I went sailing today!

Been talking via email to Lou, who bought the Mac V21 formerly known as Dynamo Hum.  He's got boating experience but no sailing experience. His boat is ready to go so at 9:45 this morning he picked me up and we headed down to Orchard Point at Fern Ridge. 

Set up went pretty well and quickly.  Lou's ginpole worked well.  The rigging, as I recalled from seeing Dynamo Hum across from us at Richardson, was quite loose. I knew from reading the manual (all 10 pages) that the rigging was supposed to be taught, but not overly tight, so I tightened it up but didnt' reef on it with a wrench.  I took some pictures.  More on that later . . .

The launch lanes are narrower and seem steeper than at Richardson.  The mast crane is right on the way to the ramp but it looks like there's plenty of room for folks to get around while you're using it.  Launching was uneventful.  The boat slid off the trailer and I tied her off to the dock.

Once Lou parked the truck and got the motor running I backed us away from the dock and headed out onto the lake.  The wind was from the south and maybe 6-8 knots.  Perfect conditions for teaching someone the basics of sailing.

We sailed around under just the main for a bit with Lou steering and me handling the sail.  Lou's familiarity with boating means he knew how to steer straight, so it was mostly explaining the concepts around sailing and answering questions.  After we'd sailed around on just the main for a bit I added the jib to the equation and gave him the main sheet.  The rest of the afternoon was excellent.  We sailed back and forth, tacked several times, and Lou experimented and got a feel for the boat.  By the time we headed back to Orchard he was doing great.

Did I mention I took pictures?  Did you notice they're not here?  Well, that's because they're in about 22 feet of water!  I forgot I'd put the little fuji waterproof camera in my shirt pocket and while I was leaning over to tie on a bumper it went klunk, splash!  You'd think they'd make waterproof cameras float!

We took down the sails and motored in to Orchard Point.  There was a brief minute of excitement when the motor konked out and wouldn't start, but Lou got it going and we didn't run into the bass boat that was idling nearby.   We pulled the boat, backed it down to get the keel over the guide, and pulled it out again.  Down with the mast, rig for the road and we headed for home around 4 PM.  A great day sailing and a good sunburn to go with it. 

The sun came out!

Checked on the boat this morning and everything looked good.  Not too many leaves blown in and the interior was nice and dry.  Dumped about 2 cups of water out of the dessicant/dehumidifier container.  Battery checks out good.

I'd planned to pull off the bbq mount to use as a new solar panel mount but I didn't have the right size allen wrench on the boat. Oops!  Locked things up and grabbed the solar panel on the way down. 

I've given a lot of thought to how I want to upgrade the mount for the solar panel.  The one I made a couple years ago is PVC pipe and pair of fishing rod holders.  It works ok but I have concerns about UV damage, it's in a bad location for the stern light and at wharves like the one in Friday Harbor where we nearly broke it.  Plus it just looks tacky.

A few weeks ago I bought a second Kuuma BBQ mount from Defender.  It was on sale and my thinking was that if it will hold the BBQ it should hold the solar panel fine too.   After I got done checking the boat I drove over to Home Depot where I picked up 5 3-foot aluminum "angle irons" for a mounting frame and some pop rivets. 

I decided to reuse the bolts I'd epoxied onto the solar panel for the pvc mount.  The bars were a couple inches too long so I cut two down and drilled holes to match the bolts.  First time I've used the bench press I bought from Dave and it worked great!  I cut the 3rd bar to fit across the ends of the two longer ones.  More holes, this time with the cordless drill, and I pop riveted a nice (fairly) rectangular frame together. 

Then it was time for some head scratching.  How do I attach the mount to the frame?  The L channel bars gave me a vertical surface since I used the horizontal one to bolt to the solar panel.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should have bought some U channel.  Guess I'll have to make my own. 

I cut the two remaining bars down to fit inside the frame the long way, located the center, then riveted the 2" salvage pieces I'd cut off earlier to the vertical side to create a U on one side of the frame and the two center bars.  I drilled a hole in each of the 2" tabs for the bolts and used the new BBQ mount to fine tune placement before riveting the long bars to the frame.  I put everything together and held it up by the mount.  Close, but there was more movement than I'd hoped for. 

The BBQ mount has 2 large thumb screws that I was using to mount it to the 2 center bars in the frame.  I'd installed the 3rd tab on the outside rail though, so I decided maybe a bolt there was what it needed.  I drilled a new hole in the BBQ mount (yay drill press and WD40!) and the frame, cut down a spare bolt from last year's re-bedding project to fit, and that did the job!  I think it looks pretty good and is going to look much nicer on the boat!

Looking forward to mounting this on the boat.  Should work great!

Will it never end?!

Progress on the new docks

Deborah and I drove down to the lake a couple weekends ago to see how the new docks are coming along.  The weather actually cooperated and the docks are very nice!

Paid my slip rental for the season yesterday and asked the lady if they're going to be done on time.  "We hope so" she said.  Seems there's an issue with the company providing the steel.  I really don't want to keep the boat at Orchard Point but I guess I will if I have to. 

Marina Clean Up

Better a late update than never, I guess. . . .

On February 11th we joined a bunch of folks down at Richardson Park Marina to clean up the Eurasian Milfoil that's infesting the marina.  Scott Coleman had worked with the county parks folks and got us permission from the Corps of Engineers to remove it . . . by hand.  No tools allowed. 

The marina looks weird with the docks out and no water. 

All that standing water is full of tiny milfoil plants.  

I finally figured out why the depth sounder freaks out on the way into the marina sometimes . . . Stump central!

There's some artsy trash too . . .

All the muck they pulled out got handed up the embankment to Deborah and some other folks . . .

Who dumped it in a trailer to be hauled off

After a while we took a break and headed up to the shelter where the park hosts were hosting a bbq for everyone.

We bugged out after lunch as we had a prior commitment back in town.  We did get a few interesting pictures on the way home though.

There were swans on the north side of Meadowview Road.

and there were Bald Eagles outside Harrisburg!

New docks under construction!

The flooding has one positive outcome - the contractors who are building the new docks at the marina have apparently been able to remove the existing ones early!

Thanks to Dean Grabski for these:

Maybe we'll get in the water before May!

I've been a bit lax . . .

about updating the blog this summer.  It's been kind of a strange one; Deborah's knee hurt, we hit a new max speed (7.3 knots!) and then the @$#@!# chart plotter died.  Deborah's fine now and I got a new Lowrance chart plotter for 1/2 of retail. 

Anyway, here's most of a summer's worth of videos and snaps.

June 21st was a real drifter of a Beer Can



We anchored out on July 4th to watch the fireworks.  Someone did up a "Christmas Boat" type pirate ship and cruised through before the fireworks started.

The fireworks were good too!

On July 26th Zach and I successfully flew the Genaker for the first time. 

July 26th, Beer Can - maybe should have run the 135 but a nice sail anyway.




For the August 2nd sail Krista came along and so did a decent breeze, more than we expected when we rigged the 135!



On August 6th, Deborah and I hit an all time speed record!

August 16th Beer Can:  Zach at the helm



August 30th Beer Can - it got windy!



September 6th Beer Can - Zach at the helm and Krista came along too



September 10th, Circumfern . . .