Post haul out inspection

A chance to assess how Ciao Bella has weathered during the so called summer and start making that never ending list of jobs to do.

Haul out

Today was supposed to be a nice easy day chilling at home, It started off well enough. I was slobbing about in my dressing gown, watching rubbish TV and surfing the net.   I started to plan the end of season haul out for next weekend.   I put some requests for help out on various forums then checked windguru to see what tomorrow would be like for a sail... Hells bells, next weekend was forecast to be F7 & F8.. a change of plan was needed.   Fortunately John was available to help so we grabbed a few essentials and by 2pm we were on our way  to Baiter park with the trailer.

Arjen kindly rowed us out.

We left my car and trailer at Baiter, John then drove us to the club.  Arjen was able to row us out to Ciao Bella which was great, it mean't I didn't need to retrive the tender later in the day.   After a pleasent motor across the harbour we set about dropping the mast and preparing the boat.   

Mast down

 We had to wait for the tide so after paddling ashore we headed for the tea wagon.  In alll the excitement I realised that we hadn't eaten all day so breakfast rolls went down a treat,

Waiting for the tide

I set the trailer up with the docking arms to help position the keels on the runners.  I measure up the docking arms and marked with yellow insulation tape so that I would know how far down the ramp I needed to push it to allow Ciao Bella to float onto.

Coming up the slipway

Then came the part I wasn't looking forward to.  I waded out into the harbour, pushing the trailer infront of me.  I could only tip toe for so long before the inevitable.  Not quite as cold as I thought it would be but cold enough.  When the trailer was in position  I paddled back to the boat and gently motored between the poles onto the snubber.  I swung of the front of the boat onto the drawbar and secured the boat to the trailer. This was shping up to be an absolute doddle.  With a bit of huffing and puffing we got the ropes as far as the waters edge so John, who was mostly dry, could drag her out with the car.

She's out - Yellow tape on dock arms guages depth.

 It was good to have her out while still daylight,  I climbed aboard, got dry and changed into some warm clothes.  I then drove John back to the club to pick up his car... It's a logistical nightmare hauling out. 

Nice sunset

Eventually we had her strapped down and ready to roll.  I took the easiest route back at a very leisurely pace.  No dramas on the way home.  

 Once home I positioned her roughly on the front garden so that we could remove the mast, the mast overhangs along way and won't fit on the garden.  That done I set about manouvering her onto her wheel pads but no joy. The ground was wet and the wheels were starting to spin.    We unhooked her , moved the car forward and attached a turfer to pull he out but even that didn't work.  From behind you could see that she had dug in...

Jaunty angle.


Closer inspection shows how far she has sunk into the lawn.   We conceeded defeat for tonight and pushed the draw bar off the pavement.  I shall enlist the help of someone with a bigger vehcle tomorrow to position her properly.  At least she is out and I can set about the next stage of restoration.

Sunk



Tacking my way back to Wareham

Saturday was a great day, the weather was perfect, F4 occasionally gusting F5. John and I left the mooring at about 11am with a half cocked plan to sail to Wareham for a pint.  The only fly in the ointment was the direction of the wind and tide :o))   The smart thing to do would have been to go to Studland, go out with the tide and back in when it turned, but as I went there last week I didn't want to go there again.

The tacking practise was welcome, we were quite rusty to start with but before long we were working as a team and the tacks became smoooth :)  It took along time but we made it up to Hamworthy before the strength of the tide made it impossible to continue sailing.  We started the outboard and motored around the headland past Rockley park.  The sailing school were bombing about in their Wayfarers shaming us into getting the sails out again.

As the channel got too narrow to sail in we put the sails away again and motored up the river towards Wareham. The keels touched down a couple of times on our approach to the town but as the tide was rising it was only a short delay before we were on our way again.

Eventually tied up on the Quay we went to... The Quay :~)  We now had another decision to make.  Should we stay on the Quay for the night or have a night sail back down the river.  After consulting the tide table we decided to have some food then get back down the river while there was still a tinsy bit of light to see by.

Well feed and watered we hopped back aboard and set our sights for Poole.  There was much more water now so no fear of running aground.  However the light was fading fast, no time to loiter.

While in the river proper, it was easy to keep in the channel, but once out of the reeds we had to try and pick out the stakes.  John went to the bow with the torch and picked out the stakes, not as hard as we thought it would be as they had reflective tape on them. Communication is key, with the torch in the cockpit I was often blinded, with John at the bow the torch was not an issue but hearing his instruction over the engine was, concentration clear instruction was all we needed.  We had one moment on the mud when I aimed straight for the next post when the channel actually curved.  Lots of reverse got us free again. We now had the luxury of lit buoys to guide us.

Always worth giving the Condor ferry plenty of room, even in daylight, at night I decided to keep well clear. Finding the mooring was a little harder than normal as many of the boats around me have been taken out for the winter.  Another successful day, it took us about six hours to get to Wareham, mostly under sail, and only two hours to return on the motor I'm starting to get used to being able to sail every weekend... lets see what next weekend brings.

Autohelm

At last... I have my autohelm. I picked it up last night and I'm well chuffed. It's in great condition with all the bits n pieces. It's even got the wind vane so it can have a course set against the wind direction, this is however still attached to previous boat.
Mike was a star.. Instead of grabbing my measly few pounds and throwing me out of the door again, he spent 20 mins showing me how to take it apart and restring it, apparently the main cause of failure on these. Cheers Mike. I won't gaff about with it until the boat is home as I need to get an extension piece for the arm and set up the electrics.
Today is looking pretty darned good, if not a little chilly, so John and myself will be heading off shortly for a daysail in the harbour.
Cheers for now ;-)

Cleaning the paddle wheel

The speed log on my Nasa duet stopped reading some time ago.  I took the opportunity to give it a well deserved clean the other day.  It didn't do any good as I think the whole area around it is covered in weed and slime, but the video should give you some idea of what's involved and allay some of the fears of doing this job while afloat.

It's shame that I couldn't get it to work as it was useful to compare speed through the water against speed over ground.   Mind you with windex stuck pointing forward, one more thing won't make any difference.  

Slipped out to Studland

As the season end rushes towards me I have to take every opportunity to use the boat.   This weekend turned out to be much better than predicted so I decided to take a trip out to Studland.   I met Paul   at the club around 11am, and took him out to his Corribee before boarding Ciao Bella.

We raised the sails but it was fairly pointless, there was barely enough breeze to fill the sails let along make the boat move.  We motor  sailed nearly all the way to Studland as we wanted to get there for lunch. We just hoped there would be a bit more wind on the way back.

Dinghies inflated we paddled to the beach and traipsed up to the Bankes Arms.  We spent a nice couple of hours in the beer garden overlooking the bay with a pint of 'Force 4' and a Chicken Chassuer.  

Another club member and his daughter also joined us along with Paul's family who came around by car.

It was soon time to make a move and as hoped the wind had filled in.  We paddled back to the boats and set off back. The conditions seemed ideal for full sail and both boats set off well, they were both well matched, including the amount of weed on both hulls :o)). The Corribee seemed to be just  slightly faster than the Hurley on a broad reach but on a run the Hurley managed to hold station. 

Back at the club and there was a small gathering. We hung around for a chin wag, the subject of channel crossings came up and I came under serious pressure to organise a trip across next year.  I resisted valiantly but I fear this may not be the end of it. :~)

Paul delivering essential sustainance

Yarmouth or bust

After the recent lack of sailing it was going to take some pretty miserable weather to stop me going to Yarmouth this weekend. The forecast was pretty good for Saturday, F4 NW all day.  Absolutely perfect for getting to the island from Poole. The return was going to be a bit more uncomfortable, F5 gusting F6 from the SW making it hard beats all the way home.

I left Poole about 1130 under sail, with the engine leg firmly in place and ready to fire up  until well clear of the harbour entrance.  Traffic wise it was really quite quiet, I must have been feeling quite magnanimous as even the power boats that went past got a nod and a wave :o))

The journey over was fairly uneventful,  the wind on the rear quarter was a bit of a pain as I couldn't balance the boat to be able to leave the tiller at all. Fortunately I'd made a flask of tea and one of Mediterranean tomato and red pepper soup to keep me going. 

Past Hengisbury head and I could hear some hooligans in power boats buzzing along at great speed,  there seemed to be more than just one or two and before long I realised that I was in the middle of power boat race.  I couldn't help but be impressed with the speed of these floating engines.   From seeing a plume on the horizon to flying by took no more than a couple of minutes.  The picture above serves as a reminder to check for hazards,  this yacht was firmly stuck on the shingles bank.. ooops!

No reason for this one.. I just liked it.

Safely moored up in Yarmouth

After a tidy up I changed the mainsail for my old one. It's a bit knackered but at least it has reefing points and I was going to need them for the trip home.  Then I gave myself a clean up before heading of to the pub.  I met up with a fellow Hurley 20 owner and we chewed the cud over pie and mash and a couple of pints.

Nicely lit to guide me home

I had a great nights sleep having got off early and not being in a rush to be up in the morning.  I wouldn't be able to get through Hurst until about 1230 so I had a nice leisurely morning.   There were some great boats in the harbour, these two were just stunning.

I decided to cook out in the cockpit as it was quite a nice morning.  I'd bought a pack of bacon and a pack of pork and herb sausages.  I had the bacon in rolls for breakie and stashed the sausages in my food flask for the trip home... I wasn't going to go hungry ;o)  While washing my pots I noticed the rudder was decidedly hairy looking, I got the broom out and gave every thing I could see a good scrub but it didn't do a lot of good.  I know she coming out in a few weeks but I'll try and beach her and give her a good clean. 

Hairy rudder :~(

It was eventually time to clear off so I got everything ready and spent a bit of time planning how to leave the pontoon.  Sounds odd but arriving at and leaving pontoons in a dignified manner is one thing that  I really struggle with.  This time both my arrival and departure were perfect.

Out in the open water I find some space and concentrated on getting the mainsail up.  I had a little play with full sail and reefed genoa but it was uncontrollable so I put a reef in and things were much better.  As I had left quite early there was no way I could make ground towards Hurst but I didn't mind. It gave me the opportunity to just play with the boat to get her sailing as well as I could get her to go.

Even though the wind had really picked up, Ciao Bella never felt unsafe.  The thing that I couldn't get my head round was that after a tack I would winch in the Genoa, if I then trimmed the main the genoa would start to collapse; I would then winch that in a bit more and could eventually get the sails looking spot on. This would however nearly stop the boat.  It seemed to sail faster with the main collapsed at the luff, I don't know why, maybe one of you kind souls could shed some light?

Coming out through the narrows was a particularly tame affair,  I'd come out quite a way to the south though so tacked back towards the main land. I had prepared a clearing bearing off Hurst point to ensure that I'd miss the shingles bank.

Windguru tells the story of the day, it was a long hard slog back to Poole but I kept my self entertained.  Unlike on the way over I was able to balance the boat and just put a light line on the tiller to keep her course while I sheltered behind the bulkhead. It was fully dark by the time I sailed into Poole harbour, a good seven hours after coming through Hurst channel.   One of the few benefits of a spring tide is the light from the full moon, not on this night; the cloud cover was so thick you could hardly see you hand in front of your face.  I instinctively found my mooring, tidied up and headed for home.  Considering it been a lousy summer, I have managed to clock up over 400NM this year.  Bring on next year with my new sails, wall  to wall sunshine and a constant F4 on the beam... no matter which way I'm going ;~P

The video below is a collection of snippets from the journey home, the quality is quite poor as it's all iPhone but it made me smile putting it together.  Hope you enjoy it. 

Hurley 20 Review

My mooring neighbour. Roger,  has a starring role in this months 'Sailing Today' magazine. They have featured his Hurley 20 in a used boat review; with the tag line "Mini ocean crosser or dated death trap".  If you're concidering a Hurley 20 as your next boat, it's well worth getting your hands on a copy.

Photo from the arcticle and is no doubt subject to copyright.