Most photogenic ever

Sandra sent though some photos from the other day, with the caption "the most photogenic boat ever". Not sure about that, but perhaps most photogenic boat in Altona bay is about right. Kirsty Ann looks good with her new topsides, and interesting to see her with four blokes and a dog onboard. 

 

The good news is that the ply for my next boat, a Skerry, has turned up after months sitting in a container at the docks. The bad news is I drilled a hole in my thumb while repairing the Sabre mast. Anne has put a ban on power tool use till I can use that opposing thumb. Amazing how useless you feel when you can't use your thumb!

Got out with Daniel in the two Mirrors Saturday for a splendid sail, wonderful little boats!

Mayoral sailing

 

Sometimes you just never know what a day on the water holds in store. Yesterday I arranged to meet Chuck down at AYC to collect a rivet gun to repair the Sabre's mast. There was a council function on, and the plan was for the mayor and media chap to live stream their part of an online function while sailing. But the barbecue and various boats had blocked in access to the club dinghies, and as I sailed up in the Core Sound at the moment, Oz and I had some unexpected guests. Chuck came to make sure I did not hijack them. It was quite surreal, but our new mayor seems like a genuinely nice person, and Ozzie liked him.

After we dropped off the official party Oz and I helped Sandra and Federico rig up, Oz tried his luck getting some bacon from the function, and had some success I heard later, and we headed out again for the pier reef mark loop. Light airs, we got left behind quickly by the fast boats.

After lunch the wind was kicking up, and I put the first reef in main and mizzen. Wind around 20 knots, the core sound was handling the increasingly boisterous conditions fine, but I got soaked pretty quickly by the spray, and as I was just in shorts and shirt, I started to get cold, so I dropped main and we broad reached home under reefed mizzen at 4 to 5 knots. 

It was blowing hard and holding the boat to walk it along the jetty, and then taking the masts down, were both a bit challenging. But we didn't break anything and home tired but happy after an interesting day. 

I am going to have a push on decluttering the boat, there is too much stuff collected on there and it is less shipshape than it might be. Lovely boat though ...

I see from my log book that this was my 52nd sailing day for 2020. At least the average is one sail a week, not too bad given the lockdowns and various distractions.

Breaking bad

 A grand day for the AYC short course racing today, sunny blue skies and 15 to 20 knots on the water. Getting down early I discovered I had forgotten my watch, which does help with the starts, so I rigged and headed off home one tha dahon, but the rear tyre blew out half way home. A slower round trip than anticipated but we got home and back in plenty of time for the first race. 

I managed not to come last in any of the three morning races, and I was improving I think. I beat four other sabres in the last race, very satisfying.

I was getting ready to head out again for the next three races after lunch, and was tightening the down haul, when there was a mighty  bang, and the haliyard sheave at the top of the mast carried away. 

The mast is supposed to be watertight but the wood was sodden, and the aluminum had corroded badly. The consensus of knowledgeable chaps at the club was that a fix was possible. 

That was the end of my racing for the day, but it was a great day out.

I used the time to glue up my binocular/radio holding box for the Core Sound. It will look something like this:

Too easy

 Federico suggested getting out today. I spent hours trying to decide which boat to take -the downside of owning too many boats. Eventually I settled on the Sabre, which proved to be a good choice. As it lives down at the club house, I can ride down and get it in the water in a bit over thirty minutes, almost too easy.

Federico had his shiny Impulse, Andrew had his Laser, so they both vanished off into the distance pretty quickly. It was a lovely sailing morning though, and I was pleased just to be out. I spent the last 20 minutes before I came back in deliberately getting into irons and experimenting with methods of getting going again. Still not great at deliberately choosing a particular tack, but getting better. The big discovery of the morning was that I can sail the Sabre backwards, quite fast, for an indefinite period. And sort of steer in a given direction while reversing.  Might be a good party trick one day.

Rigs and ramp

 

We must have been an interesting sight from the shore:  a junk rig, a lanteen, a standing lug, a leg o' mutton cat ketch,  and a laser. A vertable history of small boat rigs. 

I got down to the local ramp round 8, and already it was packed. But it was actually quite pleasant in the overflow paddock. I took Oz for a walk, then took my time rerigging the boat. It took a while, after the long break and having taken everything off to paint. Gerard, then Jim and Penny arrived and we got onto the water by 10 without issue - though the carpark was full, all the boats were out trying to catch snapper. 

I sailed round to off AYC ramp help Frank rig his lanteen rigged dinghy. Andrew was launching his laser. The wind was very light and flukey. For a few minutes we had a flotilla, but very quickly the different speeds of the various craft became manifest, the laser shot ahead, the lanteen dinghy fell far behind. The three cruising dinghies more or less kept pace, and we sailed over to Altona pier, a sort of on water snakes and ladders game as different boats caught and lost the patches of breeze.

I anchored a few hundred metres off the pier, and we rafted up for lunch. The breeze arrived during lunch, and we had a great sail back, to do battle with the ramp traffic. I hope it quietens down soon. Jims theory is that many of the boats belong to unemployed tradies, who have become motorized hunter gatherers. Whatever, I don't think I can singlehanded launch and retrieve from the ramp while it is so busy. I think building the Skerry which I can launch off the beach is the right long term solution for me. And it will be great to have something quick to rig and de-rig. But the Core Sound is a lovely thing, so nice to sail. It feels like a much bigger boat.

Another goodday on the water though.

Werribbee River Return

 

The WBA had its annual trip up the Werribee River on Sunday. The weather forecast wasn't that flash, rain and afternoon thunderstorms. And after the bun fight last year, where the ramp was packed with aggro powerboaters, there were only five wba related craft this year: four kayaks and fearless Gerard in his Shimmy.

It is a lovely river, and the bird life is wonderful.  We got a bit wet in an early storm, but after that the weather cleared up, and we all dried out. The kayak certainly is easy to load launch and retrieve, I was heading back for home by 1.30. 

Sharkey

I spent a pleasant few hours rerigging the Pirogue on Wednesday. I  tried putting in a brailing line, but I suspect Optimist sails are not designed for brailing.

Thursday was warm and round 10 knots predicted,  so I wheeled the Pirogue down to the local beach and launched from there. It was lovely to launch off clean sand into clear water. My usual launching spot, in front of AYC club house, has become choked with seaweed, and the water is murky thanks to the grunge from a nearby drain outfall which has diverted to run parallel to the shore there.

The Pirogue sails nicely in flat water and under 10 knots, and we beat into a North Easterly out past Wise's Reef, and down to the mouth of Kororiot Creek. Another failed attempt to pick my way in there through the maze of sticks which are liberally scattered there. The water was crystal clear, and I spotted four banjo sharks basking on the yellow sand there. 

Their camoflague is no good for broad patches of sand, they are visible from about thity metres away. I was dodging rocks and sharks, with the rudder up, when the Pirogue decided it was time to get out of there, and gybed round by itself.

Somehow I busted the lower rudder pintle again, so back to the drawing board on that one. And the rigging still needs some tweaking, but with a bit more work I think the Pirogue will be a great light airs shallow water explorer.