Last weekend, Wendy made a trip from SF to Santa Cruz and back. The people on her boat told her that it's a tradition to drink a shot of bitters at the end of a sailor's longest journey. Never heard of that before and I'm sure it was just and excuse to get her wasted. (Nothing wrong with that -- I do it all the time).
During some research into nautical traditions, Wendy turned up this page which gives some interested insights in the sources of modern-day language: http://www.shipsandcruises.com/nautical_notes.htm
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The Shakedown
Woohoo! The boat's ready to sail and I can finally get it out of the yard. Since I bought the boat I've hardly been sailing at all. Today's the big shakedown. I'm moving it from the yard back to the slip at Emeryville with Jonathan, Russ and Maureen's help. Jonathan's the previous owner and Russ owns another Newport 41. Sad that Wendy couldn't make it for today. She's sailing to Santa Cruz and back - I left the good booze back at home.
I had the boat hauled out for the survey at the start of December. Since mid January, I've been thinking, "just another two weeks and it'll finished for sure." It pretty much eaten my weekends between then and now and has been a big source of tension between Wendy and I.
So what's happened in the last months? Here's a list of the work that the yard did:
Things the yard said they'd do and decided they couldn't get around to:
Things that went wrong:
Other work we've done while the boat has been out of the water includes:
Wendy, Jonathan and Eric have helped out with a lot of this. Russ has also been a big help and constant source of advice. He also found the new halyards on Craigslist and put in eye slices and shackles.
When I got to the boat, I was happy to find that the yard had heard that we'd got the engine running earlier in the week and had moved the boat out its place 3 deep in a raft and onto the long dock. We had to wait a hour or so for the tide to give us clearance. The engine fired up nicely and after swinging after the nose at the dock, we made our way into the channel. The new sheaves and newly greased track worked great and the main went up very easily. We received some cheerios from people at the dock who'd been watching the work on the boat and made our way out into the Bay and up to Alcatraz.
The boat seemed to handle just fine. The new rigging looked great. Russ noted that the lowers looked a little slack, but the otherwise the mast looked pretty fine and Jonathan noted that the helm felt more balanced than it did previously. Weather was overcast with a brisk breeze.
Up around Alcatraz we cross the path of the Master Mariner's Race where all the old woodies compete. We followed the race for a while and crashed their finish line before putting the boat back home in Emeryville.
I had the boat hauled out for the survey at the start of December. Since mid January, I've been thinking, "just another two weeks and it'll finished for sure." It pretty much eaten my weekends between then and now and has been a big source of tension between Wendy and I.
So what's happened in the last months? Here's a list of the work that the yard did:
- Pull mast, install rigging, re-install mast and tune rigging
- Install new VHF antenna
- Repaint bottom
- Service propeller
- Install mast boot
- Fabricate new backstay chainplate
- Replaced two broken ball valves
- Install dripless stuffing box
Things the yard said they'd do and decided they couldn't get around to:
- Relocate propane tank
- Install a sump pump for the shower
Things that went wrong:
- When the boat was on the hard, I tested the through-hull ball valves. One of them had become jammed. Closer inspection revealed that in this and in another, the stem from the handle to the ball had sheared. I can't underestimate how serious a problem this could have turned out to be -- the valves gave the appearance of being closed when, in fact, they were open to the sea. Its the kind of thing you'd hope that your surveyor would spot. I figure she *must* have at least exercised all the handles... but then, if she did, I'm not sure how the problem developed while the boat was out of the water.
- I didn't get the yard to agree to a time-line for the work they did -- so, it took from December to May for a half finished job.
- Either the yard or the riggers mis-measured the original rigging and so new SS wire was cut too short for my mast. Luckily, I'd asked the the riggers to keep the original rigging so they were to (eventually) able to fix the problem.
- The yard's crane squirted oil all over my deck leaving quite a few large stains.
- I broke the bleed valve banjo bolt when I overtightened it. It took over a month dealing with parts distributors to get a replacement that didn't fit.
- I wish I'd completely de-rigged the mast and put the contents of the boat and the sails into storage. Would have made working much easier.
- I broke off the masthead fly while working on the mast.
- A friend of mine, Paul, noticed that the yard hadn't tightened one of the locking nuts on my forestay. Furling up the jib could have unscrewed my forestay...
- The mast boot the yard installed was a pretty shoddy job. It had split along the length of the boom-vang bracket a week after they fitted it. I brought it up with them and they wrapped more tape over the top. Not sure whether it will seal. We'll see. Looks pretty ugly.
Other work we've done while the boat has been out of the water includes:
- Installed new lifelines
- Removed SS mast fittings, sanded, primed, and painted mast beneath, and rebedded fittings
- Installed new anchor/tricolor light
- Design aluminium riser mount for masthead light and has it machined
- Installed new steaming light
- Ran new electrical wiring from thoughout mast to distribution panel
- Rebedded all chainplate covers
- Replaced wiring from bilge pump and float switch to distribution panel
- Replaced masthead sheaves with roller-bearing sheaves
- Replaced two fraying wire halyards with rope
- Polished topsides
- Greased mast track
- Replaced masthead fly
- Replaced docklines and fenders
- Repainted mast-step (and replaced lucky coin)
- De-rigged and rerigged boom
- Changed primary fuel filter
- Had new banjo bolt fabricated
- Replaced engine fresh water pump gasket
- Pumped out leaked coolant from bilge
Wendy, Jonathan and Eric have helped out with a lot of this. Russ has also been a big help and constant source of advice. He also found the new halyards on Craigslist and put in eye slices and shackles.
When I got to the boat, I was happy to find that the yard had heard that we'd got the engine running earlier in the week and had moved the boat out its place 3 deep in a raft and onto the long dock. We had to wait a hour or so for the tide to give us clearance. The engine fired up nicely and after swinging after the nose at the dock, we made our way into the channel. The new sheaves and newly greased track worked great and the main went up very easily. We received some cheerios from people at the dock who'd been watching the work on the boat and made our way out into the Bay and up to Alcatraz.
The boat seemed to handle just fine. The new rigging looked great. Russ noted that the lowers looked a little slack, but the otherwise the mast looked pretty fine and Jonathan noted that the helm felt more balanced than it did previously. Weather was overcast with a brisk breeze.
Up around Alcatraz we cross the path of the Master Mariner's Race where all the old woodies compete. We followed the race for a while and crashed their finish line before putting the boat back home in Emeryville.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
New Banjo Bolt
So, the broken banjo bolt has caused a lot of problems. The part is out of stock everywhere. I contacted Torresen Marine who contacted Westerbeke (who supply parts for my now obsolete Universal 5432). Westerbeke said they'd need to make new parts and it would take 7-10 days. They missed two ETAs to Torresen and when the part finally showed up, about three weeks later, it turned out to be the wrong part (it was a different part of the same assembly). I ordered another part the next day (which they did have in stock) by overnight delivery from the East coast. This turned out to be the right part but had the wrong diameter screw for my model of engine. So, about 4 weeks into this issue, I was back where I started.
Here's a picture of the bleed valve assembly.
I took the broken screw into a local machine shop who were able to make a new one for $75 (about the cost of overnight delivery from the East coast) and took two days. Wendy and I rushed it to the boat and had the engine running in about 10 minutes. She said I was grinning like a madman.
That's the last of the critical systems repaired and the boat's now good to go.
Sadly, we couldn't take the boat out of the yard because its jammed in three deep at the dock and we need to get the yard to move the rafters.
Bah!
I'm a little miffed that the yard still hadn't (and don't plan to) do some of the work I asked them to do back in December. They were supposed to re-install my propane locker in the stern locker with a new overboard vent in the transom, and also fit a sump pump to the shower (which drains into the bilge). At some point they decided that its not worth their effort. Its a pretty slack state of affairs, but what can you do...
Here's a picture of the bleed valve assembly.
I took the broken screw into a local machine shop who were able to make a new one for $75 (about the cost of overnight delivery from the East coast) and took two days. Wendy and I rushed it to the boat and had the engine running in about 10 minutes. She said I was grinning like a madman.
That's the last of the critical systems repaired and the boat's now good to go.
Sadly, we couldn't take the boat out of the yard because its jammed in three deep at the dock and we need to get the yard to move the rafters.
Bah!
I'm a little miffed that the yard still hadn't (and don't plan to) do some of the work I asked them to do back in December. They were supposed to re-install my propane locker in the stern locker with a new overboard vent in the transom, and also fit a sump pump to the shower (which drains into the bilge). At some point they decided that its not worth their effort. Its a pretty slack state of affairs, but what can you do...
Saturday, May 10, 2008
KFOG KABOOM
My friend Adrian is in town, visiting from England and so Wendy and I took out one of the club's J24s to give him a tour around the bay, finishing up with the KFOG fireworks display under the bay bridge. It was howling today. We put on the 80% and a reef in at the dock -- the first time I've ever felt the need. I'm glad I did. The boat got battered on the upwind leg to Alcatraz. Cold. Wet. And the fog started rolling in two hours before sunset. We abandoned our plans to get to the Golden Gate and headed to be in sight of the city front before the fog caught up with us. Under the Bay Bridge was a parking lot. We anchored and rafted up with a friend of ours. Wine. Cheese and Crackers. Cocoa. Mmmm...
Sailing back to Berkeley was a bitch in dark and the limited visibility from the fog. Made for a lot of tension.
Sailing back to Berkeley was a bitch in dark and the limited visibility from the fog. Made for a lot of tension.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Raise the Main (Girlfriend)!
Or: Send Up The Number One.
Getting a little frustrated with the boat being back in the water so Wendy took Patrick, Eric and I out on one of the club's J24s. We stopped off at Sam's for lunch and Bloody Mary's.
On the way back around the North side of Angel Island, my beloved Delta Ditch Mount Gay Rum hat blew off in the stiff breeze. All those expensive sailing lessons paid off though and I managed to snag it first time.
Back at the dock, we sent Wendy up the mast. Why? Why not? Perhaps just a way to make sure that the new halyards and sheaves work like they should and that nothing will break unexpectedly. Some of the blocks hadn't been used in a little while and made terrifying squeaking noise as we hoisted her up.
Terrified? Hmmm... looks like the shackle pin could use some seizing wire...
Getting a little frustrated with the boat being back in the water so Wendy took Patrick, Eric and I out on one of the club's J24s. We stopped off at Sam's for lunch and Bloody Mary's.
On the way back around the North side of Angel Island, my beloved Delta Ditch Mount Gay Rum hat blew off in the stiff breeze. All those expensive sailing lessons paid off though and I managed to snag it first time.
Back at the dock, we sent Wendy up the mast. Why? Why not? Perhaps just a way to make sure that the new halyards and sheaves work like they should and that nothing will break unexpectedly. Some of the blocks hadn't been used in a little while and made terrifying squeaking noise as we hoisted her up.
Terrified? Hmmm... looks like the shackle pin could use some seizing wire...
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