Cool Boat

It was a lovely mild day today, definitely the best day we have had for weeks, and a perfect day to try the new boat.

Paul, who sails a Sabre down at AYC, very kindly came down to give me a hand rigging up for the first time. It was just as well, as my memory of how to rig was faulty, and I got a couple of lines muddled.

Out on the water, the wind was variable, shifting around from Northerly to West, with patches of dead calm, but also some nice pressure.  A perfect day for a first sail.

The boat feels light and is more comfortable with its curved side decks than the Mirror.  The Venturi bailer leaks a bit, about a cup full every 15 minutes.  I will have to research that. And there are some things to get used to, like the noise the sail makes when tacking, as if it is turning itself inside out - I guess it is the battens flicking over from one curve to the opposite.  And I do miss the Huntingford Helm Impeder.  There were a couple of unintended 360's when I let go of the tiller to do something. 

It took me about an hour to de-rig, wash, pack up and get the boat back on its rack, but it was very pleasant in the sun.  A teenage girl with a friendly Alsatian walked past while I was packing up.  "Cool boat" she said.   I had to agree.

New blade

Yesterday I laminated some bits of ply for a new rudder blade.

Today I gave it an initial shaping. I collected the rigging and inspected a couple of professionally made rudder blades (which cost more than half what I paid for the whole boat). They are much finer than my attempt, especially the leading edge. I will try again tomorrow to see if I can get a thinner profile. I need to take at least 1 or 2 mm off the thickness to allow for paint and epoxy coats as well.

The good news is the centre board meets the measurement requirements so I don't need to replace that.

Foiled again

I read through the Sabre dinghy construction and fitting out notes, and realised that the rudder blade on my boat is distictly non standard. The notes specify essentially a rectangular shape. Mine slopes back from the leading edge. I asked Jim at the Dinghy Shop about it when I left standing rigging there for replacement. He said I could get away with it, as long as I didn't start winning. Not much chance of that, but I  will replace it anyhow.

 Just as well I discovered this  before I put too much effort into patching the old blade up. I have been researching NACA 00-- foils, not that I have much confidence I have understood much, and I am laminating up some ply to the requisite thickness. Tomorrow with the help of some templates I will see if I can make a passable rudder blade that could pass class measurement.

I wonder about the centreboard though. I will have to retrieve it and measure. I bought some closed cell foam for the trolley, and new lettering for transom on order, so with luck we might be ready to go soon.

Looks like Friday might be a possible sailing day weather wise - and I have plenty of boats to choose from.

Enough boats

I bought another boat on Friday, a Sabre dinghy. Faced with any decision point it is always possible to find some maxim or quotation that supports whatever you wanted to do in the first place. Didn't Wallis Simpson say you can never be too rich or have too many boats? And William Blake wisely observed that you never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough. I suspect with this boat I am getting close to enough.

A small fleet of Sabres sails out of AYC on Saturdays during the season. Hopefully I will be able to keep in touch and learn something. Even if I only hold onto the boat for a few seasons it should be worth it.

Bob, the previous owner, very kindly delivered the boat yesterday and showed me how to rig it, which was just as well as it would have been a major iq test otherwise. The boat was modesstly priced and seems in not bad nick. I bought it with money received from selling my sea kayak, so arguably the number of boats has stayed constant.

The colour scheme is not one I would have chosen, but it is growing on me, and it will be easy for the recue boat to spot.

After lunch I walked the boat on its beach trolley down to the club and after a lot of fiddling I managed to get it onto the upper level rack. Hopefully I can obtain a middle level or ground level spot before too long.

I will replace the sidestays and forestay, sand and repaint the foils, and get the trolley some new closed cell foam for the bunks. Luckily the weather is atrocious for the coming week so with luck I should have it in shape and ready to go when some nice sailing weather comes around.

Ozzie doesn't seem too unhappy to be snugged up on the bed rather than heading out sailing.

Out and back

Monday had a reasonable forecast, under 15 knots in the morning decreasing as the day progressed.  I could get the car, so no logistical shuffles required, so I got the Core Sound down to the boat ramp round 11.  Thanks to my new checklist I managed not to forget anything important. 

Rigging is still taking a while, plus people like to come up for a chat, which is fine by me, but it does slow things down.  A nice chap who is restoring a Hartley TS16 pulled up in his van.  He had his dog in the van.  Ozzie barked. We had a conversation which went essentially along the lines of "What sort of  [bark bark bark] ? "  Me:  "Sorry?"  Him; "[bark bark bark] is that?"  Me: "Pardon?"

Michael also swung by, and helped me launch. He probably wisely declined an offer to come along for a sail, as the wind was already seeming to get stronger rather than easing.   I got on the the water a bit after 12.  He took a photo as we headed out.  The boat is there, honest.

I put a reef in each sail and headed out, beating into the wind on the basis that it would be easier once it was time to come home.  Here is the track for the day.

If I had been hoping to make it to Werribee River, it would have taken a bloody long time I suspect. I was about 7 miles off, but tacking into the wind would have more than doubled that.  The wind was gusty and quite a chop built up.  At one point a pilot boat came hurtling towards us, and I wondered if we were about the be rescued from something.  But it kept on to one of the freighters anchored out there, perhaps dropping off a pilot.  A lot of diesel to deliver one person though.

The Core Sound was bounding off the top of one wave and crashing into the next, with some impressive spray and a lot of pounding. 

Looking on the BOM site when we got home, it was gusting up to 18 knots, and it felt like it.  When we turned for home, it was difficult to keep the boat flat without hiking out, and with the bouncing about I wasn't too keen on doing too much of that.  I dropped the main, and we ploughed our way home at about 5 knots on mizzen with the first reef alone. 

I discovered that somewhere along the way my anti inversion mast head crab pot float, which I carried all the way after finding it on the Great South Western Walk, was gone.  Probably just as well I didn't notice that while I was out there.   I have bought some new ones. but they are a bit soul-less.  I also spent a while trying to simplify rigging, so hopefully next time will be a bit less of a tangle.

Reconnaissance

On the basis that time spent gathering intelligence is never wasted, we drove down to Portarlington a few days ago. It was also a relatively sunny mild day, at last , and we had no other commitments.

The boat harbour there looks like a promising destination. Some of the fishing fleet have seen better days though.

The visitor berths were empty, but to be honest I doubt I could a) tie up singlehandedwithout drama to the four corners of the berth, nor b) get off the boat onto the pier once tied up.  Maybe anchoring near the beach might work better.

Sunshine,jellyfish

After the cloud burned off Friday was a beautiful sunny day, with wind around 10 knots steady South Westerly.  Too good to miss, as the forecast for the coming week has strong winds every day. I've learned that if a good day comes along and I can make it, then get on out there.

Notwithstanding it took me most of the morning to get out of bed and get organized.  But when I got out there, it was well worth it, enough wind to move us along 3.5 to 4 knots, but no chop.  The boat sails itself pretty much, thanks to the Huntingford Helm impeder, and I could stretch out in the sun and take it easy.  Ozzie was pretty relaxed too.

It was a very low tide, so low that there was a guy riding his bicycle along the sand bars which are usually covered in water.  We sailed over to the mouth of Kororoit Creek, working on the Riddle of the Sands approach that you suss out the channels best at low tide.  Thankyou Davies, I think I can see the way into the creek now, something to try next high tide.

I experimented with wearing gum boots, on the basis that my feet got really cold last time.   It was good launching but when we landed at the creek mouth, of course, I misjudged the depth at a sandbar, and got both water over the tops of both boots.  So much for warm dry feet.

On the way home we didn't want to stop. and we sailed on past the Red Stick and over towards Point Cook.  There were an extraordinary number of Blue Blubber (Catostylus mosaicus) jelly fish out there.  Inevitably the centre board hits some of them, which is sort of distressing for me and must be much worse for them.  So after a number of jellyfish-centre board collisions, we turned round and headed for home.

The water is getting cold - 12.5 degrees at the moment.  I have been reading up on survival in cold water - I think I will definitely wear my wet suit and thermals from now on, just in case.

By the time I had packed up the boat, my feet had largely lost sensation.  A really memorably good day on the water though, one I think I will remember.