to where the hole would end up but in the end it came out right where I wanted it to.

The only snag was that I found the hull to be one and a half inches thick. I expected much thinner that high up. I was also cutting through my three layers of biax cloth from several years ago when I made new chainplate knees. Still, much thicker than anticipated and too thick for the fitting I had. I couldn't get any threads to show through on the inside. In the end, I took my two inch forstner drill bit and countersunk around the hole on the inside so that the nut could be recessed in far enough to find the threads on the fitting. I installed the fitting bedded in 4200 and connected the hoses. Simple. Except that those thick waste hoses don't like spreading over the barbed fittings and there wasn't an excess of room in the head closet. It took some grunting and sweating and a little swearing but eventually, it all got connected.

Oh, a friend mentioned checking the bolts where the bowl on the toilet attaches to the mounting pad. Sure enough, they were all loose. Not sure why but it seems to be a pattern with Lavac toilets. They are tight now.

Monday was a stifling day of high humidity and no wind. That seemed like the perfect time to crawl into engine room and prep the engine. I don't know how to take interesting pictures of oil being changed, impellers changed, anti-freeze topped off, engine washed off of general working dust etc so I will just leave that to the reader's imagination. I didn't spill much so that was an improvement over last time.

After that, I spent some time doing general cleanup and prep for the transition from worksite to sailboat. I hauled a bunch of stuff home, cleaned the bilge and generally straightened up.

Oh, I also 'tried' to finish up the mast rigging. Even after shortening my long threaded ends on the jumper shrouds they were still too long to get the rig tightened up. Turns out the threaded rods in the jumper struts have to be extended quite a ways to have much effect on the tension. If I had paid more attention in trigonometry class I would have realized this sooner. The jumper shrouds are still a bit long so the solution seems to be to shorten the tangs. Now I am wishing I had left well enough alone. Oh well, I am sure after I shorten the tangs everything will fit perfectly...

Homestretch

Closing in on the goal of a launch. Nothing is scheduled yet but a firm date should be established this week. I am aiming for the first or second week of June at this point.

A working head was high on my priority list so with rain in the forecast Saturday, I figured it would be a good day for that. Naturally the 10% of the project remaining took an awful lot of time; making all the bits fit together and having to fudge a few connections that weren't quite as straightforward as I expected.

I am even less enthused about using PVC tubing now. Next time I would just use hose and forget even trying to incorporate the tubing. On a small boat it has turned into more trouble than it is worth. The problem is getting everything connected. Firstly, the pipe to hose fittings never fit the hose. Its always a fight to get the hose over the fitting. I guess a tight fit will be good in the long run but there is the real risk of breakage with the force needed and in small cramped quarters getting enough force on the target area can be tricky.

The second problem is getting the bits to fit at either end. I need to slide the piping down to get the top piece connected and have to slide the piping up to get the bottom piece connected... simultaneously. The 1.5 inch waste hose doesn't bend too easily either.

After fighting for a bit I removed some sections of the PVC tubing and just used hose. Luckily for me I had a few extra lengths lying around (eye roll).

So after several hours of fussing and blood letting since I didnt have the right cutters for the wire in the reinforced hose, I nearly had the head up and working. One problem remains. When the waste tank was built, the welder asked me if 7/8 inch outlet tubing for the vent would be acceptable since he was out of stock on the 3/4 inch I had specified. I made the assumption that 7/8 inch hose was readily available and told him that would be fine. Now on several of my custom made tanks I have to figure out how to get the oddball sizes to work. My vent hose outlet is one of those oddball sizes. To make it more challenging the through hull fitting is for a 5/8 inch hose so I have some serious adapting to figure out.

Plus, another lesson I have learned is that after boat parts sit on the shelf for a few years they tend to get bored and walk away. I know I had hose set aside just for the waste tank vent line but now I can't find it anywhere. So the head is complete minus a tank vent. I will order some parts and try again next weekend. I had some more pictures but I wasn't paying attention and they came out black. The back panel is still loose to make it easier to install the vent line.

The rain never came so I finished sanding the hull repair. It looks pretty good now and is just waiting for bottom paint to make it disapear. I also got around to reinforcing the sidedeck that was improperly reinforced earlier. Its plenty stout now.

Another new item on my short list was having the stanchion tubes installed. Turns out they were all custom drilled so it took me a bit to figure out which tube went where. Then I learned that I didn't have any hardware for them. That's about where my Saturday ended.

Sunday, I picked up the stanchion tube hardware I needed and installed them. After that I ran 1/2 inch Sta-Set line in place of the old old cable. I had cut the cable a few years ago to prevent myself from trying to stretch them one more season. Getting the rigger out at this time of year to make me some nice swaged cables doesn't seem realistic so I plan on using the line for the season. I would like to replace the tubes and set up the boat for double lines with removable section at the cockpit. That means there isn't much reason to invest in the current system. The line should keep me from falling overboard this season. No lifelines make the boat look better I think but the tradeoff is a bit rough. I know for certain that my boat will happily stay on course with me on board or in the water. There is no rounding up and waiting for me with Jenny.

With the lifelines on, I dug out my mast from the storage rack and started getting that set up. I vaguely remembered when I took the upper jumpers apart last year that as I set down one of the cheesy adjusters I was thinking "I sure hope I remember where I am putting this".

Well, today I looked everywhere for it and can't find it. I have some new aluminum threaded rod on order McMaster and Carr to make a new one. Once again, McMaster's for the win. Those cheesy adjusters can only be adjusted before the mast is stepped. I thought I was being smart when I asked my rigger to add turnbuckles to the jumper stays at the lower ends so that I could adjust the tension with the rig up. What the rigger installed was some pathetic little turning things with a knurled thumbscrew. Totally inadequate and impossible to do anything with as I learned at the last launch. Earlier this year I ordered some real open turbuckles to replace the thumscrew thingies. Turns out the turnbuckles come in 10-32 and 10-24 threads. My cable has 10-32. You can guess what the turbuckles were. I found an open turnbuckle made by Hayn and I ordered a pair. And they never arrived so I ordered from somewhere else. And they never arrived. Finally, while at Hamilton Marine last weekend I picked up the only thing they had that would work; a set of closed turnbuckles.

I am not crazy about them but its an improvement. I went to install one and found out that the threaded end on the cable is quite long. Too long in fact. I will have to cut down the threaded section to make it work with the turnbuckle body. You can't see it in the picture but the threads on the cable continue under my fat little finger on the right.

I thought about setting up the furler but I couldn't find the instructions. I will have to get them from the web this week.

Basically, I uncoiled everything on the mast, re-affirmed that I want to make overhauling the mast my main priority next year and that's it.

Finally, I removed my two water impellers from the engine (raw water and coolant). They look okay but they have been sitting there for two years all crushed up and I figure I would start the season with new impellers.

I spent some time cleaning up under the boat and hauled a load of shelter bits home and that was it for the day.

With some decent weather, I hope to do some painting and varnishing next weekend as well as finishing up the rigging.

Its been six years since the boat has moved under sail. I think this could be the year that I break that streak.

Belated

I had every intention of posting to the blog last weekend but it was late, I was tired and I figured, 'Monday' would be close enough. But Monday was busy and Tuesday... blah. Anyway, the usual painfully slow progress but progress nonetheless.

Let's see. I am sure there was some reason why more didn't get done last weekend - probably weather related. Cold, wet, windy, take your pick. I did 'fix' my companionway step by shortening it. Now I will need to make some nice trim along the top edge to hide the fact that the panel is now too short.



I sanded the keel where the repairs had been made a layer of fairing filler had been applied. I expected to have to add another coat and I did. I had a picture but I wasn't paying attention and the image is too dark to be useful.


Oh, I glued and screwed the panels that go on either side of the head area. It made a huge difference and I like the look. Thank God for trim that will someday cover up my poor pattern making. I also installed the shelf in the head locker. I could have installed the back panel with the door but I forgot the hose clamps and it is much easier to install them before the panel goes on. Its doable either way but why make it harder than it has to be?





So this weekend, the sun was shining and I was itching to make the boat more launch ready. Interior panels are nice and all but I only have a few weekends left before the launch and there are more pressing things to do. So I started taking down the cover by cutting the strings on one side and letting the wind blow the tarp over to the other side. Then I started removing the frames. And then the heavy thunderstorms started. I removed some frames, ran inside the boat for cover, came out 20 minutes later and removed some more frames, ran inside for cover (found a few cabin leaks) removed some more frames. Eventually the job got done.


Today was a little drier if cooler. I finally finally finally, finished securing the deck hardware to the deck. The bow pulpit was the last remaining piece. Normally, I ask a friend to help hold the nuts while I turn the screws or vice versa. A friend of mine suggested getting a few more vice grips and doing it myself. Spending all that money one three more vice grips seemed kinda silly until I realized that after receiving help from a friend I was usually obligated to buy them lunch. Turns out the vice grips are cheaper. It actually worked pretty good too. Once again, I should have done it a long time ago.



And then, I sanded the hull one more time. There are a few spots that are still slightly low. I shouldn't worry about it, it is on the bottom after all and I am bound to whack something again sooner or later. On the other hand, the last time I made repairs down there I was .. shall we say... less experienced and the fairing job left something to be desired. I applied another coat of fairing filler to bring the work up to my current standards. No doubt in a few years I will be doing it again.



So here finally is the boat uncovered for the first time this spring. Its a lousy picture but in the middle of the day with the bright sun its about the best I can do. Jenny really prefers early and late day lighting. Mid day lightly is just too harsh.



The pressure of launch day is really starting to kick in and the list of things to do just keeps on growing. I am not sure why that is actually. The boat was in the water just two years ago and I haven't done anything to make the boat less seaworthy. The real difference is that at launch the boat will immediately be going 30 miles away and I will be raising sails for the first time in five years. I guess that is the part that has me worried. Its the stuff that I have forgotten about that I will remember as the boat goes splash that has me worried. Oh well, that's what motors are for.

I am a little envious of my friend that told me last week that he returned to his Triton after not seeing it all winter and within a day had her in the water. Someday that will be me. Just not this year.

To add to the pressure, next weekend I won't be around for boat work. Its something I have to do to make more boatwork happen though so its all in the name of progress. Just a couple more weekends now...

P.S. Blogger had a problem with the new IE9.0 and wouldn't accept this post for a few days. Its not ALWAYS me just being lazy... :-P