Spinnaker Pole Repair

One end of our spinnaker pole was damaged - bent pin and body cracked and badly corroded so pin was jammed solidly.

I cut out the bad aluminum with a zip disk.

I  fit a 1" square bar of aluminum to be TIG welded in place

TIG welded the aluminum bar in place.

I drilled a pilot hole through the block to accept the pin

A little paint and she's as good as new.

Buccaneer Bay

Our next trip was up to Buccaneer Bay which is between the two Thormanby Islands.  We motored the 32 miles from West Vancouver for lack of wind.

We rendezvoused with two racers from the Vancouver Rowing Club and had great weather for the beach.
We were warned that there is usually an out-flow wind that kicks up at about 8 p.m. and lasts for a few hours.  Sure enough we were hit with 10 - 15 knots just as we were settling in for the night.  We had payed out 5 to 1 scope on the anchor which held us just fine in the gravel bottom, however one of our friends did drag very close to grounding.  Close call!

We sailed most of the way home close hauled in 15 knots of wind and 4 foot seas.

I've been neglecting my blog lately only because the weather here has been stellar and we've been out enjoying Blackheart as much as possible. 

I've only done a bit of maintenance here and there including a haul out to paint the bottom and replace the zincs.  I also wanted to repack the shaft seal and while I was at it I replaced the log hose.  I then noticed my exhaust hose was weeping a bit so that was also replaced.

We took our maiden voyage across the Strait of Georgia on July 1st and spent a couple of nights in New Castle Island marine park. 

We then sailed down to Silva Bay and stayed at the Page Marine docks for 2 nights where we enjoyed hot showers and a nice meal. 

Head and Galley Cabinets

It's been a bit rough trying to build the cabinets for the the Galley and Head since the power on the dock keeps tripping at the main breaker.  Consequently I haven't been able to heat the cabin as much as I would like in order to cure the epoxy used for tabbing in the cabinet panels.

Front panel fitting for the Head cabinet

Top and bottom shelf fitting

Plastic laminate and sink installed.  Holding tank control mounted on front.

Front panel fitting for Galley

Counter top and shelves installed

Plastic laminate installed on Galley cabinet

Mast Rake

When I installed the furling foil, Blackheart was on the hard so I was not able accuarately determine the mast rake. I guestimated it by assuming the saloon sole was level with the waterline.  It turns out I was off by about 1 degree which actually gave the mast forward rake rather than aft racke.  As a result I was always steering with about 3 degrees of lee helm.

Once I got around to measuring while on the water, I determined that I had 0.10 degrees of foreward mast rack with this "Mini Digital Protractor"

I also calculated the angle by dropping a line from the main halyard sheave which was about  5" before adjustment.

It's difficult to determine the exact angle the line makes without climbing the mast, but taking a picture from shore showed the line was a distance of about 1 1/4" at the top of the mast and the tape measure shows a distance at the goose neck is 6 1/4".  The net distance at the goose neck is about  5". The mast height is taken from P which is 42.0' or 504".

The angle can be found by the formula:

atan (5/504) = .57 degrees which is pretty close to the measured angle which does not take into account the masts pre-bend.

That's about as much rake that I can get as the forestay can not be lengthened any more due to the limited adjustment available on the foil and also the back side of the mast is pretty much up against the partners.

Should be better than it was at any rate.

Reefing Hooks

It's the dead of winter and progress is slow.  I hate the cold!

Last fall we attempted a race in 20 - 30 knots and realized a bit late that I did not have hooks for the reefing cringles and had to jury rig the cunningham.



I'm not sure if the gap seen in this photo was meant to accept a plate with hooks, but I decided it would make sense to do just that.

I bent some 5/16" 316 stainless steel and welded it to 1/4" stainless steel plate and slipped it into the gap in the gooseneck fitting.  I think that filling the gap will also reduce the likelyhood of shock loads if the boom ever had a quick vertical jolt.

Should be good to go now!

Summer Fun

So we've spent the summer sailing in Howe Sound and English Bay. 

Here's a few highlights

I think we were first to cross the line at the start of the VRC Ken & Barbie race in English Bay

When Raven struggled at the QC buoy rounding, we had to luff and back-winded the genny. With light winds, we had no option but to bail to keep going.  We came in 4th but lost 3 or 4 positions.

Avoiding "Ed" 

Finished 11th and corrected to 14th of  20

Off to a good start in the 2012 'Round Bowen Race
 but got stuck in the mud twice and ended with a DNF within 3 boat lengths of the line.