Surprise's Log Day Sailer 11750

April Series #4 -rough video

This is the first time I've used a small video camera system I put together on Surprise. Editing it and getting something worthwhile will be a lot of work, so this is just a little clip from when we left the dock. More later, and I hope in the coming weeks I'll get better at placing the camera so that it shows more interesting things.
Note the time stamp on the video is one day off.

April Series #4 track

Here's the track logs for the race last night. For some reason, the GPS stopped recording during the last upwind leg. This has never happened before, I could not find any reason that this would happen. Hoping it doesn't happen again.
(click for a larger image.)

April Series #4 - At last!

I finally made it out on the water yesterday, Winds 10-15kt, gusting 20. Got on plane a couple of times with the spinnaker.
The fleet was two DS's in the Portsmouth fleet, several Lasers, a 420 and a 470. Started with the Vanguard-15 fleet, I counted 4-5.
Was buried at the start, but managed to stay up with the Vanguards and ahead of the Lasers for a good part of the race.
Course was a trapezoid, S-W-R-L-W-L-W-L-W-R-F. The offset course we sailed was short so it was a good exercise for us to set and douse the spin. Both Joe and I were rusty but it flaked off quickly.

GPS plot and a new feature coming hopefully soon - tonight, I hope!

April Series 2 - Another kind of FAIL

I had a hard time concentrating at work Weds. Again, I was looking forward to getting on the water for the first time this year for the Wednesday Night Races. I got down to the shed, and found a strange lock on my shed. There was a tag telling me to call the shed's manager. One thing came to my mind - They didn't get my rent check. I was sure I wrote it out and sent it to them, but there's always this nagging thing that comes up in the back of my mind when these things happen. "Did I really write the check?" "Did I send it?" "Did they receive it?" "Did someone steal the check somehow?" I called the management and got an answering machine. Let them the pertinent information. I waited a few minutes, but had to response... The clock was ticking. Unless I could get this straightened out, the sailing was off. I got nervous about the fact I had sent the check, so I headed home to find the check register and confirm the check had cleared. I called my crew and let him know what was up. Again, no answer. Left a message. Called K. Again, no answer. I was feeling alone.

Got home, found the check book… Check 768- called the bank, confirmed it had cleared. Now I was steamed…
I went back to the park, and called Joe, and confirmed we were not sailing that evening.

Met Joe at the dock, and commiserated.

Later, after doing other things not of concern to this blog, I finally got a call and found that the shed had been burgled… I went to the shed and found the manager who had locked the shed down.

There were three power tools left in there that were gone. I took the lock from the trailer and used it to secure the shed. And home I went. Exceedingly unhappy that I had not only been gypped out of my sail, but that three power tools I had left in there only a couple of days earlier had been stolen.

I went to the police this morning, and filed a report. Apparently someone caught a guy there on Monday, took his license plate when he fled and called the police. I can only hope they catch the scumbag.

Block Repair Phase II

Today I went back to the shed where the boat lives when she's not on the water. After taking off the clamp, I sanded the epoxy drippings away.

Next, I mixed up some unthickened Epoxy, and wet out several pieces of glass cloth. These I placed so that they contacted the block and the surrounding underside of the cuddy.

The key to getting the glass to stick was not to mess with it too much after placing it. My experience is that if you do that, you get more air bubbles in the glass/epoxy matrix. The strings of glass hanging down will be sanded away next time. Pretty ugly, huh? Looks like of like some sort of pimple. Good thing this is never seen. Just so long as it works.

Block Repair Phase I

I spent the day repairing the block that broke free last Wednesday.
It's a three stage operation. The big problem I've encountered is the problem of applying enough force to clamp the wooden pad in place. In the past, I used a clamp set up as a spreader with on end against the deck the other against the wooden pad. I was never satisfied with that method because the spreader was never an optimum length. Another problem was that spreader pads never bore perpendicularly on the block and the deck, so when pressure was applied using the clamp, often it would slip.

This time, I tried something different. I reasoned that the big problem was one of stability in the clamping system. If I could somehow create a perpendicular surface for the spreader to bear on at an angle that was close enough to perpendicular at the wooden pad being bonded, I was confident I could get a good solid bond.

Since my boat is a Spindrift with a hull liner, there are shelves on the port and starboard sides of the hull under the cuddy. I built a spanning member out of a 2"x4" with supports on the ends to clear the wooden rails on the shelves. Here's a photo:

The support was a 3" long piece of 2x4 attached at the ends. The black material is black plastic placed to catch any epoxy that drips.

I dry-fitted the clamp and the wood pad to make sure it would hold properly.

To bond the pad to the surface, I mixed up some West System epoxy with enough micro fibers to thicken it to the consistency of mayonnaise. To keep the clamp for being bonded accidentally to the pad, I placed a piece of waxed paper in between. It also keeps any epoxy from dripping on the clamp.

After it cures, I will lay up some fiberglass around the pad to provide some additional strength. That's for the next entry.

April Series #1...FAIL

So here I am, looking forward to the first Wednesday race of the year. I got to the dock, with Surprise in tow, Joe showed up right on time, and we started rigging. There's always something about sailing after the boat has been out of the water for a few months that makes me nervous. It was windy, too which is good, but makes problems more likely. After tensioning the rig, I noticed what looked like rust around the terminal on the shrouds. I sprayed them with some WD-40 and found the discoloration flaked off with my fingernail.
The rudder for some reason had some loose bolts, which I tightened up quickly.

We backed the boat into the water, and with the wind at 15-20mph, and a lot of chop at the dock, it was challenging to put the rudder on. We raised the sail, and left eh dock. The water was low enough where we couldn't get the centerboard down all the way at the dock. We tacked once and got the board down. I tightened in on the main sheet and Joe hauled on the jib sheet. There was a loud bang.
As I wondered what the hell happened, and saw the turning block that the jib sheet runs through on the port side to give a fair lead for the cleat had broken loose. Enough to call it a day. We made it back to the dock, brought the sails down and pulled the boat out of the water.

Joe getting something ready.

It was a nice day.

The block and associated support

Where that block should be

Needless to say, We were really disappointed. I've got to figure out how to repair this between now and next Weds. Not that easy to do since I lost my garage and most of of my tools in Ike.

So, maybe next week, I'll be able to actually have something slightly more interesting. We'll see...