What a night
It rained, it howled and it was freakin' cold! The fan heater was running most of the night otherwise it would've been damned uncomfortable.
What with the weather and Tony's snoring I didn't sleep much. Oddly, Tony reckoned he didn't sleep much either so I dunno where the snoring was coming from!
We surfaced to a dry-ish but still painfully cold morning and head up to the Roundbush for breakfast. We were a bit early but they opened up slightly before nine and we scoffed a decent full English as always accompanied by the new large size mugs of coffee. Most excellent.
Back to the boat and the first order of business was to set up the new multi-function ladder I purchased last week. That sorted, we set to lifting the engine out and emptying the engine tank into the jerry can. After that excercise, we dived back down below for a while to warm up whilst a rain shower blew through.
Whilst down below, I pulled the main batteries out of the bridge deck and removed the VHF radio. We also disconnected and removed the depth/log readout display. The previous display, and the old steam driven VHF, failed to survive last winter so this year it's all going to be stored in the warm and dry at home. We lashed the display cover over the hole on the bulkhead to stop the wet getting in to the electrical locker.
With the rain having passed over for now, it was back on deck to stow away all the mooring lines and fenders left out from our last visit (when, you'll recall, we left her moored on the pontoon ready for the lift out). Then we removed the mainsail cover and detached the mainsail from the mast and boom. As another rain shower now decided to arrive at the least convenient moment, the main was bundled down into the cabin to keep it dry where I managed, with a bit of a faff, to bag it up.
After another warm up, we loaded everything into the car. The last order of business was to remove the sprayhood, shoving that in the car as well as it needs some attention with the needle and thread, before lashing the cockpit tent over the hatchway to keep the weather on the outside (the hatch tends to leak in rain if the sprayhood isn't up to keep the rain at bay).
The one intended job I forgot to do was to remove the blanking cap off the log impeller tube under the cockpit floor. With no bilge pump the well will fill up with rainwater but it's no big deal - she's not going to sink anyway!
We were more than happy to hit the road towards Felixstowe nice and early in the afternoon. The engine duly delivered to Seamark Nunn for servicing and winterisation, we then headed up the A14 towards home. We won't see the engine again now until the spring as Seamarks do a very good deal on storage over the winter and I've no definite plans for any visits to Fambridge over the winter.
Sunday 28 October 2012
Saturday 27 October 2012
Laying up weekend 2012 - day 1
An uneventful trip down despite the Friday evening traffic saw Tony and I at the boat by early evening.
By 'eck though it was cold! In some haste we threw our gear on board, plugged in the Leccy and set up the fan heater ready for later before heading up to pub for beer and food ... or was it food and beer?
Anyway, food and beer or beer and food suitably and substantially dealt with, we repaired back on board for coffee with rum in it and rum with coffee in it etc.
Tony is now asleep which means I am now awake. Hopefully, that situation will not persist all night. It is, it has to be said quite a wild night and I'm not unhappy to be tucked up safe and sound on the hard rather than afloat!
Thursday 18 October 2012
What next ... ?
Following on from my "What Now?" post a while back, some readers seem to have got entirely the wrong idea and thus the impression that I'm on the verge of giving up on Brigantia and sailing in general.
Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth. The point I was making was that in 2012 we've failed to reach our targetted number of days sailing and days on board.
We (that is Jane and I) decided from the outset that we had to make sure that Brigantia was sufficiently well used each year to justify the financial outlay and ongoing time commitment. We were very conscious of just how easy it is to let things go on a boat from past experience with the family canal boats (both of which, eventually, were allowed to deteriorate due to lack of time, effort and commitment on the part of the collective crew)
So we set some moderately loose targets to wit: at least 30 nights on board with at least 20 sailing days per annum give or take making some allowance for weather and circumstances. We further stipulated that if we failed to meet those targets for two years in succession serious consideration must be given to the viability of carrying on with the current scenario.
Now in 2012, due to a combination of circumstances, we haven't (quite) met the targets. Losing sailing time at the start of the season was one factor and we will hopefully avoid that mistake this year. The other key factor has been weather.
There's no two ways about it, the weather for the last two summers has not been great. I can count the number of idyllic "as per the dream" days of sailing over the two years on the fingers of one hand, without using my thumb and with fingers left over. That's because there's been two, maybe three, days of perfect sailing weather when we've been on board and out there able to take advantage of it.
The rest of the time it has generally been challengine in one way or another - too little wind, too much wind, a LOT too much wind, wind always on the nose (except in very light airs when it always seems to be from astern) and sea conditions ranging from merely uncomfortably choppy to downright scarey! Well, we can't do anything about the weather other than adapt accordingly. The jury is out on that one.
The point of my post was to firing a warning shot across my own bows when you get right down to it. Didn't get enough sailing or on board time in this year, must do better next year. And, invoking a rare dose of common sense, be cautious about how much, and on what, maintenance and upgrade money is spent over the winter season in case the conclusion next year is that we need to part with Brigantia a lot sooner than expected. Hence the decision not to purchase an expensive brand new road trailer.
So with that hopefully clarified, plans for the winter ...
After mulling things over and discussing it with Jane, I plan to focus on two key areas of improvement to with below deck comfort and improving the rig ...
Below decks
Refinish galley unit (sand and either varnish or paint and varnish)
Repair cabin floor and replace carpet with timber effect flooring
Acquire some suitable throw cushions
Revise cabin lighting - a light (LED?) above each bunk
Fit offset desmo leg to nav table so it can be used as a cabin table
Move VHF to new position to clear headroom on Port aft seat
Look at what can be done (cheaply) to improve the look of the blue carpet (either replace the lot of it with something else or at least glue it all back up securely for the time being!)
If time and money permit ...
Refurbish the heads compartment - remove all the blue carpet, clean up the GRP and paint it out. Sort out the storage spaces etc.
Fit a pair of small water tanks under the forward part of the port and starboard forward bunks. A large bore balance pipe would be needed between the two tanks and each tank would need a deck breather (the Bosun and I have played this game on our cruiser Arcturus!).
This would increase our water capacity by 50% to 100% (depending on which of the two sizes of rigid tank we can get into the space) and move the weight of the tanks, when full, further aft*
The rig
Move the roller furling drum up the forestay (or to be more precise, shorten the forestay and add a tang between the stem fitting and the drum) so that the anchor can be deployed and recovered on the bow roller. This may also entail moving the genoa halyard diverter block and possibly reducing the length of the roller furling foil. This is a job for the professionals - the forestay is far too critical to the security of the rig to take any chances with.
With the above done, the next question is whether our existing genoa will still fit. I think we can gain enough clearance between the bow roller and the furling drum without shortening the luff foil in which case the current No.1 genoa is good to go. Except that it isn't good to go because it absolutely has to have a new UV strip fitted this winter. Estimate on cost from Wilkinson sails for that job is around £200 which seems reasonable given the work and materials involved. I'm considering asking them for the cost of adding a foam luff to the sail as well.
If, however, modifying the forestay means the existing genoa won't fit then it's either a new sail or get the current headsail recut with a shorter luff. That could all start to get too expensive for this season.
The next job on my critical list is to sort out the rest of the reefing system and, whilst I'm at it, the kicker. The latter is currently on a rubbish tackle that can't be operated from the cockpit and half the time we've either got too much kicker on whilst the rest of the time we've got too little. OK, a lot of people on cruising yachts, it seems, don't mess with the kicker overly much but I'm an ex-dinghy type and Brigantia is something of a big dinghy to sail. I want to be able to tweek that kicker!
The long luff on the mainsail is great for extra sail area but at the expense of a lower than standard boom height. This is a snag when it comes to reefing and stowing the sail as the boom gooseneck has to be manually moved up the mast track (otherwise the sail slugs fall out of the throat on the track). One solution would be a new, smaller, main or get the existing main recut to original spec. However, that's probably not a financially viable option at present and there is another solution which offers added benefits ...
That solution is to fit a downhaul / hardener tackle on the gooseneck. The main halyard is a 1:1 hoist with no advantage. Quick and easy and well within my physical capabilities to hoist the sail but getting enough halyard tension is a struggle. Add a downhaul with a 2:1 advantage and once the sail is up, the luff tension can be hardened up using that.
When reefing or dropping the main, the downhaul would be let go first, the first reefing line hauled in to (effectively) hoist the gooseneck up the boom and then the halyard would be let go to finish the job. This would ensure a better first (and second) reef, a neater stow and obviate the need for a trip to the mast to reef.
So, bringing the kicker back to the cockpit and adding a luff downhaul means a handful of new Barton blocks, not overly expensive to purchase, some string (which we've got in stock) and critically some means of running and securing the lines. Currently, the main halyard and topping lift are brought back to a pair of cam cleats via a block secured to the handrail. There isn't room for more cam cleats so we'll have to replace them with a bank of four clutches. Ouch on the price but hey ho. The existing turning block will probably need to be replaced with a four gang deck organiser although I'd prefer to avoid deck fittings in that area as it's above the double skin cabin moulding.
The above, coupled with some final sorting out of the on boom reefing arrangements and the currently slightly awkward clew outhaul setup should get the rig somewhere near where I want it. Oh and the mainsail leech telltales could do with replacing too! I can probably cope with that job myself without resorting to a sailmaker
Oh yes, the genoa sheet lead tracks need cleaning up and bringing back into use. Clearly the sheet leads haven't been touched for years as the track sliders won't move due to the paint on the tracks! They're probably about right for the full genoa but I'm certain they need a tweek when we reef down which is part of the reason we're struggling in stronger winds.
I shoiuld say at this point, by the way, that I am generally happy with the sail setup and, although I'd like a smaller headsail to change down to on windier days, reckon the existing sails are good to go for years yet. When we get them trimmed right (which we do once in a while!) she takes off like a good 'un!
* Not directly relevant to the winter maintenance programme but something I am keeping very much in mind is that I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the trim and the stowage, particularly of heavy gear, in 2013. I'm keeping an open mind to the possibility that having too much weight in the ends of the boat (a lot of water in the forward end, a lot of petrol and some water at the stern) was the cause of, or at least a factor behind, the disconcertingly awkward motion during the early part of our summer cruise.
What is certain is that those first few days were the only time I've been uncomfortable in the cockpit of Brigantia. It wasn't inducing seasickness (although I won't rule out the recent suggestion that some form of pre-nausea was going on) but it was just sheer bloody hard work clinging on. Although for briefer periods I have been out in similar conditions before and since and been perfectly happy.
Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth. The point I was making was that in 2012 we've failed to reach our targetted number of days sailing and days on board.
We (that is Jane and I) decided from the outset that we had to make sure that Brigantia was sufficiently well used each year to justify the financial outlay and ongoing time commitment. We were very conscious of just how easy it is to let things go on a boat from past experience with the family canal boats (both of which, eventually, were allowed to deteriorate due to lack of time, effort and commitment on the part of the collective crew)
So we set some moderately loose targets to wit: at least 30 nights on board with at least 20 sailing days per annum give or take making some allowance for weather and circumstances. We further stipulated that if we failed to meet those targets for two years in succession serious consideration must be given to the viability of carrying on with the current scenario.
Now in 2012, due to a combination of circumstances, we haven't (quite) met the targets. Losing sailing time at the start of the season was one factor and we will hopefully avoid that mistake this year. The other key factor has been weather.
There's no two ways about it, the weather for the last two summers has not been great. I can count the number of idyllic "as per the dream" days of sailing over the two years on the fingers of one hand, without using my thumb and with fingers left over. That's because there's been two, maybe three, days of perfect sailing weather when we've been on board and out there able to take advantage of it.
The rest of the time it has generally been challengine in one way or another - too little wind, too much wind, a LOT too much wind, wind always on the nose (except in very light airs when it always seems to be from astern) and sea conditions ranging from merely uncomfortably choppy to downright scarey! Well, we can't do anything about the weather other than adapt accordingly. The jury is out on that one.
The point of my post was to firing a warning shot across my own bows when you get right down to it. Didn't get enough sailing or on board time in this year, must do better next year. And, invoking a rare dose of common sense, be cautious about how much, and on what, maintenance and upgrade money is spent over the winter season in case the conclusion next year is that we need to part with Brigantia a lot sooner than expected. Hence the decision not to purchase an expensive brand new road trailer.
So with that hopefully clarified, plans for the winter ...
After mulling things over and discussing it with Jane, I plan to focus on two key areas of improvement to with below deck comfort and improving the rig ...
Below decks
Refinish galley unit (sand and either varnish or paint and varnish)
Repair cabin floor and replace carpet with timber effect flooring
Acquire some suitable throw cushions
Revise cabin lighting - a light (LED?) above each bunk
Fit offset desmo leg to nav table so it can be used as a cabin table
Move VHF to new position to clear headroom on Port aft seat
Look at what can be done (cheaply) to improve the look of the blue carpet (either replace the lot of it with something else or at least glue it all back up securely for the time being!)
If time and money permit ...
Refurbish the heads compartment - remove all the blue carpet, clean up the GRP and paint it out. Sort out the storage spaces etc.
Fit a pair of small water tanks under the forward part of the port and starboard forward bunks. A large bore balance pipe would be needed between the two tanks and each tank would need a deck breather (the Bosun and I have played this game on our cruiser Arcturus!).
This would increase our water capacity by 50% to 100% (depending on which of the two sizes of rigid tank we can get into the space) and move the weight of the tanks, when full, further aft*
The rig
Move the roller furling drum up the forestay (or to be more precise, shorten the forestay and add a tang between the stem fitting and the drum) so that the anchor can be deployed and recovered on the bow roller. This may also entail moving the genoa halyard diverter block and possibly reducing the length of the roller furling foil. This is a job for the professionals - the forestay is far too critical to the security of the rig to take any chances with.
With the above done, the next question is whether our existing genoa will still fit. I think we can gain enough clearance between the bow roller and the furling drum without shortening the luff foil in which case the current No.1 genoa is good to go. Except that it isn't good to go because it absolutely has to have a new UV strip fitted this winter. Estimate on cost from Wilkinson sails for that job is around £200 which seems reasonable given the work and materials involved. I'm considering asking them for the cost of adding a foam luff to the sail as well.
If, however, modifying the forestay means the existing genoa won't fit then it's either a new sail or get the current headsail recut with a shorter luff. That could all start to get too expensive for this season.
The next job on my critical list is to sort out the rest of the reefing system and, whilst I'm at it, the kicker. The latter is currently on a rubbish tackle that can't be operated from the cockpit and half the time we've either got too much kicker on whilst the rest of the time we've got too little. OK, a lot of people on cruising yachts, it seems, don't mess with the kicker overly much but I'm an ex-dinghy type and Brigantia is something of a big dinghy to sail. I want to be able to tweek that kicker!
The long luff on the mainsail is great for extra sail area but at the expense of a lower than standard boom height. This is a snag when it comes to reefing and stowing the sail as the boom gooseneck has to be manually moved up the mast track (otherwise the sail slugs fall out of the throat on the track). One solution would be a new, smaller, main or get the existing main recut to original spec. However, that's probably not a financially viable option at present and there is another solution which offers added benefits ...
That solution is to fit a downhaul / hardener tackle on the gooseneck. The main halyard is a 1:1 hoist with no advantage. Quick and easy and well within my physical capabilities to hoist the sail but getting enough halyard tension is a struggle. Add a downhaul with a 2:1 advantage and once the sail is up, the luff tension can be hardened up using that.
When reefing or dropping the main, the downhaul would be let go first, the first reefing line hauled in to (effectively) hoist the gooseneck up the boom and then the halyard would be let go to finish the job. This would ensure a better first (and second) reef, a neater stow and obviate the need for a trip to the mast to reef.
So, bringing the kicker back to the cockpit and adding a luff downhaul means a handful of new Barton blocks, not overly expensive to purchase, some string (which we've got in stock) and critically some means of running and securing the lines. Currently, the main halyard and topping lift are brought back to a pair of cam cleats via a block secured to the handrail. There isn't room for more cam cleats so we'll have to replace them with a bank of four clutches. Ouch on the price but hey ho. The existing turning block will probably need to be replaced with a four gang deck organiser although I'd prefer to avoid deck fittings in that area as it's above the double skin cabin moulding.
The above, coupled with some final sorting out of the on boom reefing arrangements and the currently slightly awkward clew outhaul setup should get the rig somewhere near where I want it. Oh and the mainsail leech telltales could do with replacing too! I can probably cope with that job myself without resorting to a sailmaker
Oh yes, the genoa sheet lead tracks need cleaning up and bringing back into use. Clearly the sheet leads haven't been touched for years as the track sliders won't move due to the paint on the tracks! They're probably about right for the full genoa but I'm certain they need a tweek when we reef down which is part of the reason we're struggling in stronger winds.
I shoiuld say at this point, by the way, that I am generally happy with the sail setup and, although I'd like a smaller headsail to change down to on windier days, reckon the existing sails are good to go for years yet. When we get them trimmed right (which we do once in a while!) she takes off like a good 'un!
* Not directly relevant to the winter maintenance programme but something I am keeping very much in mind is that I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the trim and the stowage, particularly of heavy gear, in 2013. I'm keeping an open mind to the possibility that having too much weight in the ends of the boat (a lot of water in the forward end, a lot of petrol and some water at the stern) was the cause of, or at least a factor behind, the disconcertingly awkward motion during the early part of our summer cruise.
What is certain is that those first few days were the only time I've been uncomfortable in the cockpit of Brigantia. It wasn't inducing seasickness (although I won't rule out the recent suggestion that some form of pre-nausea was going on) but it was just sheer bloody hard work clinging on. Although for briefer periods I have been out in similar conditions before and since and been perfectly happy.
Tuesday 16 October 2012
Blogger problems
The Autumn Weekend updates were post the fact due to ongoing and worsening problems with the Blogger app on android
The problems are threefold and have now reached critical levels ...
Firstly if you save a post part way through writing it, when you reload it it's full of HTML markup which then has to be manually deleted
Secondly, if you try to post an unsaved blog entry, it crashes and you lose what you've typed
And finally, despite hardly being used last month, Blogger used up a third of my monthly data allowance which means its doing something I don't know about or understand
I'll have a look and see if there's a better third party app but for the time being Blog entries will have to await access to the laptop
The problems are threefold and have now reached critical levels ...
Firstly if you save a post part way through writing it, when you reload it it's full of HTML markup which then has to be manually deleted
Secondly, if you try to post an unsaved blog entry, it crashes and you lose what you've typed
And finally, despite hardly being used last month, Blogger used up a third of my monthly data allowance which means its doing something I don't know about or understand
I'll have a look and see if there's a better third party app but for the time being Blog entries will have to await access to the laptop
Monday 15 October 2012
Autumn Weekend 2012 - day 3
Not much to say really. We awoke rather late around 9:30am which was fine as I didn't want to get stuck in the morning rush hour anyway.
We bagged up the pillows into their holdall (that's a cunning plan that worked) and checked through the boat to make sure everything was put to bed.
Toby appeared on the pontoon which was handy as I was able to arrange for Brigantia to be lifted out this coming week. Double bonus in that Toby was happy for Brigantia to stay on the pontoon until they get around to hauling her so we didn't have to faff about with the tender either!
Grabbing our remaining gear, we locked up the boat for the last time afloat this year and departed for home.
We bagged up the pillows into their holdall (that's a cunning plan that worked) and checked through the boat to make sure everything was put to bed.
Toby appeared on the pontoon which was handy as I was able to arrange for Brigantia to be lifted out this coming week. Double bonus in that Toby was happy for Brigantia to stay on the pontoon until they get around to hauling her so we didn't have to faff about with the tender either!
Grabbing our remaining gear, we locked up the boat for the last time afloat this year and departed for home.
Sunday 14 October 2012
Autumn Weekend 2012 - day 2
We arose quite late after a very good nights sleep (well, eventually in my case. It took me ages to really settle but once I finally got going I slept like a log well into the morning!)
As neither of us had to work tonight, we were in no rush anyway and decided to see about Sunday dinner in the Swallowtail where they do an excellent carvery. Jane went to check but they were shut so we left it for now.
I'd promised to have a look at the mast wiring on Black Magic to sort out what was what and look at why the tricolour wasn't working. Lisa's meter seemed to be playing up though, working OK on continuity but refusing to measure volts. My meter has a flat battery of just about the only battery type we haven't got a zillion spares for on board. Ho hum. Not entirely sucessful as excercises go but we did identify the obvious connections and hopefully gave Lisa enough info on how to pin the others down when she's sorted a working meter.
Jane popped back up to the Swallowtail once they'd opened only to find they were fully booked for lunch. Had to laugh as this keeps happening every time she says she fancies a proper Sunday roast! Oh well, one day we're bound to get lucky - booking in advance isn't usually an option as it pins you down to a fixed schedule.
With nothing else to do, we sorted ourselves out, started up the engine and motored out onto the river. It being now about quarter to two in the afternoon, the spring tide was in full majestic ebb. Oops. Memo to self, DO check the tide times. Now this isn't a major disaster and to tell truth I hadn't checked the times because it's perfectly possible to motor, or even in the right breeze, sail Brigantia up or down the Crouch against the tide. However, the wind was dead foul AND we're really really weedy. The poor old engine was going ninteen to the dozen and we were struggling to make 2 knots over the ground!
Matters improved when we got around the first couple of bends and got enough wind angle to motor sail with the genoa set. That gave us an extra knot or sometimes even two. At one point, we reached the dizzying speed of 3.8 knots over the ground! Wow! Anyway, it meant a two hour run back to Fambridge rather than one hour and burnt a bit more petrol but no matter.
We'd had a discussion about plans for the rest of the year on the way up river and concluded that with the shift schedule as it is for the next couple of months this would have to be the end of the season. Between now and Christmas there's just one weekend, in a fortnight, where we might be able to squeeze in a bit of sailing and with all the weed on the bottom and the rig tension badly in need of a tune up, she's slower than a very slow thing anyway so it'd probably be a bit of a waste of time.
Further discussion had led to the decision to stop over on the boat tonight and go home in the morning. Accordingly, we went alongside the inside of the pontoon rather than back onto our mooring and set to stripping gear off ready for her to be hauled out. First off came the genoa which was folded and bagged. It'll need the attentions of a sailmaker this winter as the UV strip has now reached a state of decreptitude beyond my limited needelework skills to keep it going. The more easily removed electronics came off too along with the beer cellar.
Off we went to the pub for an evening meal to find, to Jane's delight, that the Sunday roast menu is now available in the evening as well as at lunchtime. Yippee! Lovely bit of roast beef with traditional veg and Yorkshire pud followed by chocolate pudding and custard. Yum! Stuff your continental cuisine, there's nothing wrong with traditional English fare if its cooked properly.
We didn't stay late and settled down for an early night, grateful once again for the services of the fan heater. It's definitely autumn now!
As neither of us had to work tonight, we were in no rush anyway and decided to see about Sunday dinner in the Swallowtail where they do an excellent carvery. Jane went to check but they were shut so we left it for now.
I'd promised to have a look at the mast wiring on Black Magic to sort out what was what and look at why the tricolour wasn't working. Lisa's meter seemed to be playing up though, working OK on continuity but refusing to measure volts. My meter has a flat battery of just about the only battery type we haven't got a zillion spares for on board. Ho hum. Not entirely sucessful as excercises go but we did identify the obvious connections and hopefully gave Lisa enough info on how to pin the others down when she's sorted a working meter.
Jane popped back up to the Swallowtail once they'd opened only to find they were fully booked for lunch. Had to laugh as this keeps happening every time she says she fancies a proper Sunday roast! Oh well, one day we're bound to get lucky - booking in advance isn't usually an option as it pins you down to a fixed schedule.
With nothing else to do, we sorted ourselves out, started up the engine and motored out onto the river. It being now about quarter to two in the afternoon, the spring tide was in full majestic ebb. Oops. Memo to self, DO check the tide times. Now this isn't a major disaster and to tell truth I hadn't checked the times because it's perfectly possible to motor, or even in the right breeze, sail Brigantia up or down the Crouch against the tide. However, the wind was dead foul AND we're really really weedy. The poor old engine was going ninteen to the dozen and we were struggling to make 2 knots over the ground!
Matters improved when we got around the first couple of bends and got enough wind angle to motor sail with the genoa set. That gave us an extra knot or sometimes even two. At one point, we reached the dizzying speed of 3.8 knots over the ground! Wow! Anyway, it meant a two hour run back to Fambridge rather than one hour and burnt a bit more petrol but no matter.
We'd had a discussion about plans for the rest of the year on the way up river and concluded that with the shift schedule as it is for the next couple of months this would have to be the end of the season. Between now and Christmas there's just one weekend, in a fortnight, where we might be able to squeeze in a bit of sailing and with all the weed on the bottom and the rig tension badly in need of a tune up, she's slower than a very slow thing anyway so it'd probably be a bit of a waste of time.
Further discussion had led to the decision to stop over on the boat tonight and go home in the morning. Accordingly, we went alongside the inside of the pontoon rather than back onto our mooring and set to stripping gear off ready for her to be hauled out. First off came the genoa which was folded and bagged. It'll need the attentions of a sailmaker this winter as the UV strip has now reached a state of decreptitude beyond my limited needelework skills to keep it going. The more easily removed electronics came off too along with the beer cellar.
Off we went to the pub for an evening meal to find, to Jane's delight, that the Sunday roast menu is now available in the evening as well as at lunchtime. Yippee! Lovely bit of roast beef with traditional veg and Yorkshire pud followed by chocolate pudding and custard. Yum! Stuff your continental cuisine, there's nothing wrong with traditional English fare if its cooked properly.
We didn't stay late and settled down for an early night, grateful once again for the services of the fan heater. It's definitely autumn now!
Saturday 13 October 2012
Autumn Weekend 2012 - day 1
With no pretensions towards this being anything other than a "floating cottage" weekend, and with Jane having worked last night, we were in no hurry to set off for Fambridge this morning.
We got on the road about 11-ish and had a smooth journey down, stopping briefly at Chelmsford for supplies before arriving at the yacht station just after one in the afternoon.
Trying a new tactic, we'd packed our pillows into a large holdall which meant we had three bags, two sleeping bags and a bag of shopping plus ourselves to transfer on board. The idea, given that the ferry was running, was to avoid the time and hassle of coming alongside to load our kit on. The plan worked a treat and saved a lot of effort.
I hoisted the main on the buoy and, with the engine on tickover in case of trouble, sailed her off the bouy on the main and then hoisted the genoa. By half past one, we were under way downriver under sail. That lasted for about half an hour before I got bored with faffing about with trying to get the sails to draw in the light and fitful breeze and fired up the engine. Jane, meanwhile, had got her head down for a second dose of sleep therapy!
I wanted to experiment, in any case, with track mode on the tiller pilot. I'd carefully programmed a route downriver into Memory Map on the laptop and transferred it into the Garmin the previous day. Now, in theory, by pressing the relevant buttons on the pilot it should steer to the programmed track. Indeed it does although there are a couple of caveats. Firstly, it absolutely steers to the track (it uses the cross-track error as its vector) and if you get set well off track and then turn it on it will command a couple of hard turns to get back on track.
Secondly, it doesn't automatically make the turn to the next waypoint when you reach a waypoint. It will sit and beep (rather quietly) until you press the buttons. IF you fail to do this fairly smartly, you'll be well off track and .... see above!
However, it does work and whilst it isn't really suitable for automatically steering the boat up or down a river channel (and I didn't expect it to be, this was just a test excercise. Nor for that matter would I think it a very sensible thing to do) it should work better than steering a course on long legs in clear water.
All the faffing about with the tiller pilot led me to forget a vital task - emptying the dreaded portapotti. By now, I was in the thick of the Burnham moorings with several dinghy races taking place around me to boot. Not the place to dump the noisome contents of the bog overboard. Oh well, nothing else for it but to motor on by our destination and get downstream of everybody before doing the evil deed. This I managed to do but I would really like to sort out the loo installation (I have plans, more on that another day).
An about turn set us back upriver and I called Burnham Yacht Harbour on the handheld VHF to arrange a berth,. I'd tried calling them a couple of times coming down river but got no answer, this third call from just downstream of the harbour got an immediate response. I wonder whether the low height and low power of the hand held meant my signal was being blocked by the trees? Had it been important, of course, I'd have used the main VHF with its 25 watts of power and masthead antenna but it's hard to hear over the engine (hence the hand held in the first place).
As usual, we were over on A pontoon in the finger berths (fair enough 'cos we're only likkle!) and this time I managed to make a fairly reasonable job of getting in to the berth with a bit of welcome assistance from a passing berth holder. Jane was fast asleep throughout and I didn't want to disturb her if I could avoid it.
I went for a wander up into Burnham to buy some stuff and then wandered around the back of the yard to have a look at the outside of a Westerly Discuss 33 Centre Cockpit ketch up for sale for £22,995. I like the deck layout anyway but this example needs a lot of TLC. It's clearly been neglected for some time and its going green! If its in a similar condition below decks the asking price is probably optimistic. Anyway, we can't afford to buy it, can't afford to do it up and can't afford to run it so apart from filing the type away for future reference as a "one of those might do" there's nowt more to be said.
Found Lisa on Black Magic with Jim who'd helped her bring the boat around and had a coffee and a chat before heading back to Brigantia to wake the sleeping beauty and ready ourselves to go out. The main purpose of the excercise being a meal with friends off the East Coast Forum in the Swallowtail restaurant. The evening passed with good food, good conversation and good wine all flowing freely.
Back aboard, we were glad of the electrical hookup allowing us to leave the fan heater running on the thermostat overnight as otherwise it would have been bloomin' chilly on board!
We got on the road about 11-ish and had a smooth journey down, stopping briefly at Chelmsford for supplies before arriving at the yacht station just after one in the afternoon.
Trying a new tactic, we'd packed our pillows into a large holdall which meant we had three bags, two sleeping bags and a bag of shopping plus ourselves to transfer on board. The idea, given that the ferry was running, was to avoid the time and hassle of coming alongside to load our kit on. The plan worked a treat and saved a lot of effort.
I hoisted the main on the buoy and, with the engine on tickover in case of trouble, sailed her off the bouy on the main and then hoisted the genoa. By half past one, we were under way downriver under sail. That lasted for about half an hour before I got bored with faffing about with trying to get the sails to draw in the light and fitful breeze and fired up the engine. Jane, meanwhile, had got her head down for a second dose of sleep therapy!
I wanted to experiment, in any case, with track mode on the tiller pilot. I'd carefully programmed a route downriver into Memory Map on the laptop and transferred it into the Garmin the previous day. Now, in theory, by pressing the relevant buttons on the pilot it should steer to the programmed track. Indeed it does although there are a couple of caveats. Firstly, it absolutely steers to the track (it uses the cross-track error as its vector) and if you get set well off track and then turn it on it will command a couple of hard turns to get back on track.
Secondly, it doesn't automatically make the turn to the next waypoint when you reach a waypoint. It will sit and beep (rather quietly) until you press the buttons. IF you fail to do this fairly smartly, you'll be well off track and .... see above!
However, it does work and whilst it isn't really suitable for automatically steering the boat up or down a river channel (and I didn't expect it to be, this was just a test excercise. Nor for that matter would I think it a very sensible thing to do) it should work better than steering a course on long legs in clear water.
All the faffing about with the tiller pilot led me to forget a vital task - emptying the dreaded portapotti. By now, I was in the thick of the Burnham moorings with several dinghy races taking place around me to boot. Not the place to dump the noisome contents of the bog overboard. Oh well, nothing else for it but to motor on by our destination and get downstream of everybody before doing the evil deed. This I managed to do but I would really like to sort out the loo installation (I have plans, more on that another day).
An about turn set us back upriver and I called Burnham Yacht Harbour on the handheld VHF to arrange a berth,. I'd tried calling them a couple of times coming down river but got no answer, this third call from just downstream of the harbour got an immediate response. I wonder whether the low height and low power of the hand held meant my signal was being blocked by the trees? Had it been important, of course, I'd have used the main VHF with its 25 watts of power and masthead antenna but it's hard to hear over the engine (hence the hand held in the first place).
As usual, we were over on A pontoon in the finger berths (fair enough 'cos we're only likkle!) and this time I managed to make a fairly reasonable job of getting in to the berth with a bit of welcome assistance from a passing berth holder. Jane was fast asleep throughout and I didn't want to disturb her if I could avoid it.
I went for a wander up into Burnham to buy some stuff and then wandered around the back of the yard to have a look at the outside of a Westerly Discuss 33 Centre Cockpit ketch up for sale for £22,995. I like the deck layout anyway but this example needs a lot of TLC. It's clearly been neglected for some time and its going green! If its in a similar condition below decks the asking price is probably optimistic. Anyway, we can't afford to buy it, can't afford to do it up and can't afford to run it so apart from filing the type away for future reference as a "one of those might do" there's nowt more to be said.
Found Lisa on Black Magic with Jim who'd helped her bring the boat around and had a coffee and a chat before heading back to Brigantia to wake the sleeping beauty and ready ourselves to go out. The main purpose of the excercise being a meal with friends off the East Coast Forum in the Swallowtail restaurant. The evening passed with good food, good conversation and good wine all flowing freely.
Back aboard, we were glad of the electrical hookup allowing us to leave the fan heater running on the thermostat overnight as otherwise it would have been bloomin' chilly on board!
Sunday 7 October 2012
Bosuns Weekend 2012 day 3
No inclination to make an early start so we didn't!
After a pleasant lie-in, we nipped up to the Roundbush for breakfast and then on to Maldon for a flying visit to the chandlers. Got in and out without buying anything other than the spark plug I wanted!
Back to Fambridge, we dug out the Seagull 40 Lightweight outboard I bought off Ebay a few weeks ago. Previous efforts to get it running had failed due to a total lack of spark and having eliminated all the other possible causes, and given that the spark plug had come out of another engine with no spark, I reckoned it a fair bet that the plug was the culprit
Unfortunately, at some point the head on this engine has been drilled, tapped and heli-coiled. Fair enough but the heli-coil disintegrated when I tried to insert the new plug. Oh well, I can either get it done again or acquire a new head or even a second engine to build one good one out of two
Having failed in that endeavour, we moved on to another job I wanted to do ...
This was to connect up the NMEA output from the GPS to the tiller pilot. Easy job made tricky by not having left enough slack in the cable from the GPS to the VHF into which I needed to make the connection. Fettled that (another bodge!) and after a bit of a head scratch due to the manual being less than clear we sucessfully engaged track mode on the tiller pilot.
This means that the pilot will automatically steer the boat from waypoint to waypoint on the course programmed into the GPS. A very useful facility but one, I feel, to be used with care and caution!
That done, we set to tidying up and offloading our personal kit before I moved Brigantia back on to her mooring. The ferry was already out and about so I was picked up and dropped back to the pontoon in minutes. We set off homeward mid-afternoon after a short but very enjoyable weekend on board.
After a pleasant lie-in, we nipped up to the Roundbush for breakfast and then on to Maldon for a flying visit to the chandlers. Got in and out without buying anything other than the spark plug I wanted!
Back to Fambridge, we dug out the Seagull 40 Lightweight outboard I bought off Ebay a few weeks ago. Previous efforts to get it running had failed due to a total lack of spark and having eliminated all the other possible causes, and given that the spark plug had come out of another engine with no spark, I reckoned it a fair bet that the plug was the culprit
Unfortunately, at some point the head on this engine has been drilled, tapped and heli-coiled. Fair enough but the heli-coil disintegrated when I tried to insert the new plug. Oh well, I can either get it done again or acquire a new head or even a second engine to build one good one out of two
Having failed in that endeavour, we moved on to another job I wanted to do ...
This was to connect up the NMEA output from the GPS to the tiller pilot. Easy job made tricky by not having left enough slack in the cable from the GPS to the VHF into which I needed to make the connection. Fettled that (another bodge!) and after a bit of a head scratch due to the manual being less than clear we sucessfully engaged track mode on the tiller pilot.
This means that the pilot will automatically steer the boat from waypoint to waypoint on the course programmed into the GPS. A very useful facility but one, I feel, to be used with care and caution!
That done, we set to tidying up and offloading our personal kit before I moved Brigantia back on to her mooring. The ferry was already out and about so I was picked up and dropped back to the pontoon in minutes. We set off homeward mid-afternoon after a short but very enjoyable weekend on board.
Saturday 6 October 2012
Bosuns weekend day 2 - A pleasant drift
I awoke before dawn, well I say I awoke when in fact I'd been awake on and off all night due to heavy rain on the cabin top.
Popped the kettle on and had a coffee and a look outside. It didn't look inviting so I dozed back of again.
Eventually we both surfaced and the conditions having improved we set off about ten-o-clock downriver under sail. Two hours later as we approached Burnham the wind had dropped and become fitful so out was on with the engine to motor out of the river in the hope of picking up a better breeze once clear if the land.
No such luck! We sat off Holliwell Point drifting gently round in a flat calm on a glassy sea listening to the MSI met forecast telling we could expect F5/F6 occasionally F7 at first! Honestly, the inshore waters forecast is almost invariably wrong but this was exceptional even by the dubious standards if the Met Office!
It must make the coastguards cringe having to read out that twaddle knowing full well that outside the window the weather is doing something totally different!
Anyway, back to the plot...
By now, given that we'd been flogging the flood tide all the way down as result of the lie in, there's just about be enough water to sneak over the Ray Sand but we couldn't see a lot of point in motoring all the way to Bradwell or Brightlingsea just to motor ask the way back tomorrow.
So it was on with the engine and head of back up river. There was a brief hiatus whilst we motored gently round in circles for ten minutes to allow the tiller pilot to auto-calibrate it's fluxgate compass and then off we went.
Apart from the lack of wind, it was a must pleasant autumn day and we duly strived back at Fambridge having weaved our way through the fleets of yachts and dingys attempting to race on the occasional breathe of movement that once in a while rippled the water.
It being just five of the clock, we pottered around on board for an hour or so before repairing once more unto the pub.
Popped the kettle on and had a coffee and a look outside. It didn't look inviting so I dozed back of again.
Eventually we both surfaced and the conditions having improved we set off about ten-o-clock downriver under sail. Two hours later as we approached Burnham the wind had dropped and become fitful so out was on with the engine to motor out of the river in the hope of picking up a better breeze once clear if the land.
No such luck! We sat off Holliwell Point drifting gently round in a flat calm on a glassy sea listening to the MSI met forecast telling we could expect F5/F6 occasionally F7 at first! Honestly, the inshore waters forecast is almost invariably wrong but this was exceptional even by the dubious standards if the Met Office!
It must make the coastguards cringe having to read out that twaddle knowing full well that outside the window the weather is doing something totally different!
Anyway, back to the plot...
By now, given that we'd been flogging the flood tide all the way down as result of the lie in, there's just about be enough water to sneak over the Ray Sand but we couldn't see a lot of point in motoring all the way to Bradwell or Brightlingsea just to motor ask the way back tomorrow.
So it was on with the engine and head of back up river. There was a brief hiatus whilst we motored gently round in circles for ten minutes to allow the tiller pilot to auto-calibrate it's fluxgate compass and then off we went.
Apart from the lack of wind, it was a must pleasant autumn day and we duly strived back at Fambridge having weaved our way through the fleets of yachts and dingys attempting to race on the occasional breathe of movement that once in a while rippled the water.
It being just five of the clock, we pottered around on board for an hour or so before repairing once more unto the pub.
Friday 5 October 2012
Bosuns weekend 2012 - day 1
The Bosun and I set of down A14 around 2-ish and arrived at the moorings just over two hours later after a good run down
Five minutes work with the cordless screwdriver and some longer screws restored the rowlock that I broke last time out to serviceable condition and I paddled off down river as the rain began to fall
On board, a litre or so of petrol into the outboard header tank was the first order of business, then I fired her up, set up mooring lines and fenders and motored up to the pontoon executing a very satisfactory ferry glide to parallel park against the inside of the pontoon.
Duly nailed on with warps and springs and with the tender stowed back on the dock, we buggered off to the hostelry without further ado. Some beers were drunk, a meal was consumed, scotch whiskey and coffee featured briefly on the agenda before we sauntered back down to the moorings and settled down on board.
It's chilly enough tonight to make it worth plugging in to the mains and firing up the fan heater for a bit of warmth at which point we discovered that once again the bilge pump switch has stuck and flattened battery 1. Useless piece of junk!
That sorted, rum and coffee was duly procured but only after topping up the meths in the stove with a litre into each burner.
Plan for tomorrow is to wake up, look out and see what's what!