keltiks' 1980s Ross 35

[keltik]

Got the lighter weight pink spinnaker out last Sunday. It's in great shape.

Then Saturday this week, sent it around Karewa Island in perfect conditions.

https://i.imgur.com/cMBiU59.mp4

Then the skipper for Sunday's open series race decided to go fishing because his boat wouldn't move in the 5 knot winds... So took the missus out on ours instead.

Got the boat at the marina until next weekend's 2 handed race.  Then I can tow it home and make some progress and post some more project thread content.

[keltik]

A bit of progress but it's all stuff that doesn't photograph easily.

Let's start with the race results;

So we have a DNF, A didn't start, 2nd place and 3rd.  One more race to hold onto third place in the series.

Trying to find somewhere friendly with a gantry crane so I can lift the keel out the top to antifoul paint it so I can leave the boat moored for a few months over summer.  Can only drop it down 12inches on the trailer before it hits the axle so will have to come out the top.  Plan B is to get the marina travel-lift to hold the boat for an hour while I slap some paint on... But that will be money.

[keltik]

Got the solar panel hooked up and the engine charging circuit.

Added some hanging wardrobe organisers for storing odds n ends.

Cabin lighting sorted with a single white/red light in the fore cabin and some LED strips in the saloon.

The LED strips drew a bit more current than expected so added a switch to the port side lights so you can run half if you don't need max intensity.

Next up, new seat squabs for the interior, fit the shitter and hopefully some more reliable instruments.  

[johnnyfive]

2 hours ago, keltik said:

Trying to find somewhere friendly with a gantry crane so I can lift the keel out the top to antifoul paint it so I can leave the boat moored for a few months over summer.  Can only drop it down 12inches on the trailer before it hits the axle so will have to come out the top.  Plan B is to get the marina travel-lift to hold the boat for an hour while I slap some paint on... But that will be money.

What sorta height you need to achieve? And weight? The digger is currently functional, or a tractor, or I also have a 3phase endless chain (if you have something to hang it from and a power source).

The old keltik would have leapt at a hairbrained and sketchy way achieve goal.

[johnnyfive]

I reckon the farm needs a hiab

[keltik]

@johnnyfive Would need about 5-6 metres lift height and weight should be somewhere around 150-250kg.  I'll give it a try with Kato, the last person I saw doing this used a digger so it seems legit.

[HighLUX]

A couple of strops and something to anchor one to while you take a 2nd bite so you can get the height on Kato perry I reckon it would work

[keltik]

Final race in the winter 2 handed series done on Saturday.  Was a mint day for it and we made some good tactical calls resulting in a bottle of rum for first place.  

We had a good lead through the first part of the race but La Vida was catching us quickly.... Until we managed to run aground, luckily it was on a narrow sand ridge and we dragged our keel over it after a few seconds. Going to need to slap some more paint on there.

La Vida was distracted trying to keep out of the way of a container ship so didn't notice our sudden loss of speed. She decided to follow our course and smacked into the same ridge but got stuck. 

The win was the best father's Day present I could've hoped for. The old man did his victory jig when we crossed the line and we celebrated at the club.

Sunday was another awesome sailing day and I was out on La Vida in the open series race. 2nd place meant some more well earned beers.

[keltik]

Things to do;

Move the cockpit spinnaker winches so they don't jab you in the hip when you sit down.

Keep an eye on the trademe for some second hand instruments.

Take a little bit more rake out of the mast by shortening the forestay another inch.

Investigate running the jib sheet onto the coachroof so it's easier to trim.

Reseal some more deck fittings.

Fit the toilet.

[keltik]

On 27/08/2023 at 20:34, johnnyfive said:

The old keltik would have leapt at a hairbrained and sketchy way achieve goal.

Yup that worked.  Precision work with a flogged out excavator.

Nicely done. Many thanks for your help Mr Bell.  Didn't actually get a photo of it all nicely painted. What a rookie mistake.

[johnnyfive]

Everyone will just have to trust it's done

Fresh rebuild, no reciepts

[keltik]

In today's episode of "5 minute jobs that took multiple hours" we have some upgrades.

Repaired the deck underneath the keel hoist sheaves. 

Moved the jib sheet to the cabin top self tailing winch.  This will make it much easier to trim the sail from a comfortable position.

And attached this little placard in the cabin. Hopefully I'll get another one to go with it next winter.

[keltik]

I need to do something about the depth sounder.  Occasionally it would miss a few pings and report the depth as deeper than it was. The only thing worse than a broken gauge is an unreliable one.

Now I could have sent this one back to Midas, replaced the transducer and got them to service and recalibrate it... But a Raymarine ST60 came up on trademe and it has some nice new features along with massive numbers I can actually read.

This one will also network with my autopilot and display course errors, waypoints n stuff. Also has auto gain control and a much better backlight.

Had to upgrade the transducer. Rather than remove the original one, I decided to install the new one slightly further back in a flatter part of the hull that's less likely to get turbulent water over it.

Plus the original one had a lot of glue around it so was probably going to be a mission to remove.

Now I'll keep my eyes open for the matching Raymarine speed and wind gauges.

[keltik]

Been working real hard the last couple weeks. Finally got a matching set of Raymarine gauges and sorted out the interior.

Nah just kidding. Bought another boat instead.

Upgraded to a Ross 35.  Has a toilet, a fridge and a bit more room aboard.  Sailed back from Auckland on the weekend with a lovely overnight stop at Mercury Island.

Unfortunately the new boat would be in the racing division not the half drunk cruising division so we're gonna have to learn how to sail properly.

[tortron]

You might have to pull finger on that

[keltik]

Was about to install a Bluetooth adaptor for the stereo but it seems there's already one fitted. Nice!

Tidied up a few things and added some safety items ahead of tomorrow's race.

Going around Karewa, Mayor and Motiti islands. It's going to be a miserable lumpy wet day.

If anyone's keen, 6:30am at bridge marina - bring teabags 

[keltik]

Left home 5:15am. Started the race 8am. Finished 9:37pm. Back in the marina 10:40pm. Home in bed 1:30am after tidying up the boat and swapping some sharns over a cold drink. A fucking long day.

The whole race was miserable grey with a few patches of rain to moisten everything up.  

Didn't take many photos as we were busy learning how to make the boat go fast from our coach.

We had a reasonably slow start in low wind, rounded Karewa Island and got it going much better out to Mayor Island.  Going round the back of Mayor, up went the biggest spinnaker we had for a long run down wind to Motiti Island.  Wish I'd taken a picture of it since it's bright purple with a yellow 3 pointed star.  I've named it Barney. (Photo borrowed from previous owner)

At Motiti Island, thanks to the wind swinging around to the north east, we were able to keep Barney up the whole way round the island and rig it to run across the wind with the spinnaker pole forward and angled down like in this pic.

The spinnaker pole on this boat attaches to the mast at a car on a track so you can change the height to suit different situations (getting beyond my expertise).  

With the finish line 4 miles ahead, we were in second place giving it hell to chase down the person in 1st.  By this point it was 9pm, dark and the wind had built to 15 knots.  Barney was putting a shitload of force into the spinnaker pole with the way we had it rigged.  The boat was going like a going thing on going day. We were pulling away from the pack hunting down the boat in 1st. The car twisted under the load, its locking pin let go and it blasted through the stop at the end of the track. The now loose spinnaker pole javelined itself through the mainsail about 4 metres above the deck.

With much shouting and adrenaline fuelled work - the crew got the spinnaker down in the dark, removed the pole from the mainsail and we limped along to the finish line with a 2 metre long tear in the main.

Finished the race in 4th place out of 7 but we were so close to being second across the line.

On the whole, an enjoyable experience but I'm also glad that's the longest race of the year done.

Next weekend I'll get the sail repaired and replace the other broken bits.  A few months of summer cruising before the next race to Mayor Island in February.

[keltik]

Main sail repaired, decided to do one of the Karewa island races with the Tauranga yacht club, didn't break anything and have had a few good sails since then.

One job that's been on the to-do list for a while was making the engine stop with the key. At the moment, someone has to open the engine compartment and hit the stop lever on the fuel rack.

Found the fuel shut off solenoid has a little manual override lever on it so you can keep the engine running even if the electrics fail.  Someone must have bumped the lever doing the last oil change. Put it back in the right place and that's another job ticked off the list.

Next was tackling the leak from the raw water pump.  It's been leaking so long the bottom of the engine compartment has a half inch thick crust of salt.  

Easy enough to get the pump off and apart. The previous owner knew it was a problem so gave us a new seal kit for it.

Cleaned up the shaft and it's got a decent wear groove from the water seal.

Put it all back together with a new impeller and miraculously it doesn't leak. I suspect we're going to need a new shaft in there if it gets drippy again.

Get a few more trips done then maybe look at doing an oil change.

[Sambo]

Sorry if I'm telling you how to suck eggs, but definitely don't try and drain the oil out of the sump. Cleaning oil out of the bilge isn't fun. You want an oil extractor pump.

[keltik]

8 hours ago, Sambo said:

Sorry if I'm telling you how to suck eggs, but definitely don't try and drain the oil out of the sump. Cleaning oil out of the bilge isn't fun. 

That's what the bilge pump is for? Pump the oil outside the environment.

There's nothing better than sucking out hot used oil with a cheap transfer pump that falls apart mid job.