First Beer Can & CircumFern Night Sail

Beer Can Tuesday!

On Tuesday Deborah joined me for our first Beer Can Race of the year, and her first Beer Can ever.  We both survived so I guess it wasn't too bad! 




We were the 3rd boat to make the start, behind an S20 (Spy?) and Tim's Catalina 25.  We passed Tim and were the first boat to the buoy (not sure where the S20 went though.)  We were 3rd or 4th back (depending on whether the S20 was actually participating.)  I maybe should have headed up a bit on the downwind run from the Leakin' Lena buoy so we didn't get covered by the other boats.  After the race, as we were headed to the car, we got a "you were fast" from Ron @ The Sailing Center.  Cool!

Circumfern

The TYC calendar showed last night as the first of two Circumferns in June.  A Circumfern is basically a moonlight sail around the lake on, or near, the full moon.  Last year the wind petered out on us.  This year we had plenty of wind but it was chilly and mostly cloudy until we were almost done.   

Things didn't start out well; we were a bit later leaving home than I'd planned, and when we got to Junction City the center of town was closed for a Cruise In.  Detour . . .

So we got to the lake quite a bit later than the 7:00 I'd planned.  We quickly got things ready, Emily and Kate into their life jackets and motored out.   Dean and Tim had already headed out for the west dash by the time we had the sails up and started south.  The girls went up on the bow which gave us a bit more speed (hmmmm).  We passed Stairway, going the opposite direction, just past the little island at the mouth of the west finger, then Tim about halfway to the mark.  The rest of the evening was spent trying to reel Tim in.  Didn't have much luck but we did gain a bit and we finally found the East Dash buoy.   The girls went below when they got cold. 

The wind held up fairly decent until we started to get close to the dam.  When we made the turn at Leakin' Lena there was just enough to do about 1.5 knots and it kept dropping.  We lowered the sails and motored in the last 1/2 mile or so. We left the parking lot at 11:00 PM on the dot. 

Another great sail!

We went back down to the lake this afternoon.  This time I thought we'd have an easy, relaxing sail so I rigged the blade and shook out the reef in the main.  Ha!  When we got down to the south end of the lake the wind picked up dramatically! 

Lots of twist in the puffs tonight.  Just before a puff would hit, going north, it would twist off into a header, then as it hit I'd have to quickly turn up.  Pretty sure it was just the opposite going south.

Did a close pass astern of Dean on Stairway.  Thought we were going to be clear ahead when we hit a lull that made us lose speed and turn toward him.  Since he was on Starboard I dropped down and slid behind him close enough to wave as we went by.

Not sure whether I like the blade/main or 135/reefed main combination better.  I lean toward the latter but we did hit 6.86 knots tonight according to the plotter.  I think it lies.

Maximum speed:	7.9 mph (6.86 knots)
Average speed:	6.1 mph

Second time I planned to fly the kite (on a string, not the gennaker) but there was more wind than I cared to try with. Maybe next time . . .

What a terrific sail!

Today's forecast called for fairly light winds, building to maybe 8 or 9 mph by 6 PM. Since it was going to be so light I rigged the 135 instead of the blade. Turned out to be ok for our little harbor but once we'd been on the lake a while things started to get interesting. Both of us were on the rail, the boat was heeling hard, and we were running around 6 knots, traveler dumped about as far as it would go. As the wind built we beat our way into the harbor, where there was a bit of lee from the wind, and reefed the main. Then back out into the fray, which included whitecaps! And still Deborah didn't freak out!

Only downside was her hitting her butt hard on the curve where the deck rolls down into the seat. I think the boat came up as she sat during a windy tack and she was NOT happy. I thought she'd sat on the traveler cleat but that wasn't it. Just a really hard smack on the tip of her spine.

Stats from the airport a couple miles away showed a max of 14 mph, Eugene Yacht Club showed average of 9.2 with gusts to 17 but it was somewhat protected. Given the state of the water I'm guessing they were both a bit light. At various times we sustained 6.2 to 6.5 knots with brief jumps up to 6.6 and 6.7. Mostly me on the rail working the tiller, sheet and traveler, her on the seat (after we reefed) working the cross sheeted jib. The 135 & reefed main worked way better than I expected. What a blast!

The Marina is Open!

Yesterday was the grand re-opening of the new and improved Richardson Park Marina.  $1M bond measure, to be retired out of the slip fees, paid for beautiful new docks.  They're galvanized steel with Trex boards and they look terrific.  No splinters and they're also much more stable than the old ones.
The county even asked me to take the pictures and document the event!

We made a point of getting to the lake early so we could sneak over from Orchard Point and get a spot on the transient dock.  No problem, we were the first ones there!

Dean's Stairway was looking good.

There were speeches and a ribbon cutting ceremony

Then Dean docked Stairway as the inaugural boat.

Next they fired off the cannon to announce that the marina was open!

We had a little boat parade

Then we docked the boats!

And then there was picnic served from a garbage truck!

The new slips are great! 

Gone sailing

We got out twice this week! 

Wednesday evening Deborah and I went down to the lake after work.  We motored over to Richardson and checked out the new docks.  They look great!  While we were there, we took advantage of the protection from the wind and hanked on the mainsail.  Then it was off for an hour and half of sailing around the lake on just the main. 

Yesterday (Saturday) we took Gaby along and went for a great afternoon sail.  The wind was just about perfect and we spent a lot of time near 6 knots.  Gaby steered for the first bit, including while we raised the sails.  Rig tension looks about right, though I might give the starboard lower about 1/2 turn.

I tried the GoPro mounted on the boom.  I think I like that better than the rail.

Prep done, boat launched!

I've been just a bit busy since my last post.  First order of business last weekend (April 28/29) was getting the tarp off and starting to clean up the outside of the boat.  But wait, first I had to go to Sears, Home Depot, Western Tool, Knechts, and finally CarQuest to find a power sander/polisher, polishing compound, etc.  That set me back almost $200! 

Once the tarp was off I started cleaning the hull.  First a good scrubbing with an Oxalic Acid based cleaner which did a great job on the tannin/algae stains.  Then I spent some quality time with the buffer and polish.  It took me a while to get it right, as I was applying it too thickly, but I eventually got the oxidation pretty well cleaned up.  Next I went over it again with StarBrite polish with PETN (Teflon) and it came out awesome.

  
The next day was bottom painting day.  Two quarts of VC17-m in Blue.  I got 2 good coats and I've got just a bit left for touchups.  I also went with a different kind of roller this year.  They're thicker foam but only about an inch in diameter.  Much better than the ones I used last time, plus they get into the joint between the keel & hull.

The blue based paint goes on much darker than the penny bright red did last time. 

This weekend (May 5/6) was all about getting the boat ready to launch.  I cleaned the deck with a mixture of Dawn (blue), white vinegar, and water.  It worked pretty well but the @#$@#$@ marks from the leaf pods that blew in did not come clean.  The Oxalic acid didn't help either.  Grrr.

After the cleaning I decided I needed to go over the hull one more time with the StarBrite.  What a job that turned out to be.  For some reason it doesn't seem to dry very well on the vinyl stripe.  It took forever and I went through about a dozen microfiber towels trying to wipe it clean.  Finally got done around dinner time, gassed the truck and the boat up, inflated the tires, and called it a day.

Sunday was launch day.  I drove up to get Zach (Krista had the car) and we towed the boat down to Orchard Point.  Set up went ok.  We did have to drop the mast after I realized that I had the forestay inside the sling.  Oops.

Strap launching at Orchard is a bit more intense than at Richardson.  The ramps are narrow and there's about 10,000 power boats trying to launch/retreive.  Still, we got in ok and the motor actually started on the 2nd pull.  Yay!




Put the boat in the temporary slip without too much trouble.  Not sure I like sharing with a bigger, dirtier boat, but oh well.  Wind was blowing hard off the stern so we didn't put the sail on, but everything else is pretty much ready.  Hooray!

Boat prep started . . .

Finally some decent weather!  Saturday was spent helping Zach and Krista move into their new place in Wilsonville, then back up to Portland to pick up Deborah's co-worker Barb and her dog at the airport. 

This morning was nice and sunny.  I pumped up the tires on Deborah's bike and she went off to ride while Heidi ran.  I was going to go but in retrospect I'm glad I didn't as they were gone longer than I expected. 

Instead of riding I went down and got the boat.  Since I started tying the tarp to the trailer, instead of cinder blocks, it's pretty quick and since I leave the tarp on I get to work in the shade.  That turned out to be good because it was HOT today.

First order of business was prepping the places where the gelcoat was cracked.  I picked all the loose stuff off and then used the dremel to clean up the edges and get a good surface.  The sections on the side of the battery locker were definitely voids - there were loose fibers with no resin.  That changed the plan.  I ground out the other spots, then went and mixed some epoxy to wet out the voids. 

I also decided to straighten the tabernacle that I'd managed to install cockeyed last summer.  I measured and marked the center of the tabernacle, then tried to find the center of the area where it mounts.  That was annoying and frustrating.  A few taps with a ball peen hammer and I had it about as good as it was going to get.  The trick was, how do I tighten it without removing the forward hatch?   Luckily Pepe came by to mow the lawns, so I got him to hold the wrench while I used the impact wrench below.  It looks like things are much tighter now.  I think the butyl got me on that one; I read something about needing to tighten it slowly and more than once. 

 At some point I managed to dump 1/2 the water in the dessicant container on the cabin floor.  The @#$@ stuff does NOT clean up!  It's obviously saturated with something and it makes a slippery mess.  The paper towels do not absorb it well and windex doesn't touch it.  Grrr!
 
We took a break for Heidi's birthday lunch at Elmer's with the girls, Homero, Gaby and little J.  We ran by the auto parts store on the way home so I could get crimp connectors and  wet/dry sand paper.  When we got back the epoxy was almost ready, but not quite, so I started on the new LED lights I got on sale last fall. 

I removed the v-berth light, which was the last incandescent fixture in the cabin, then started figuring out what I wanted to do.  The obvious thing was to put the new one in where the old one was.  The problem is that the wires don't fit in the end cap provided.  And there's no switch.  Hmm.  I recycled the switch from the old light and, with a bit of dremel work, made it fit (mostly) in the end cap of the new light.  Did I mention it's a 2-way switch?  That got me thinking.  What if I hooked up the other light to the same switch?

Since the wiring didn't fit in the end cap, I grabbed a little wooden box a wallet came in that I'd been holding for just this kind of issue.  It already had a couple of cut outs for the wires so in they went, and I screwed it in next to the light. 

A quick test showed the new light worked!

The wiring in the end cap was a pain and it took several tries and additional cutting with the dremel to the get the cap to stay on. 

I ran a second pair of wires from the switch, through the box, and behind the bulkhead.  There's a bit of a wire chase there so I was able to poke it through to the other side, where I ran it behind the hanging storage pockets on the bulkhead, then up the ceiling to the light, which I mounted about 4 inches aft of the compression post. 

Throw the rocker switch on the light in the v-berth to the left and voila!

These are waaay brighter than the factory replacement LED's I bought a few years ago.  Should be nice for reading.

When I got done with the lights I decided it was time to clean the cabin and get rid of the residue from the dessicant spill.  I vacuumed and then scrubbed the floors with pinesol.  That seemed to do the job on the slick stuff. 

The final task was applying gel coat to the holes I'd ground out this morning.  The epoxy seemed well set, no surprise given how warm it was.  The gel coat I got from Catalina Direct is kind of a putty.  It was really thick (I think some had started to set even without the hardener) but the hardener softened it up nicely.  I got the small spots at the back of the cabin, and the two on the battery box done before the first batch started to set up.  It was really weird when it started to cook off in the cup - almost like little fibers, and once it started  it set fast.  Luckily I still had about 1/2 the container of putty so I mixed up a second batch and finished the two remaining holes.  It was after 5 so I got Deborah to help me bring things off the boat and then we took it down to the lock up.  

What's left to do?  I need to sand down the gel coat patches, wash the boat, and paint the bottom.  Then down to Orchard Point to launch and wait for Richardson Park to open.