keltik

Had my first race in the 2 handed series on Saturday.  Conditions were perfect for my boat with very light winds so we ran the bigger foresail which I've never used before.  It was the right call because we spent the whole race wringing every bit of performance out of what little wind was available.

We signed on for the race via radio and were given a 1pm starting time....which was a problem since we were ten mins away from the start line and only had 5 minutes to get there.  Crossed the line at 1:06pm and got straight into a battle with a Farr 1020.  

Managed to stay alongside the Farr and eventually took the lead. This made my dad happier and prouder than I've managed in the previous 30years.  He was literally doing his happy dance.

We were heading back towards the mount when the Farr sailed a course further into the harbour while I was heading straight across the entrance taking the shortest route to the next mark.  It became apparent who was right as the outgoing tide swept us into a wind shadow underneath the mount and pulled the boat out the harbour entrance at alarming speed. Diagram attached, red line is the next mark we were headed for.

I wasn't the only one, a bit further out the entrance was the boat that had been in first place.  With no steerage, no control and seeing how hopeless the situation was - I fired up the engine and motored back into the harbor to a safe position and resumed sailing but planned on withdrawing from the race for cheating and using the iron sail   

We continued to fight towards the last mark, but with the wind dropping even more, it was impossible to make progress against the current. So after spending 30 mins tacking upwind to gain absolutely no ground - we called it a night and headed home.

Turns out the Farr we passed and then got passed by finished in first place.  The boat further out the entrance than us managed to complete the course and finish 2nd after motoring back into the harbour and doing some penalty 360 turns. Everyone else was a DNF.

Lessons learned:

Its ok to use the motor to get back to a safe position as long as you take the appropriate penalty and do it the right way.

The boat is very competitive in light winds.

Think about the current as well as the wind when deciding what course to take.

Those self tailing winches are fucking excellent.

Stay tuned for the next race in 3 weeks time.

So let's give this story a real good shot with some context. Otherwise we look like a couple idiots.... Which isn't inaccurate, but not the whole story.

A million years ago, Mr Keltik Snr decided he needed a hobby to melt away the stresses of the working week and chose sailing.  He did all the appropriate study, got his dayskipper, yacht master and ocean master certificates.  Bought a 28ft 1970s boat and made all the mistakes on it over a few years of sailing the shit cold brown waters of the Bristol Channel/Irish sea around Wales.

Before eventually slamming down the credit card at the 1999 London boat show and buying a brand new Beneteau 31.7

Damn that was a nice boat.  Anyways, a few years later we sold everything and moved to NZ.  Naturally the old boy was going to need another boat so ordered something a bit bigger, a Bavaria 38.  Selling your business, house and cars then moving to a country where the exchange rate triples your money allows such luxuries.

We lived in Ohope at the time, dad specifically picked that house so he could park his new boat in the harbour 50 meters away.  He bought a mooring and spent a few days with a fish finder in a dinghy charting the entrance to Ohiwa harbour as there are no channel marks or leading lights to follow.

The yacht got delivered to the viaduct basin from Germany, final installation of all the electrical accessories and engine etc were done and we all went out on the sea trials.  One week after it was signed off, we started the delivery trip.

The first leg from Westhaven to Whitianga went pretty well. Second leg to Tauranga was easy and the third leg to Whakatane was a bit stressful crossing the river bar but went ok.  We had planned to do the final trip over to Ohiwa the next day but the wind had picked up and there was a bit of a storm due to come through so we postponed for a week.

The following weekend, we did the short trip over to Ohiwa. There was still a bit of a swell but it seemed manageable.

Coming in through the entrance we had the dinghy towed behind in case we wanted to take it to scout ahead.  Half way into the entrance, it was getting a bit shallow.  There wasn't deep water where it was supposed to be. So while maneuvering about trying to find the channel, the keel touched the bottom. Before we could do much about it, a wave picked up the boat and gently dropped it down a bit further into the shallows.  

As dad tried to free the boat, a medium sized wave came through, picked us up and dropped the boat a little further into the sand.  Having a thin lead fin style keel, it just speared itself into the sand and we were stuck.

Whilst trying to figure out the next move, a few more rollers came in and knocked the boat sideways.  In the trough of each wave, the propeller was getting out of the water. Then on the crest of the next wave - with full power to the engine, we were free! The bilge pump clicked on... Not usually a good sign.

"Take the wheel son, give it full power back out to sea".  I pointed the boat back out the entrance as dad went below to check for damage.  I will never forget the look on his face as he lifted the floorboards in the cabin and stared through the multiple 6x18inch holes where the keel bolts used to be at the sea floor going past.

He attempted to block the holes with the seat squabs or anything to hand but it all got sucked out into the sea as the boat rolled around.

He made a mayday call then shouted at me to keep the engine at full power.  The throttle was pinned... But now the water level in the engine bay was up to the air filter.  The diesel slowly died.

We all sat there in silence.  Put on lifejackets. Grabbed some floaty stuff to hang onto and prepared to get into the dinghy... Which was gone.

All that was left was a frayed piece of rope.  I guess the propeller ate it and the dinghy noped itself out of there.

So we stayed with the boat untill we just swam away from the cockpit.  Some nice chap in a fishing boat heard the mayday and picked us up within 10 mins of being in the water.

He dropped us off at the Ohope wharf and we walked the couple hundred meters home.

Later that day, we hopped in the car and drove around to Ohiwa to find the yacht washed up onto the beach.  The deck was split off from the hull, splintered fiberglass and damage everywhere.

Dad called the insurance company and they were going to send some people to start the salvage operation.  While we waited, we climbed into the boat and made a start on taking the mast and rigging down.  The insurance assessor turned up just as we were unloading the fridge full of beer.  A slightly suspicious look.

A few hours later, 2 excavators arrived on the beach and set up a sling between their booms then carried the hull off the beach and loaded it onto a lowboy.

Once the dust had settled, dad had to pay his $500 insurance excess and got paid out as a total loss.

Not even 2 weeks from delivery to write off.

Then after a respectful mourning period he bought another one and we all lived happily ever after.

Got another job ticked off the wish list.  Have had a saved search on trademe since November and finally the perfect pair of self tailing winches came up for sale.  Very rare to see any come up for sale at all, never mind a matching pair in exactly the right size for me.

So before we begin, let's make sure we know what a self tailing winch is.  On a regular yacht sheet winch (sheet being the boaty word for a rope controlling a sail) you wrap the rope around the winch drum a couple times and apply tension to the loose end (the tail) whilst turning the winch.  If you don't have enough tension on the tail, the rope just slips on the drum.  So to get maximum power into the winch, you really need 2 hands on the handle turning it - and a second person pulling the loose end or 'tailing' for you.

Not ideal when you only have 2 people and the other one is supposed to be steering or doing something more important.

So the existing Masport Barlow winches just won't do.  They also have no gear reduction so the drum of the winch turns at the same speed as the handle.

Picked up some grease and some machine oil and set about stripping the new ones down.  They'd been in someone's shed for 10years collecting dust so I thought would need a really good clean.

So nice to see a piece of kit that's about 25 years old and still in excellent condition.  The base and gear train are solid bronze, the winch drum is anodized aluminum and the bearings and ratchets are all stainless.  A few delrin spacers and some chromed bronze external hardware.

I kinda get why they are like $1,400 new.  Especially when you're going to expect 20+ years of use in a saltwater environment if they're treated right.

And installed them on the boat.

You can see the magic of the self tailing winch. The loose end goes over that horn and into a spring loaded grippy groove.  This does the tailing for you, leaving your second crew member free to fetch beers.

The new winches also have a gear reduction so the handle requires more than 1 turn to spin the winch drum once.  This reduces the effort required.  These winches aren't big enough to have multiple gears - on the bigger ones, you'll get one gear reduction turning the handle clockwise and a greater reduction anticlockwise.

The riggers got the mast finished Friday afternoon. Loaded up the Mazda service team on Saturday and filled a chilly bin with beverages. Some sick fucker brought a box of big can ranfurly.

https://i.imgur.com/tLBWj7T.mp4

Didn't have reefing lines so had a bit too much sail up for the amount of wind.  Sailed past the mount and had a look outside the harbour but it was a bit too hectic. Heading back in, we tried a gybe (turning the back of the boat through the wind) and got massively overpowered. Had the boat heeled over so far the water line was half way up the cabin windows and half way up my back sitting in the low side of the cockpit.  Decided to drop sails and motor for a bit after that.

So we found a sheltered spot behind matakana island, dropped anchor and threw some lines in the water.

Pretended to fish for a couple hours, had some lunch and plenty of beers.

A good day out.  Headed home with just the small foresail up and the engine humming away at low revs.

Next job is to get some reefing lines run for the main sail so it's not so unwieldy. Should have a good day for it this Sunday then I'll bring the boat home from Tauranga Sunday night.

Thanks to the average weather I didn't quite get my money's worth having it in the marina.  It was nice not having to set the boat up every time but it felt a bit lame knowing every week is $100 you don't get back so you feel extra pressure to go out.  

Had the local rigging guy take a look at the boat. Since it's 'rod rigged' with solid nitronic rod holding the mast up instead of multi strand wire - the usual wear signs of fraying or unraveling wires don't really exist. It just fatigues, cracks then your mast falls off the next time you load it hard enough. So the experts recommend having it all removed and checked every 7-10 years.  The expected lifespan is 15-20 years. Well this rig is 30 years old now.  So today we took it all down and sent the lot off to his workshop for inspection.

Turns out one rod had some cracks in it, a couple of the rigging toggles were damaged and needed to be replaced and the whole way it was set up was a bit janky.

As all of the rigging wire gets coiled and bent out of shape when you lower the mast to go on the trailer, the solid rod was a massive pain in the ass to deal with. Especially when you need to be careful not to kink it.  It needed a minimum bend radius of something like 1.5m so was rather unwieldy to tie down.  The bonus of rod is that it lasts longer than wire and doesn't stretch, but the rest of the boat probably won't make another 30 years and racing performance is less important to me than ease of trailering the boat.

So I've made the tough decision to throw money at the problem and make it go away. Hopefully on Friday we will put the mast up with the rod replaced by more conventional easier to handle wire.  All new hardware and a few other minor annoyances fixed.

At least once this is done, the chances of being killed by a fallen rig dragging me into the sea will be reduced.

My wallet is thoroughly beaten and bleeding.

Fingers crossed we get it all done in time for Saturdays fishing trip. 

Did a sailing

New Honda outboard is a peach. Had enough grunt to start bending the mounting bracket in half so will get a tig magician to lightning glue a strengthening backing plate onto it.

Mrs didn't freak out this time.

Put it in the boat park for a few weeks so I don't have to dick around setting it up each weekend.

Next event is taking the workshop lads out for a drink/sail/fish on Saturday if the weather holds up.

Then going to do the plate island race the week after.

Update time.

Got the hole fixed. Sent it to Mr Jones Snr who has the luxury of being retired so had plenty of time to spend on it.

Towed it into work to paint the bottom so I could have a nice warm dry space.

Lifted the boat off the trailer with a jack under the front. Found a screw had backed out of one of the bunks and ripped a hole in the hull. So quickly bogged that up.

Got 3 coats of epoxy barrier paint on the bottom.  Learned that the fumes from that paint are pretty grunty!

Then threw a couple coats of antifouling paint on there. Last paint job is to add a silver pinstripe along the waterline.  

Got the signwriter to throw a name on the side.

The star is some kinda hi-vis stuff used on road signs.  Looks mint with some light on it.

Tempted to hire a berth at Tauranga for the rest of April so I can do a few long weekends without having to set up the boat and tow it around each weekend.

Took dad sailing for his birthday.  Absolutely perfect day for it 

The missus had a bit of a freakout.  She's never been on a boat in the sea before and never been sailing with any wind.  Heeling over going to windward was a bit much for her.  She had the death grip on the bulkhead and wouldn't move or speak.

Anchored off matakana for a bit then dropped her off at the ramp and went for a quick blast with the old man to push it a bit harder.

It's quick!  Sails like a much bigger boat.  I'm thoroughly impressed.  Doesn't point as close to the wind as I'd like and there are some other handling quirks to get used to. On the whole, I feel a lot better now I know it works.

Today's progress

Trailer has a legit WOF from not my workshop.

Rotten hole has been patched and faired.

And painted.

Not exactly Roman levels of fabrication excellence, but it's getting done.

Bought some epoxy barrier coat and antifouling paint for the hull.  This weekends mission is to get that sorted.