Can you believe it's the middle of November? How time flies when you're sail boat racing!
I crewed on a Hanse 400 for the last three events of the VARC season. The first regatta was a bit of a bust as we only got in one race on Saturday due to lack of wind, and Sunday we blew out the main sail in the first race in 20 knots of wind and had to retire. I was assigned to foresail trim Saturday and main trim on Sunday. The second event was a distance race from Jerico to the Fraser river's south arm light and back, but we lost all wind just after turning for home and we had to retire. I was trimming main sail agian. The last regatta went a bit better as we completed 5 races over the two days, but finished a dismal 12th in a field of 14. I was trimming main again. I admire the skill of these skippers who put their boats within a few feet of each other going in all directions and manage, for the most part, to avoid trading paint.
Haven't got much done on Blackheart lately and now the weather is colder and days are shorter I don't feel much in the mood to tackle sanding fiberglass. But the work must be done so as the saying goes "suck it up princess".
I did manage to clean out the diesel tank and was happy to find there was very little water and not much crud to clean out. I pumped 27 gallons of diesel through a 30 micron filter into 5 gallon fuel cans, scrubbed out the fiberglass fuel tank with brushes, rags and solvent and then pumped the diesel back into the fuel tank through a 2 micron filter.
I also replaced the fuel pick-up from a rubber hose to a copper pipe with a 90 degree bend at the bottom which rests tight on the bottom of the tank. I also noted that the fuel vent line did not protrude down into the tank at all so fueling would fill the tank completely to the top and overflow via the filler pipe. The tank side of the vent fitting was threaded so I installed a 2'' pipe nipple which should cause fuel to squirt from the vent hose when the tank level is 2'' from the top. Also previously installed a whistle in the vent line which should warn me when vent line begins to fill with fuel and prevent fuel from venting onto the teak deck.
I spent most of last weekend sanding the V-berth in preparation for painting. I still a long way to go.
