keltiks' 1980s Ross 35

[keltik]

Had the lift out

And wash down

Wasn't that bad in my opinion.... but that's not bad for a cruising boat. For racing - that amount of slime seems to have cost us about 0.8-1.0 knot of speed.  Which when you're only doing 7ish knots is a fair percentage penalty.

Also managed to confirm the 2.3m draft and got an approximate weight thats close enough to the data sheet.  So yeah, the haul out was good.  No nasty surprises.  A couple of bare patches from where the props were placed the last time it was painted, and a couple bare patches on the keel where we might have found the bottom of the harbour.

The 2 handed race was immediately after the wash down - 3rd place and VERY close to beating La Vida for 2nd 

[keltik]

Then Sunday did the open series race with equally pleasing results.  3rd place after a great battle with Rimfire.  We had our yellow gennaker up because I didn't feel comfortable getting a spinnaker up with how little experience the crew had on this boat.  In hindsight, should've just licked the stamp and sent it.

It felt good this time because it was a lack of crew skill and tactics that cost us the most time - rather than having everything trimmed as good as we could and still watching boats we should be competitive with sail past us.

Got a couple other small upgrades going on which i'll detail next time on BOAT STORIES.

[keltik]

Round 6 of the open series resulted in a well earned 2nd place. First race I've done without the old man on board.

We got our Spinnaker out for a short time but it was flying pretty unstable.  It's hard to explain exactly why without better diagrams than I can manage on my phone - so that's a story for another post.  If we had kept it up for the whole downwind leg - I think first place was on the cards. 

[keltik]

Then in the next 2 handed race, the wind direction was almost perfect to fly our new "jib top" trademe special sail.  A long downwind leg followed by a long reach back up the harbour.  New sail was very good, but the skipper let the team down. 

I managed to park the boat in an area with bugger all wind behind Matakana and LOTS of tide.  Instead of taking the hit, going backwards and getting out of there, I stuck it out with Rimfire and La Vida.  Then we had a mint drag race but the rest of the pack had disappeared into the distance.

Ended up somewhere in the middle. Still it was a mint day out with some orca joining the race.  Next post I'll detail the spinnaker problem and what I've just dropped a bunch of money on...

[keltik]

Here's the first bunch of money, a proper autopilot.

Looks basically the same as the old tiller pilot but there's one big difference.  On the tiller pilot, all of the magic is self contained in one box including the ram to steer the boat.  On this one, the ram is separate and the smart stuff lives elsewhere.  So down under the rear bed, there's a compass/gyro sensor and a motor controller box.

The compass sensor thing, the ram controller and the control panel display all link together on a high speed bus.  Because the sensitive bits can be below deck and far away from speakers/metal stuff that cause interference - this should solve my previous problem.  Also the newer compass gyro thing is all solid state instead of a bullshit 40 year old design gimbaling fluxgate compass like the old ones.  Plus its got the smarts to learn sea states and how the boat is handling then make proactive adjustments as the boat rolls down waves.  We'll see just how good it is once the commissioning is finished next weekend.

With more data, the new autopilot can be more accurate.  I haven't yet figured out a way to tell it rudder position - but boat speed and wind direction would be useful.  It will use speed through the water to adjust the amount of steering movement used as the rudder will be more effective at higher speeds.  To get the autopilot talking to my previous generation instruments, I had to add in a converter which takes the serial data and whacks it onto the new style bus.  Adding my chart plotter onto this bus also gives the autopilot heading data so it can steer to a set waypoint.

I also added a new generation multi-function display onto the bus which can replicate any instrument (currently showing True Wind Angle and True Wind Speed).

This means the 2 instruments at the back of the boat (seen left and right above the speakers) can be used by the person steering when there's someone in the way of the other instruments (grey squares on the cabin bulkhead).  And there's ALWAYS someone in the way of the depth gauge when you're in shallow water trying to pick the right time to tack.

[keltik]

Rather complicated post coming up.  The second big purchase was this;

Well not this exactly, but the reason for installing a longer track on the cabin top.

To make sense of this, lets look at some sails.  These are my 3 regularly used headsails (go on the front).  At the bottom, we have the #1 Genoa in grey.  The next white sail is the #2 Genoa and the third multi-color sail is our #3 Jib (there is also a #4 jib but its a shit day when that has to come out).  Since this is primarily a car forum, I'll explain a little more in case anyone is interested.

Big genoas are great for making lots of power.  As seen on the previous page, La Vida has a big genoa and relatively small main sail.  My boat has a big main sail.

Because these big genoas are so long - they have to go outside the wires that hold the mast up (shrouds).  Every time you tack, the wind has to blow the whole sail around the mast then some poor sucker has to crank it in tight with the winch.  This takes time.  But if you're making lots of power with the sail - its worth it.

There's also an effective limit to how tight you can pull them in towards the centreline of the boat as the sail can only come in as far as the wires holding the mast up.  Beyond a certain point - the wind tends to accelerate through the 'slot' between the genoa and the main and will push on the back side of the main "backwind" reducing its effectiveness.  Again, if you have a huge genoa making power and a small main - not a big drawback.

What I've learned so far this year, is that around Tauranga harbour, its better to be able to tack quick.  And on my boat, the quicker tacking outweighs the benefit of a bigger headsail since the mainsail is still making lots of power.  

So when we run the #3 jib - because its shorter, the ropes controlling it can be run inside the shrouds - which is what that track on the deck is for.  This means it can be run tighter for better performance going into the wind.  It also doesn't have to blow all the way around the mast during tacks and its way quicker and easier for the guy on the winch.

You can see the better angles quite well in this pic, and how short the track was previously (also look at the wool tufts on those sails - beautiful laminar flow!)

Now the #3 jib in the above pic is falling to bits, we put another tear in it last weekend so its time for it to be thrown away.  I do have an older less good #3 jib which will replace it as our preferred sail for winds around 25-30knots.

The local sailmaker is building a new #2.5 jib which will be a slightly larger area than the existing one.  Specifically designed to be efficient from 15-25knots of wind.  So this will become the favourite sail for use around the harbour or on windy days.  The longer track will give us more control over the shape of the sail as the position of the pulley on that track changes the angle you're pulling on the sail- thus changing how tight the bottom is vs the top and its overall shape.

Pics of the sail to follow in a couple weeks once its finished.

[keltik]

And the final update for this week, I've been noticing some oil in the bottom of the engine bay occasionally.  Too clean to be diesel engine oil, too viscous to be refrigerant oil and too non stinky to be gear oil.

Solved the mystery today.  The gearbox oil is milky and specifies normal 15w40 engine oil. So water must be leaking into the drive leg past the prop shaft seal and displacing the oil out of the breather.  

This means the boat is coming out of the water as soon as the new seals arrive. Since all of the hardware is immersed in salt water 24/7 I'm sure disassembly will be a breeze....